Work Text:
Cynthia was having a… day. She was having a day. Sure, being eebie-deebied to the ancient past with none of her Pokemon and being forced to start from scratch while being treated as an untrustworthy outsider by everyone in the region kinda sucked, but the panoramic view at least made up for some of it! And sure, one of the only two people who actually trusted her and she thought she was genuinely friends with (and might also be her distant ancestor) betraying her was not fun, but at the very least, he’d realized his mistakes and was actively trying to work toward redemption!
The true worst thing about her little misadventure to the past is that ibuprofen had not yet been invented yet. And boy did she need some.
Currently, she was making her way to Cogita’s cottage where she was scheduled to meet with the aforementioned lady as well as Volo so they could study some legends. What would usually be a nice relaxing stroll through the lovely forest surrounding the ancient retreat was, in reality, an agonizing slog due to the fact she was currently on her period. And also that there were ZERO painkillers in this region strong enough to make the pain go away. It was times like these where she truly missed the ease of modernity.
Anyway, she had finally pulled herself over the bridge before Cogita’s house and could see the woman primly sitting at the small table outside. When the woman caught sight of Cynthia in her bedraggled state, she immediately stood up and rushed over to help. Cogita kindly escorted her to the table and asked her,
“That time of the month again, dear?”
Cynthia grunted and sank into her chair, curling up as she did so. Cogita only hummed and swept into the house. She returned a moment later with a blanket wrapped around something.
“Some warm stones to help ease the pain”, she explained as she tucked it into Cynthia's lap. She hugged it tighter and thanked Cogita quietly.
After a few minutes where Cogita sipped her tea and Cynthia gathered her wits, she finally asked the older woman something that had been on her mind since she arrived.
“Where’s Volo? Usually he's here before me.”
“Mmm, the Distortion World, I presume. I do believe he's experimenting with using it for travel.”
Cynthia nodded and the two ladies went back to quietly sitting and enjoying the peaceful silence of the Ancient Retreat.
𓆗︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶⛧︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶⛧︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶⛧︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶𓆗
Sometime later, after the warm stones in Cynthia’s lap had cooled and Cogita had brewed a second pot of tea, Cynthia's pains somehow got worse. As she whimpered and clutched at her stomach, Cogita looked on in worry. After a few moments of deliberation, the older woman asked,
“If you'd be open to it, I do believe I have something that may help. However, I fear it is untested.”
Cynthia looked up in interest but did not speak, leaving Cogita to elaborate.
“Ah, my family has a history of… spell craft. I myself have not dabbled much, but there is one spell I know of that may help your current predicament.”
Cynthia only cocked an eyebrow, interest in the existence of spells pushed aside in favor of finding relief for her current torture.
“Go on,” she said.
“Well,” Cogita continued, “it supposedly transfers the pain onto someone else, thereby freeing you from its agony. I have not tested it on myself, nor anything else, so I am afraid I do not know if it will actually work.”
Cynthia thought over her options for a second.
“Well, let's try it! It's not like I have anything else to do.”
Cogita nodded and stepped inside to retrieve her spell book. When she returned, she carried a large dusty tome, which covered the entire table when she laid it out. As she turned to the correct page, dust spilled into the air in intricate patterns as it was blown about by the breeze.
“Well, before we begin, we need a target. Someone to receive the pain we are removing from you.”
Cynthia hummed. There were many excellent options. Melli, who had been supremely annoying when she was helping Lord Electrode. Kamado, who had done nothing but distrust her. Perhaps even that one Alpha Rapidash in the Horseshoe plains who seemed to hold an unhealthy grudge against her.
Out of all these candidates though, there was one who was definitively more appealing than the rest. Sure, they were atoning for their crimes already, but this little bit of extra punishment seemed more than well deserved.
“Let's give it to Volo.”
If Cogita noticed Cynthia’s devious smirk when she spoke, she certainly didn't comment on it. And Cynthia didn't comment either when she caught a hint of a smile on Cogita's face.
𓆗︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶⛧︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶⛧︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶⛧︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶𓆗
Volo was currently somewhere in the Distortion World. He didn't know where exactly (one could never be truly sure of their location in this reality defying realm), but he at least knew he'd be fairly safe as Giratina was right beside him. He had no idea why he thought using the Distortion World as a shortcut would be a good idea, but here he was, stumbling his way across floating islands trying to guess his way to Cogita’s cottage.
Giratina was floating languidly behind him, occasionally catching him with a tendril when he fell, or steering him away from danger, but mostly just laughing at his plight.
Volo was just beginning to recognize distorted pieces of the forest from near the Ancient Retreat when he first felt a sharp pang in his stomach. It wasn't anything too bad, just a small jab, enough to brush off as wholly unimportant. And that's what he did.
As he kept walking though, it slowly got worse and worse. At first, he thought it was just hunger pangs. He had forgotten to eat breakfast before he started out today, and he certainly hadn't meant to get as lost in the Distortion World for as long as he had either, so it wasn't a terrible guess. However, when it grew into a steady pain with sharp pangs interspersed that caused him to stumble and wince each time he felt one, he realized it wasn't quite as simple as that.
The pain kept getting worse the longer he walked, but he knew he was very near the Ancient Retreat, or, at least the way to get to it from the Distortion World, that is. So, he pushed on.
He was about three islands away from where he needed to be when it got really bad. An extremely strong wave of pain came over him and he fell to his knees. Giratina made a sound of curiosity from behind and extended a tendril to help him up, but Volo waved it away. He was fine. It was just a little pain. Falling off Mount Coronet had surely been worse so he could make it just a few steps further to Cogita's house where he could possibly find relief.
When he looked back up though, it certainly didn't feel like a few steps. However, he sighed and pushed himself back up. He approached the first break in the ‘path’, where the next island floated just a few feet away. Any other time this would've been the easiest jump in the world, but now it felt as wide as the Sinnohan Sea. He jumped anyway, as he had a cottage to get to.
Another wash of pain struck him in midair and he tumbled as he landed on the next island. This one being significantly smaller than the previous meant that the roll after his landing took him nearly to the opposite edge, only stopped from falling off by one of Giratina's tendrils.
He, however, ignored the touch of his god and curled into himself in a futile attempt to escape the pain currently wracking his body in wave after toe-curling wave.
His god’s voice rumbled in his head, ‘Wow. I knew humans were rather weak, but I didn't know it was to this extent.’
Volo scoffed, “W- we’re not that weak, I'm jus-uuagh!”
He squeezed his eyes shut as the worst flash of pain yet swept through his body, making white sparkles dance at the edges of his vision.
‘Oh, don't give me that. You’re writhing on the ground like a beached Magikarp after one measly little fall!’ Giratina rumbled, chuckling slightly. Volo grimaced,
“Don’t laugh, I-it wasn’t f-from the-e fa-ah-ah-owwww,” he whined. Then he writhed in agony exactly as a beached Magikarp would.
Giratina shook it's massive head before beginning to stroke Volo’s back with a shadowy tentacle, ‘Don't worry, I get it, the Distortion World is hard on all beings. I should've known a fragile human would not be able to handle it.’
“That’s no-not what I'm sa-saying!” Volo whimpered in response. Giratina ignored his words and cradled Volo against its massive scaled chest.
‘Don’t worry, I will take you to Cogita. She is very knowledgeable about humans. I'm sure she will know how to fix you!’
Volo just curled up and whimpered in his god’s hold as he was carried through the Distortion World
𓆗︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶⛧︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶⛧︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶⛧︶꒦꒷♡꒷꒦︶𓆗
Cynthia took a deep breath of the fresh spring air as she stretched out in her chair, “Ahhhh, it's so nice not being in gut-wrenching agony every time I move! Those spells sure are handy. Say, you got anymore?”
Cogita smiled and pushed the dusty spell book over to the displaced Champion, “Go nuts, I'm not using it.”
Suddenly, a tear in reality split apart the spring air and a hulking beastly dragon emerged from the twisted shadows within. Held in its clawed grasp lay a man, writhing in agony as he desperately clawed at his abdomen. The dread beast rumbled out a message in a deep, threatening tone,
‘Wassup, can you fix my human? He fell and I think he's broken.‘
In response Cogita said, “Perhaps, but only if you stop crushing my flower garden.”