It was later the next day. Atty was sitting in the living room alone, twiddling the black stone between his fingers as he sat ruminating about what to. For what it was worth, Juniper's company made it much easier to grasp the situation. The absol, Abigail, walked in, but only seemed to be passing through, stopping for a brief moment to greet him with a loving smile. His thoughts began racing again. The words of Arceus continued to echo through his mind, eventually giving him a migraine. "Maybe I should sleep on it," he thought. He stood up and gave a stretch, retreating to his dorm for the night.
He had difficulty getting to sleep. The words of the alpha pokemon raced endlessly through his mind. As he mulled over it tirelessly, he sat up, noticing he was alone in his room. He paced back and forth as he reached his conclusion. If something ever happened to any of his pokemon, something he could've prevented, he could never live with himself. He grabbed the black stone and rubbed it between his hands, and waited. A moment later, the temperature in the room seemed to drop as a dark figure appeared before him.
"I take your beckoning means you've come to a decision." Darkrai stood before him. Atemis nodded. "So what will it be? Are you willing to leave your life as you know it behind, for the benefit and the safety of man and mon alike?"
"I am. Helping others has always been like a calling to me. If Arceus himself needs me, then it would feel wrong to refuse him." Darkrai stared blankly for a moment, perhaps a bit surprised by his answer. "How does this work exactly? What pokemon will I be?"
"The transmutation is performed by tapping into your life force, and unleashing the pokemon that resonates deep within your soul. As for what pokemon that is, I cannot say for certain. At least not until we start. Everyone is different." Atty seemed to be in awe. Darkrai's words made it seem mystical in a way. "But before we begin, I have one thing to ask you. Are you absolutely sure about this? Because once it's done, there's no going back." Atty answered him with a nod. "Very well. Be still." Darkrai reached for him with his pitch black hand, touching Atty's forehead. An intense chill crept down the human's spine. The dark pokemon took a moment to read his energy. "How curious. You didn't strike me as a dark type." Before he could ask about it, his vision suddenly became blurry, his consciousness slowly drifting. "Don't worry, you won't feel a thing. You will sleep for now. When you awaken, you will begin anew. Go forward from here, with the blessings of Arceus." Darkrai's words were quickly becoming difficult to register, and soon enough, Atty completely blacked out.
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How long was he out? He couldn't really say for sure. Minutes? Hours? His coma like state felt almost peaceful. The sound of a new voice slowly snapped him out of his dream state. "Atemis." The voice was feminine, very pleasant and comforting. "It's time to wake up, child."
His eyes began to open. His vision was fuzzy, and he was pretty groggy, moaning in discomfort as he placed a hand, or so he thought, on his forehead. "Uh.. my head."
"Oh, are you alright my dear?" He felt a presence very close to him, looking beside him and noticing a bluish figure inspecting him. He jumped back in shock at the sight of the much larger entity. It was a quadrupedal, stag-like cervine creature with an eight-horned set of antlers extending out from its head, four on each side. The horns were pale blue and the protrusions the same blue as its upper body. The head was also blue with two horns on either side of its head, and the root of its horns mark its face, just below the eye and over the nose. Its eyes were the same color as its fur, and its pupils were X-shaped. The blue portion of its body ends at the chest area where the fur juts outward to the side, similar to the blue horns on its face. On its breast is an inverted V-shape that is also a pale blue like its eight horns. The inside of the V-shape is black and extends into its lower body. The rest of its body was black with a blue stripe running along the spine. It had a slim, fluffy black tail where the stripe ended. The legs were fashioned like blades with forward-pointing hooks at the tips, creating a cross shape, with the main edges trimmed with the same color as the horns. The trim along its forelegs further map a crude sword-like pattern, clearly showing a long blade, a cross-guard, and a hilt. "What's wrong, hun? You look as if you've just seen a ghastly."
He took a moment to himself, trying to process the situation. He looked around and noticed he was in the middle of a large, open field that was was surrounded by forest, with trees that seemed to sparkle in the sunlight. There was a river that ran through the area, dividing it in half. It was a breathtaking sight. He returned his attention to the large blue deer. "What... Who are you? And where am I?"
"I am Xerneas. And this is my home. Let me be the first to welcome you."
He struggled a bit getting to his feet, staring at the deer in awe. Yet another legendary pokemon, one that appeared only in stories across the Kalos region, stood before him. From what he's read about Xerneas, she was believed to have the power to share eternal life, as well as the ability to create forests. She sounded like a true, benevolent force in nature. "Xerneas.. wow. You're even more beautiful than I could've imagined."
She smiled warmly. "Well, thank you sweetie. Now, I'm sure you must have a lot of questions."
He nodded, but choked a bit when he tried to speak. His throat was dry. He looked towards the river, and approached for a drink. When he caught a glimpse of himself, he jumped back in surprise. In his reflection, he saw a creature with a sleek, black body ,four slender legs, and golden eyes. He had long pointed ears and a bushy tail, each with a aqua colored band around them. His forehead and legs had aqua rings on them. He could immediately tell he was the dark type pokemon, umbreon. And a shiny one to boot. "Darkrai... he really did it. I'm a pokemon."
"Yes, my dear." Xerneas placed a comforting hoof gently on his shoulder, her reflection meeting his, and smiling lovingly. "And a beautiful pokemon you are as well. I know this must be overwhelming for you. Just take it one hoof at a time."
He looked up at her, ears folded back, "Did Darkrai send me here?"
"Yes, child." Arceus has asked me to watch over you during this transition."
"Watch over me? So you're like... my guardian angel?"
She gave a chuckle, "Yes, you could say that."
Atty struggled a bit to stand as he tried to get use to his new form. "So why am I here? In your realm?"
"I need to train you so you can get use to this body and your new abilities, so that you are prepared for whatever challenge lies ahead. It may take a bit of time."
"Training? You mean like battling?"
"Yes, and other important factors." She turned around, gesturing him to follow, "Come with me."
Atemis tried to stay close, slowly but surely as they came to what looked like a training ground, similar to what he had at home. The only noticeable difference was the nearby river. "Here we are. Here, I will teach you how to use and control and master your power." Xerneas took a mental note of Atty's difficulty with his balance, struggling to keep himself up like a newborn calf. "If I understand correctly, you received an injury as a human, correct? An injury that grew worse with time and limited your ability to move properly? Darkrai has removed this negative for you, but it's up to you to teach your new body how to balance itself." The umbreon gave an acknowledging nod. It's true, he hadn't been able to walk on his own for so long. He always needed something to support himself. "We'll start with something simple. Try to run a few laps around the field." The exercise made sense. After all, what would be the point of learning how to battle and defend himself if he couldn't even stand on his own feet?
"Um... okay." There was a hint of doubt and hesitation in his voice. He tried walking a bit. It was easy enough, until he tried to pick up a little speed, tripping over himself and giving a grunt.
"Baby steps, hun. There's no need to rush." He picked himself back up and tried again, taking it a paw at a time. After a while, he was able to move around without much trouble, as he went from walking to sprinting. "Very good. Now then," she pointed towards the straw stuffed dummy in the middle of the field, "try charging at this target and tackle it." He looked at it and took a deep breath, quickly charging forward. When he reached and tackled his intended target, however, he was knocked back and dazed for a moment. The dummy, on the other hand, seemed unscathed. "Good first try," Xerneas encouraged, "but let me show you how it's done." She glared at her target as Atty quickly got out of the way. As she readied herself, he noticed some her colors start to change.
Her horns turned into a pale gold color, adorned with a colorful, three-part glowing protrusion twining through it, the colors being orange, red, purple, and teal, one side of the antlers mirroring the other. The colors gradually turned lighter to darker as they moved from base to tip. The V-shape on her chest and sword like pattern on her legs also turned pale gold, and many shiny, multicolored spots appeared on her backside. He was startled by her sudden change in appearance. She hunkered down and began charging at the target, lunging as she reached it and slammed into it with her horns lowered. The dummy was knocked off the ground and traveled a short distance. As she returned her attention to the umbreon, her colors returned to normal.
"H..how did you do that? The color change?"
"That was my 'active' form sweetie," she answered. "It happens whenever I engage in battle." It was quite baffling and intriguing to watch a legendary in action first-hand. Just meeting one in person was something most could only dream of, now that he thought about it. Xerneas set up another target, and stood behind him. "Try again, and this time try to put more weight into it." He nodded, stepped back a little, charging at full speed once again. This time when he reached the dummy, he did as Xerneas said, trying his best to put as much weight as possible into his attack, striking head first and knocking his target clean off the ground. "Wonderful. I knew you could do it." Atty smiled as he was praised, feeling proud of himself, and much more confident. "Let's move on. This next move is pretty much the same, but you need to get a good running start and build up some momentum. Try using a quick attack."
"A running start... Sounds easy enough." He stepped back a bit further as another target was set up for him, dashing forward as normal. As he built up some speed, he could feel a sudden burst of energy surrounding him, and quickly gained a huge speed boost. He had underestimated it though, and quickly lost control, missing his mark entirely and instead diving head first into the river. As he swam back to the surface, he could hear Xerneas giggling in the background.
"That was unfortunate," she said with a hoof covering her lips. "Are you alright, dear?" He said nothing for a moment with his ears drooping, and a frustrated look on his face. He felt a little weight on his head, looking up to meet the gaze of a teary eyed white and blue fish pokemon. He apparently fished up a wishiwashi during his splashy landing. He chucked his head forward, throwing the fish off and back into the river before swimming a short distance back to shore. He noticed the blue goddess was still giggling about his mishap as he stood there dripping water on the ground.
"I'm so glad you find my misfortune amusing." He shook like a wet dog to get as much water off of himself as possible, afterwards tilting and patting his head to get out what had gotten in his ears. "That speed was... really intense."
"Yes, it's a tricky move. Take a minute to dry off and we'll try again." He took a few moments to himself, basking in the sun. It was much warmer since he had fur now, but not so warm that it was uncomfortable. After a few minutes, when he felt dry enough, he returned to his starting position, staring at the dummy in the distance and thinking to himself. He heard some words of encouragement from his mentor, "You can do this. Believe in yourself, concentrate, and push forward." He charged once more, building up speed swiftly and focusing hard on his mark, this time when he got a burst of speed, he was in more control, cutting straight through the target and splitting it in half. He stopped himself just in time to avoid another dip in the river, quickly trying to catch his balance as he stared over the water's edge. He gave a sigh of relief when he caught himself. "Excellent work, Atemis. You're a quick study. You need to work more on the aftermath, but other than that, your execution is wonderful."
"Um.. thanks, I guess." He chuckled nervously, rubbing a paw behind his head.
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Atty continued his training for the rest of the morning. With the guidance of Xerneas, he was quickly able to learn two more techniques, one being feint attack, the other confuse ray, although not without a few mishaps with the latter. He ended up confusing himself on accident and walked into a tree or two, but eventually got a grasp on it.
"I think that'll do for now," Xerneas stated. "What do you say we take a little break?" Atty nodded with a huff, short of breath with all the exercise. He couldn't remember the last time he moved around so much. The fairy pokemon laid next to the stream. He shortly joined her, taking a seat next to the large deer. "There's one more technique I'd like to show you, but we'll have to wait until later for that."
As he made himself comfortable, he had a startling realization. Just how long had he been there. It was probably almost noon at the very least. "I don't know if I can stay much longer. The girls are probably wondering where I'm at by now."
"Oh, you needn't worry about that, my dear. Time flows differently here. One day in this forest would be equivalent to an hour in your world. Trust me, your pokemon won't even know you're gone."
Well that was a relief at least. But there was another issue he couldn't ignore. "Even still, I don't know how they're going to react to this new form, and to this task Arceus is asking of me. Just how am I going to explain it to them?"
"You worry too much, my child," Xerneas replied. "Even if they don't believe it's you in this body, I'm sure you can convince them otherwise. You raised them after all. As for what my brother has asked of you, it's really up to you whether or not to tell them. But regardless of what you do, I've no doubt they will do everything within they're power to aid you. Their trust and belief in you is strong. Their love stronger. So strong that they would follow you to the ends of the earth, no matter what, for better or worse." The umbreon was at lost for words. He could only nod in response. "Well, now that we've settled this issue, let's move on and talk about your new form. How much do you know about the umbreon species?"
"Just the basic things. It's a dark type that evolves from an eevee at night and if it has a strong bond with its trainer."
"Yes, but there's more to it than just that," Xerneas exclaimed. "Your markings will glow brightly at night, but will also fade when you're on the hunt, which in turn, allows you to blend in easily with the darkness around you. But what makes an umbreon even more interesting is its ability to spray a poisonous sweat if it gets agitated or feels threatened."
Atty looked at her in amazement, "Poisonous sweat, huh? Interesting."
The legendary nodded, "Yes, it's an impressive defense mechanism. And it will happen naturally when you need it most." The deer thought to herself a moment, "I think that's about everything you need to know."
The umbreon turned his gaze towards his reflection in the water. Everything that has happened the last few days felt so unbelievable. None of it seemed real. He had to pinch himself a few times to make sure it wasn't just some crazy dream. But it wasn't. He truly was, from this moment on, a pokemon.
