Pokemon Fan Fiction ❯ Card Captor Ashura: The Complete Series ❯ CCA Special: Lance's vignette ( Chapter 202 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

This one is Lance's vignette… Completed 3/21/04?

Disclaimer: See part 1. Same for notes

With great power comes great responsibility…

That sounds so clichéd.

But it's true. Oh, I'm not saying that I dislike my power. But sometimes it seems that the sacrifices we make are too much to bear.

I love my power. I love controlling the weather, and I love taking care of the dragons.

But I hate leaving him, and I hate it when he forgets.

The wind is calling.

I love the wind. It reminds me of him. Thunder's child, so innocent and naïve, unscarred by the battles we three guardians fight for the world's sake. Yet sometimes, destruction is needed for true cleansing... to purify and create anew.

Those humans cannot understand my ways. They call me cursed, dark, evil… Oh, I suppose I am dark. After all, I guard ice and darkness. But with Dragon Mastery, I guard the dragons and water types as well.

For I am not only the Ice Guardian, and the child of ice… I am also the Dragon Master, with a duty to fulfill and pokemon to save.

But my heart is not ice cold. I have always wondered, why Fire's child has a heart of ice, while I burn like fire. For I love him, only him, and I suppose fate has taken pity on me, for he remembers almost every time now…

Thunder's child…do you know?

I think that by now you must have figured it out. That denseness is just an act, I can tell! After all, I have raised you more than once. You aren't weak, but strong, concealing your hidden power, with the power to kill and the power to heal, with Destiny destroying but Hope restoring, with those golden bright eyes, always burning with life.

If you died, I think I would go mad. No, I don't mean in battle. I mean if your reincarnation suddenly stopped, and you left me alone.

In that case, I'd be forced to confer my powers to fire before my own departure from this world.

And then she would go mad, so that's not a good solution. So, thunder's child, I'm telling you to be careful!

I suppose I should tell of my own past now, you're probably interested.

I was born to two insanely rich people. I won't call them my parents, because they didn't raise me. No, self-sufficiency was something I was born with, and I'm glad.

My… guardians, I suppose, were named Elizabeth and Thomas Vongard. They were billionaires, and they wanted a son.

Instead, they got a daughter.

Now, before I confuse you, I suppose I should inform you of something important. I have been reincarnated as a male a few times, because of instability. So I can keep a male form at will, and I can illusion one up easily enough. As water, I'm the most flexible of the guardians, but I prefer to be female. For obvious reasons…at least, that was the way I felt until Ash proved he could love me either way.

So, they decided to marry me off to a wealthy man named Theodore Ketchum the Second.

I would not stand for this. On my ninth birthday, I slashed off my pale blonde, waist-length hair, and dressed in dark clothes fitting for a boy. I fled from the pampered life of a rich girl, and set off on my journey. I `convinced' Oak to give me a pokédex, with my power.

Oh? I suppose you want to know what it is? All right, I'll tell you.

Unlike Charlotte, who had spirits to keep her company, I had something else entirely. It was known as the Viridian Power. Every few years, a child born in the Viridian forest would possess the mysterious powers of the forest. It was basically the ability to heal pokemon and read their hearts.

In my case, I also had telepathy, telekinesis, and a strong affinity for magic spells.

I flew off to look for adventure. And in a barren wilderness, destroyed by industrialization, I found my first pokemon.

She was Dratini. Near death, lying in a polluted stream, along with a Magikarp, just waiting for the final darkness.

I couldn't leave them there.

I healed them with my power. It was more difficult than anything I had ever tried before; magic or otherwise…they say I was out for a week. But I healed them, and our hearts linked, and that was when I knew I would become a Dragon Master.

Dratini evolved to Dragonair, and Magikarp to Gyrados, I caught a few more pokemon…

And then I found him.

After that, life was just a blur of sunshine. My, I'm sounding quite poetic. But what can I say? He saved me from death so I could pass the test for Dragon Mastery.

Soul mates, forever, and ever…

My power lies in ice and darkness, in weather. I can control the weather at will. The storms and seas I can command.

But my soul is dark as well.

Did you know, the prophecy says that I have ice-blue wings? But once, I sacrificed myself for Thunder's child, and Missingno broke my wings. They were broken beyond repair, not even Lugia's healing, or Honou's sacred ash, or Serebii's time manipulation, could bring them back.

Now, I have steel dragon's wings. Perhaps they show the darkness in me, perhaps not. Who can tell?

I fight darkness with my dragons, with my power, with my Ice Blade and my Dragon Shield. But I must fight with caution, for my own power is dark as well, and if I stare into the abyss for too long, it stares back out of my eyes.

Fire fights with her Fire Blade and her Fire Shield, she is just fire, after all. The prophecy hails her as the eldest, yet the weakest.

Strange. You'd think that she'd be the strongest, because she has the most experience. But perhaps they were only talking in terms of power. I can defeat her rather easily, especially at night. At night, my magic is the strongest.

I am a child of the moon, I may wax and wane, but I will never truly die. It was meant to be that way, and from centuries ago, lives upon lifetimes, it still stays this way. My magic is moon, but darkness as well, for the two are bound to each other. The moon power also allows me to talk to the wind, the waves, and the seasons. I can talk to water, and ice, and dragons, and I keep the world's dragons safe.

Not many people have dragon pokemon. There is a reason for that. Most dragons hide in underwater caves, far, far away from humanity... because they were once known as `evil' and hunted almost to extinction. Now, they trust humans no longer.

But I am a dragon master, the Dragon Master, the one who Lugia has chosen to guard the dragons forevermore. And I will keep my promise. Every year, on the last full moon, I call the Dragon's call and they come to me. I heal the wounded, keep the young ones alive through the harsh winter with protective spells, slip the ancient ones into everlasting peace, and bless the eggs of a new generation. For I am the Dragon Master, and my power, yet, my responsibility as well, lies with them.

You ask me if I have any rivals? No, I must say what Fire said. None. Oh, certainly there are petty magicians and dragon trainers, trying to achieve the unattainable. But they are no threat to me, so I leave them be… unless, of course, they threaten the balance. Then I will fight like the dragon I am, and destroy them completely. For that is my duty.

When I was in my early twenties, I created the Elite Four. My memory never fades away. I see all the different lives we've led, all the paths we've taken, the mistakes made and lessons learned. I suppose I could be called wise, but I doubt it. Dragons just learn to deal with things. We adapt, and so we survive.

In my veins run dragon's blood, the burning, fiery power, for dragons have souls which show them truly, even though their outsides may be cloaked with illusion and deception. I suppose that's where my emotions are from. But at the same time, runs ice, liquid ice, a dragon's enemy, yet the two coexist. Perhaps it is because I am ice and dragon.

Who knows?

After the Elite Four, well, I usually keep the balance steady while Fire's child rests in her deep sleep, restoring her energy. Then, Thunder's child comes. Thunder carries Fire's magic with him, for sun and star are interchangeable. Thunder reigns, for a time, and then he wanes and Fire's child takes over, taking his lightning powers as well as her own fire power back.

I trust them.

Fire and Thunder are soul siblings, and they do their best. When Thunder diminishes, that is when I take him by the hand, and we step through the gates of rebirth together. Or, if a future danger is there, we seal off most of our power as not to cause danger in the balance, and live until the danger comes.

Then, we fight off the danger. Misty, Missingno, Bob the Dragon-Mage, too many to count… for the creatures of darkness are ever trying to destroy the light. I fight with my power, and with my cards, my Moon cards, with the magic of the moon and darkness sealed within them. And I purify the world, with water.

Yet, I am darkness myself, but as Thunder's child says, `a calm, gentle darkness', not a choking, tearing, destroying, evil.

For darkness by itself cannot destroy evil, light is needed as well. And light and dark together make shadow. Thunder's child has the power, in case fire and ice both fall, and he needs to restore by himself.

But we try not to leave him. And even when we do, we leave him our powers, and our spirits watch over him until we are born again.

I can see the sun rising. I should return to my residence, back to the Elite Four, and get a little sleep, before another day of battles begins. I can already hear Dragonite calling for breakfast…it is time I left.

Peace with you, and may the earth be well. All is not lost, even if the first two guardians fall. Remember this.

For darkness melds with shadow, making it stronger. And light shines hope in the world, on golden beams of peace. As long as there is shadow, there will be hope. Believe in yourself, Thunder's child. All will be all right.

End Lance's vignette.

Completed 3/31/04

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