stability

They were destined to fight.

It was unavoidable. They were opposites, after all - two beings created specifically to counter each other, and yet, at the same time, they both represented a side of the same celestial body: they were the new moon and the crescent moon, and without one, the other would become absolete. Without one, the other would lose its meaning. Without one, the other would...

It wasn't an aspect that either of them wanted to think about. But still, at the same time every year, they had to fight, if only to prove that the balance between light and darkness was still as stable as ever.

And so, it went like this: Darkrai would emerge from the depths of Newmoon Island and force nightmares upon the people of Canalave. Cresselia would follow along soon after and disperse them, and then they would fight - perhaps purposefully avoiding direct hits - and everything would become quiet again afterward. It might've been huge to the citizens of the town, but to them, it was merely carrying out the routine that Arceus had set them into.

Darkrai, however, was compelled to break the "routine" and set out a bit early this year..

He wasn't sure why he wanted to. It was as if something were... drawing him to the island. A lure, of sorts. He supposed it worked out - there wasn't a set date for their annual battle anyway; surely it wouldn't hurt to have a little bit of fun before Cresselia came to undo his handiwork. He set to quick work in inducing horrific nightmares on Canalave's population: the loss of loved ones, near-death experiences, perhaps reliving traumatizing times in their lives in their own dream worlds. Darkrai knew what people feared, and he played off of those fears to turn the realm of dreams into a very undesirable place to visit.

It was cruel, and it was sadistic, but it was what he was meant to do. It was what he enjoyed doing, and no matter how opposed he might have been to this annual event, he still took great pleasure in seeing the terror in people's eyes.

The days went by, and more and more people went without sleep. Eventually, some even started to flee from the city - the prolonged insomnia was detrimental to their health, and Darkrai never went beyond the Canalave's boundaries. He was pleased. He hadn't had this much fun in years. Though he suspected it was only a matter of time before Cresselia realized that something was different and came to put an end to his amusement.

But for now, the balance was tipped in his favor.

---

A week had passed since he'd began his reign of terror, and Cresselia was still nowhere to be found. The town's population had thinned out enought that he was starting to run out of people to inflict his nightmares upon. But that changed when he sensed people coming into the town. That didn't usually happen. But the odd thing was, he felt like he'd seen them somewhere before...

A boy and his Pikachu? A girl who had purchased a charm that resembled Cresselia's Lunar Wings, a Pokémon breeder... he did know them. But that didn't mean they were spared. Just like everyone else, they also suffered horrifying nightmares whenever they slept. Nobody was spared.

Well, almost nobody.

Much later that night, Cresselia finally showed up, and she wasn't amused at all. She was followed by that same group of kids, so he could only assume that they had enlightened her about what he was doing. At first, he hid - he didn't want this to be over yet, but as soon as his counterpart cast her light upon the city, he knew it was useless, trying to hide; she was a psychic, after all, so even though he had the type advantage, she could still sense him, whenever he was hiding.

He retreated from his hiding place. He might as well get this over with.

They circled each other for several minutes before he finally charged. What he wasn't expecting, however, was her charging toward him herself - they bounced off of each other several times until she finally let out a frustrated wail and released another powerful flash of light.

Darkrai hesitated for a moment, and finally groaned before releasing his hold upon the city.

Now the balance was tipped in Cresselia's favor. That was how it always went. Oh well - at least he'd had fun while it had lasted.

---

She was angry with him, and with good reason - he'd broken tradition by setting out earlier than expected and caused the people of Canalave to suffer longer than usual. She never liked seeing anybody in pain, and once she'd been informed of just how much the town had gone through as a result of his actions, she'd stopped speaking to him.

This was a side effect he hadn't seen coming. Once a third day of her ignoring him had gone by, he finally crossed over to Fullmoon Island, fed up with the 'cold shoulder' treatment he was getting. He searched for quite a while with no results; she could definitely hide herself if she really wanted to.

After hours of searching, he finally stopped in the center of her island, allowing himself to float down to the ground next to the crescent-shaped pond in the middle of the clearing. Surely she would come back here eventually.

His prediction was true: within a few minutes, Cresselia finally emerged into the clearing. She looked a bit startled to see him at first, but she quickly averted her gaze, annoyance clearly etched on her features. "What are you doing here?" she asked. Her voice was soft as usual - it was an extreme rarity when she actually raised it enough to shout, he'd seen that much just a few nights ago - but there was an underlying firmness within it that caused him to flinch slightly.

Darkrai chose to answer her question with one of his own. "Why are you so mad?"

"You really need to ask?"

He groaned and buried his face in a clawed hand. Were they just going to keep passing questions back and forth?

Before he could even think of a comeback, she spoke again (well, at least she was speaking to him again, Darkrai thought). "I don't like having to heal your nightmares, you know. I don't like this yearly 'fight' we have to endure as a result of Arceus' commands, and I know you don't like it either." When she received a grunt in response, she took it as a cue to continue. "So why did you feel the need to bring it on earlier than usual?"

"Do you want the short answer, or the long one?"

"Darkrai..."

The Pitch-Black Pokémon groaned again, following it with a long sigh. "I... honestly, I'm unsure of why I left early. It's as if something were drawing me to Canalave. Something stronger than I could resist." His excuse was regarded with silence. "The only thing out of the ordinary on the city was an odd machine. I've never seen it there before, but... I don't know how or if it could have contributed to this urge I felt."

"An 'urge'? A machine?" She stared at him in disbelief for a moment. "Well, whatever urge you might've felt... it made everybody suffer longer than they had to." Cresselia's tone was a bit softer now, and she hovered over to rest next to him, blankly staring out into the middle of the small pool of water in front of them. "You don't know what it's like being a healer, Darkrai. More often than not, you're going to have to see somebody in pain in order to heal them. And I know it doesn't bother you in the slightest, but... it bothers me... looking into people's dreams and seeing the terror you bring upon their subconscious.

"For some people, solace only comes in dreams. And by taking away their only escape, you..." She trailed off, hanging her head.

He listened quietly as she spoke. True, it often made him happy to see others suffer, but there was one being which he never wanted to see it happen to.

She was sitting right next to him.

"You drove people out of their homes, just so they could escape from your nightmares. Turned Canalave into a ghost town. And none of that would've happened if you had just resisted whatever urge you felt and stayed here. I thought you were stronger than that."

Darkrai was silent for a few moments before responding. "... Maybe it's harder for you to see because you're a healer, but inflicting fear is my lot in life, Cresselia. It's what I was created to do; if I am compelled to do so, then I am not going to pass the opportunity up. It's all part of preserving a delicate balance: without fear, then courage would lose its meaning. What is fearlessness when there's nothing to be afraid of?"

Cresselia pondered this for a second, and let out a long sigh. "You're right, I know. A shadow can't exist without the light that creates it. But... that doesn't justify what you did."

"I'm aware of this." He reached over to rest a hand at the base of her long neck, though his eyes were fixed on the pond in front of them. "And I apologize." Out of the corner of his eye, he saw her sharply turn her head to look at him, and he turned slightly to meet her gaze as well. "But only because I'm tired of you ignoring me."

She blinked at him for a moment and frowned, looking back out at the water. But she eventually have another sigh - this one was a defeated sigh - and huddled closer to him. "...and I'm tired of ignoring you," she replied quietly, "I don't like fighting, myself. Not with you. Not with anyone, really, but... especially not with you." She lifted her head to look at him again, a bit of a smirk crossing her lips. "At least you gave in pretty quickly, though."

Darkrai rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well, I didn't think it would do for those kids to see that secret homicidal side of you that I know is hiding in there somewhere." Of course that wasn't true; there wasn't an evil bone in Cresselia's body, and both of them knew it.

But it was better than admitting that he was totally whipped - if Dialga ever caught wind of it, he knew that the God of Time would never let him live it down.