Chapter Text
The rift is defined by its emptiness, a void of black and blue like a starless sky. Broken chunks of land float about as if suspended in time. It’s silent, the type of quiet usually found in the wake of disasters.
A flash of pink weaves through the dark landscape. Mew moves quickly, eager to leave and already nervous about when she’ll have to return again. She doesn’t want to get caught where she isn’t supposed to be, or in the middle of a dimensional ripple. Still, she slows to a stop when a flicker of bright blue catches her eye.
Another soul?
Mew drifts closer to find that the light wavering in space like a tiny flame is indeed a lost soul. A human soul. She must be closer to the border than she thought.
She glances over her shoulder, unease suddenly less important than the familiar hope blooming in her chest. She shouldn’t be so excited to find a lost soul, especially one like this that snuck through, but she can’t help it! Any shot at finding answers, no matter how small, is a good thing. She takes her duty seriously, knowing how much is at stake.
It doesn’t matter that it’s not her official duty. It’s her responsibility all the same.
“You sure wandered far, huh?” She whispers, reaching her paws out to cradle the soul. “Be careful—that sort of curiosity gets you into trouble. I would know!”
The soul reacts to her touch, pulsing brighter as if happy to feel her warmth. Mew giggles, eyeing the pretty color. She wishes she had the ability to see what this soul is really like, what it’s been through, what it treasures, who it will be.
With the soul held close, she flies off in the opposite direction of the human world’s border. It takes a few minutes or maybe a few hours to traverse the stretch of space and debris (it’s really quite hard to tell in a place like this) but eventually she senses a different blurring of dimensions, where the Pokemon world awaits just ahead. She slows to meet it, finding where the veil of space thins and fades to an even darker void.
“Time to see who you are!” Mew chirps.
She may not be able to peek directly into the souls themselves, but it’s always fun to see what shape they choose, which mold their soul adapts to the best. She touches the soul, and the flame of it licks around her paw while she feeds it her power, lets her status as the Mother of All Pokemon actually mean something. Mew never regrets this part of her duty, even if it leaves her feeling drained. She knows she’s saving the soul from having to scrape together a form for itself.
The soul flickers brighter and expands, and Mew can see the faint outline of a body begin to take shape around it. It’s rather small, maybe a bit larger than Mew herself, and standing on two legs. She thinks she can see a tail and ears forming—
A riolu! She can’t wait to share the news. It’s always encouraging to have a soul change into a different form than all the souls before it. It gives them both a bit more hope that this one might be different, that this might be the one to find the answers they seek.
A distant rumble sounds in the rift, right on cue, and Mew notes it with a twitch of her tail. It’s far off. She still has time.
The soul’s body finishes forming with a gentle shimmer of light, and Mew trills as she circles it, admiring the blue fur and delicate black markings. She reaches out to touch the arm, pleased that the fur is as soft as it looks, and then looks at the riolu’s peaceful face, eyes shut as if asleep.
“Go do great things, okay?” Mew says, more of a plea than a command. She touches her nose to the riolu’s forehead, and with a rush of power sends the soul on its way to the Pokemon world.
Then, Mew is alone again. She sighs, a little sad. She is not overly sentimental, thank you very much! But she also hasn’t ever had the opportunity to really reunite with her charges, and that leaves her with far too many goodbyes.
Mew flicks an ear at another distant rumble and shakes the thought from her head. With one more glance at the border, she slips away, making a mental note to pass on word of this newest transformed soul. But not today—she can’t linger here for much longer.
It’s up to that little soul to seek its own path now.