TEEN: Broken [Spell of the Unown 20th Anniversary AU]

[InfiniteBakuphoon]

Hello, everyone! This is Broken, a project that I've been working on to recognize the 20th anniversary of the third Pokémon movie Spell of the Unown, which first premiered in Japan on July 8th, 2000.

In 2020, I planned to write an extended multi-part short story for the occasion; something longer than a one-shot but shorter than the average chaptered fanfic. However, life got in the way of me fulfilling those ambitions by the 20th anniversary, so I instead presented everyone with a one-shot version that encompassed some of what I intended to do with my original concept.

Meanwhile, in 2022, I’ve come back to the original concept for this project and done some significant work on it. And now, I’m pleased to present everyone with Broken as it was originally intended to be!

Both the original one-shot version and the multi-shot version will be made available on this thread, and each can be accessed via the provided threadmarks. They each reside in their own continuity, and while allusions to one might be present in the other, they otherwise have no connection to each other whatsoever and should be considered completely different stories, or rather two different interpretations of the same idea.

Related to the above, it should also be noted that it doesn’t matter which one you read first, or if you only read one and not the other. They are, again, completely different stories, and how you choose to experience Broken is just that: your choice, and whatever your choice might be, it’s as valid as any other.

As far as content warnings go, the one-shot version is rated EVERYONE, with the below caveat:

Spoiler: Content Warnings for One-Shot Version

Allusions to a violent death.

Meanwhile, the multi-shot version will be rated TEEN. All chapters will have this rating, while specific content warnings will be provided for each chapter when necessary. In general, you should expect to see the following:

Spoiler: Content Warnings for Multi-Shot Version

• Significantly higher amounts of violence than the canon anime, including depictions of blood and some mild gore,
• Major character deaths or references to them, often of a bloody and violent nature,
• Explorations of emotional abuse and neglect in the context of parenting, friendship, and romance,
• Relatively mild but nonetheless impolite language (nothing above “shit”, basically).

With all of that said, let’s begin!

 

[InfiniteBakuphoon]

"Mama, why are you cutting your hair?"

Molly Hale had just caught her Mama in the bedroom with a scissor to her long brown hair: hair long enough to reach almost to her waist. Mama was just about to cut the first strand when Molly dropped in, and while she was briefly startled by the sudden presence of the young girl, she quickly recovered, returning a warm smile.

"Well, Molly," Mama began, "Today's a very special day for me. It's..."

She paused.

"...the day that Papa and I first met."

"Oh, that's right!" Molly said excitedly. "You do this every year, don't you, Mama? I almost forgot. It's kind of hard to keep track of time sometimes, huh?"

"Yes," said Mama, still smiling. "That's very true."

"I've always liked your long hair, Mama," Molly told her.

Mama couldn't help but chuckle.

"I know," she replied.

Molly laughed back in response, right before she sat herself on the bed next to her Mama.

"Remember that story you told me about the girl with the really long hair?" Molly asked. "The one who was trapped in a tower until a prince came to rescue her? You kind of remind me of her!"

Another pause, leading Molly to stare curiously at her Mama before the latter finally answered her.

"You know," said Mama, fingering a strand of her hair, "I think you're right, Molly. We are kind of alike, aren't we?"

Molly didn't notice her Mama's slowly fading smile, as she herself was now staring into the distance, thinking about something.

"The day that you and Papa first met..." Molly began. "I remember that day, too. Because it was the day that I met you, Mama!"

"That's right," said Mama, smiling again.

"But it was kind of a bad day, too," Molly continued, looking rather sullen all of a sudden. "That boy..."

Mama's smile faded completely at those last two words, a strong anxiety quickly rising within her.

"...he almost took you away from me."

Please, Entei, listen to me! Don't do this! If you really care about Molly, you'll let her come with us!

"He was a Pokémon trainer," Molly went on. "He seemed pretty cool at first, but... he turned out to be really mean."

It's not right for her to stay here with you! You have to let her go!

"I almost thought that I was going to lose you forever," said Molly, "and that I'd be all alone again. But then Papa protected us..."

Whether it is right or wrong... I will do as she wishes!

It was then that an avalanche of memories came crashing down on Mama all at once. First came the battle, one between absolute will and absolute power; one that seemed to never end.

Then came the explosion, when power ultimately won the battle and sent the loser going down in smoke, straight into the very room where Mama was right now.

Then came the sight of a paw crashing down, and the sickening sound of bones being crushed in its wake.

And then came her son's screams...

"Mama, are you OK?"

Torn away from her thoughts, Mama turned her attention to Molly, who looked at her concernedly.

"U-Um... yes, Molly. Everything's just fine."

"You look sad," Molly replied. "Were you afraid of losing me that day, too?"

A pause, before Mama ultimately answered:

"Yes, Molly. Yes, I was."

At that response, Molly came over to Mama and gave her a big hug, and Mama couldn't help but feel her warmth even as many other things were on her mind. She looked ahead at the world outside the bedroom window; the only window to the world that she had. And there, she could see nothing but crystal: crystal beyond the Hale mansion; crystal beyond the borders of Greenfield; crystal as far as her eyes could see from the high tower that she called home. She really was like that girl in the story, Mama thought, except that unlike that story's prince, her prince had no problem getting to the top of the tower. And so every year, Mama cut her hair so that when the time arrived, her prince would still be able to recognize his queen.

But then, something else was different in that story: the prince was actually present. Mama, however, hadn't seen hers in three years. Three years to the day, in fact.

"Mama... promise that you won't leave me. Promise that we'll be together forever and ever!"

Mama had no idea how her story was going to end, even as the answer seemed clearer every time she cut her hair. But then she always remembered something that she heard her son say long ago:

Never give up until it's over!

And the story most certainly wasn't over. One day, surely, the spell would be broken... but she never would be; she was her son's Mama, after all. But for now, she had to be someone's else Mama. Not just for her sake, she knew, but for Molly's sake as well.

With one hand, Mama wrapped Molly into a hug of her own. With the other, she reached for a single small strand from her long hair and snipped it off with a quick cut of her scissors, quietly slipping them into the still-open bedroom drawer before returning Molly's hug in full.

"I promise," Mama said to Molly. She didn't lie.

[end]​

 

[System Error]

- Comparing her mother to Rapunzel? Uhh, not sure how they're identical, but kids have active imaginations.
- Oh dear. I'm starting to see where this goes, as of the thing about the really mean Pokemon Trainer.
- BAD END, indeed. Very violent end, too.
- The prince recognizing his queen? Wouldn't that make him a king then, Molly?
- Seem to be implications that Ash is alive, somehow. But the story kind of ends there, because it is only a one-shot.
- How would the spell be broken at this point, anyway? Freaking nuke the place?

Neat little one-shot. Would've made for a nice story concept. As-is, kind is just like a pseudo creepy story about alternate bad ends. An epilogue to it, rather. RIP in peace Ash, I guess, maybe.

 

[InfiniteBakuphoon]

@System Error
"Spell of the Unown: Bad Ending Edition" does summarize this pretty well, doesn't it?

Glad to hear that you enjoyed this. I actually wrote the entire thing in one day, which (by my standards) is pretty fast. I found the "fairy tale" metaphor a little ways through the writing process and I pretty much ran with it from there, despite me being a bit afraid that it would come off as corny or otherwise fall flat on its face (although deadlines really expedited the decision-making process in that case). I'm surprised at myself that it didn't turn out too bad, all things considering.

That said, I was also a bit concerned that people would be confused about exactly what was implied to have happened to Ash and the others on that fateful, alternately-ending night. As to whether Ash actually did survive that night or not, well... let's just say that in the original concept, I definitely would've intended for him to be alive for at least part of the story (or else there wouldn't be much of a story to tell). However, I also intended there to be quite a few major character deaths (as you might imagine from all of the implied bloodshed here) and Ash may or may not have been one of those deaths; who knows? In this version, though... I was definitely going for one or the other while I was writing, probably leaning more towards "alive" by the time I finished. But maybe the ambiguity isn't so bad... or rather it would've been if I had gone for that from the start; oh well.

In any case, keep an eye out for this thread if you're still interested in this concept. The project's still officially "dormant" right now, but it certainly hasn't been dormant in my head!

 

[Juliko]

Hello there! I’m your Secret Santa for this year! I hope this year has been kind to you in some fashion. I admit I’m not the most well versed reviewer or critic compared to other users here, but I hope anything I say here will be useful to you in some way. Let me know if you want me to elaborate on something or if you have any questions. I actually saw the Entei movie last year, so I thankfully have some extra context to understand the fic.

One thing that really stands out to me is that it seems you deliberately go out of your way not to mention Delia or Ash by name in this fic. I can assume this is a stylistic choice, considering what happens later, and being partly told from Molly’s point of view, and I think the way you did it here really works. Just the way you describe them and imply who they are with their words and actions tells us who these characters are in and of themselves. No excessive purple prose necessary, and the fact that you’re able to build up to what happens and the reveal, without outright revealing who’s who, is the mark of a great storyteller. Pat yourself on the back, dude.

Your descriptions are really tight as well, revealing just enough to establish the setting and what’s going on, but subdued enough that they don’t completely overtake the entire story. I know you said you wanted to expand this into a longer story, and I can understand life getting in the way and screwing up your plans. I’ve been there myself. But as they say, sometimes less is more, and I like how you alluded to Entei being Molly’s prince, though I do have to question why you’d refer to Ash as being Delia’s considering he’s...well, her son. But that’s more of a nitpick than anything.

But even with that, this story is sad. It’s definitely not a feel-good story, and that’s okay. Dark stories have their place and they’re just as important as fluffy light-hearted ones. I like that you didn’t go too overboard with making the story as dark as possible, mostly conveying it through action and description, such as the crunching of bones and hearing Ash’s screams, keeping it subtle enough but never losing Molly’s idealistic point of view. There’s nothing wrong with wanting to write about the hard stuff, the not-so-glamorous things we often avoid in our reading and writing, or slightly darker interpretations and possibilities for kids media. That’s what makes fan fics so much fun. One other thing, though: Is “concernedly” a real word? I don’t know, something about it feels clunky to me.

That’s all I really have to say. You’ve got something good here, and I really liked it! You have a good day!

 

[InfiniteBakuphoon]

Spoiler: Content Warnings

Character death, of a bloodless nature.

~Broken: Spell of the Unown 20th Anniversary AU~
Chapter 1: Catch Me If You Can​

“Just try and catch me, Mama, haha!”

“Hey, where do you…!? Molly!”

The young woman’s voice was met with laughter from a certain young girl, who led her on a chase throughout a wide open courtyard exploding with greenery everywhere that the eyes could see. An equally grand mansion overlooked it all not far away, along with a picturesque sky high above filled with streaks of orange amongst the blue, signaling what was soon to be the end of a long day.

“Tag again, Molly?” Mama called out to her, to which she was met with another gaggle of laughter. “Don’t you ever get tired of this?”

“Nope!” said Molly, smiling cheekily before running off again. Mama had to brush several strands of hair out of her face as she ran after Molly, one of many that extended down all the way past her knees and nearly reached her ankles. She took care not to trip on said hair as she continued her pursuit, which now extended past the large pool in front of her as Molly cheerily skipped across several stone platforms rising out of the water, which led to a small greenhouse in the middle.

“Molly, that’s dangerous—!” Mama cried out, but she was ignored as Molly reached the last of the platforms. She leapt onto the stone floor surrounding the greenhouse with a surprisingly agile step for such a little girl, before she waved towards Mama.

“See if you can find me now, Mama!” said Molly, before she then rushed off into another direction.

“Oh, hide and seek?” said Mama, who couldn’t help but smile now as she stopped with haggard breaths; this was a bit more like it. “I’m gonna count to ten, then!”

Mama raised her head up to the sky above before closing her eyes tight. She always did have the temptation to peek…

“10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… ready or not, here I come!”

And so the game began.

Even though she wasn’t nearly as familiar with this place as Molly was, there were only but so many places that she could hide, Mama knew. And she knew exactly where she would be this time.

Mama looked ahead to a brush of trees past the pool, before proceeding to make her own journey across it. She proved much less agile than Molly had been as she sloppily hopped towards the greenhouse, nearly slipping into the pool multiple times before barely catching herself all the while.

Even after so long, she still never got used to those things…

But nonetheless, she wasn’t far away from Molly now! She was about to win this game. But wait: that would be too easy, no?

And so she decided to make another game out of it all.

“Oh, Molly~!” Mama called out in a sing-song voice, to which she could hear a certain someone’s unwitting response in the form of a little giggle a few feet away, in a nearby bush. Mama had guessed correctly; not that her guess was needed!

“I think you’ve got me this time, Molly~!” said Mama. “Where could you—”

“AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!”

“Molly!”

Her scream sent Mama into a completely different mode as she rushed over to the brush, her heart racing as she dreaded what she would find there. Pushing away the leaves with no concern for her arms that were raked by them, she saw—

“Oh, Papa, hahaha! You found me!”

Mama gave a sigh of relief as she saw Molly and Papa together, the latter on top of his daughter as if he had just landed on her from the tree branches above.

“Now it’s my turn,” said Papa as he got off up from the ground. “See if you find me, Molly!”

“Oh, but we always find you, Papa!” Molly laughed. “You’re so easy to find! Right, Mama?”

“I suppose you’re right, ahaha…” said Mama, albeit with somewhat of a more sullen tone than last time. Molly didn’t notice, however, as Papa ran off, leading her to close her eyes and put a hand over them.

“Time to count, Mama!” she said. And indeed, Mama raised her head to the sky once more, and closed her eyes before counting down to one.

“10… 9… 8… 7… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1…”

Mama opened her eyes.

What she saw next was unlike anything she expected to see that day, as she now found herself witness to a small yet conspicuous white speck in the air, stark against the orange sky. It grew closer and closer, and became larger and larger, with each second, faster than Mama could imagine it.

“N-No… n-no…”

Molly had just noticed it too, and as she kept repeating those words over and over, the speck soon became large enough to no longer be a speck, but a shape. And it was then that Molly, along with Mama, realized exactly what it was, and who it was.

It was a Dragonite, under the command of a rider.

“No, not again!” Molly screamed. “Why can’t they just leave us alone!?”

“M-Molly—”

“GO AWAY!” cried Molly, her little voice far too small for the rider in the air to hear.

Someone else, however, most definitely did hear her. Papa came rushing over to Molly’s side within seconds, his eyes locked attentively to hers.

“What is it, Molly?”

“It’s them! They’re here to take Mama away!”

Papa, in response…

ROOOAAARRR!!!

…gave a ferocious roar, enough for Mama to cover her ears to block the incredibly loud and painful sound. Within the next second, Papa charged forward…

…and then vanished with a flash into thin air, as if he had never been there at all.

“W-What—!?” was all that a startled Mama could utter, having never seen Papa do that before. Molly, meanwhile, looked absolutely ecstatic at the sight.

“Go get ‘em, Papa!” Molly’s little voice cried out, still not enough for the rider above her to hear, spirited as it was. Mama, if she could believe it, actually felt the slightest traces of a smile form at Molly’s own bright and happy face, before—

ROOOAAARRR!!!

What happened next came within less than a second.

Papa appeared right next to the rider in a flash, a massive ball of purple energy having already formed in his maw. A swift masterstroke of a dodge from the rider’s Dragonite — a literal millisecond before the ball burst out from Papa — was the only thing that separated the two from a certain fiery death.

“Oh God, no!” Mama cried out almost involuntarily as a primal, heartrending fear suddenly washed over her like a tidal wave. But her voice, like Molly’s, was far too small for anyone in the air above her to hear.

Papa vanished again immediately after that, right as the rider and their Dragonite turned back around at full speed, clearly fleeing what they had now judged to be an impossible fight. Before Mama or anyone else could process anything, Papa reappeared just as quickly next to her and Molly, his paws plopping hard on the ground as if he had just landed from a great height.

“Papa, I don’t want them to come back again!” Molly cried out to Papa, tugging hard at his soft brown fur as tears rolled down from her eyes. “Please, make them stop!”

Papa lowered his head down ever-so-slightly towards Molly, his expression softening a little before steely resolve suddenly flashed back to them.

“If that is what you wish.”

His head then craned back towards the fleeing rider and their Dragonite, followed by a—

ROOOAAARRR!!!

Molly stepped back from Papa in response, allowing him to charge forward at lightning speed towards the direction of the increasingly small speck in the air, as if planning to catch up with them entirely by foot. This, however, wasn’t the plan, made clear by Papa vanishing in a flash of white light once more mid-run.

“Oh no—”

In the time it took for Mama to utter those words, a supersonic boom suddenly blasted through the air, followed by a bright flash of purple light right where Mama had last seen the speck in the air. A speck that had now just been replaced by an explosion of colors, followed by an increasingly long plume of smoke going down, down, down…

It then disappeared beyond the courtyard walls in the distance, the end of its trail no longer visible.

With a flash, Papa appeared before Mama and Molly once more. He plopped paws-first on the ground harder this time, looking slightly exhausted while still managing to maintain a royal, lionesque posture that, along with what they just witnessed in the sky, left both Mama and Molly in complete and utter awe.

“It’s finished,” said Papa, pausing after a particularly deep breath. “We won’t have to worry about them again.”

“Oh…” said Molly, who couldn’t seem to get the words out. “Oh…”

Finally, she found them.

“Oh, Papa!”

It was then, in a display of unrestrained joy, that she practically leapt onto Papa, squeezing him with all that her little body could muster.

“Thank you, Papa! So much…”

Papa said nothing, instead simply lowering his head down towards Molly with that same stoic expression in his stark red eyes. Whatever Papa was feeling, however, Molly sensed it, responding with a smile as she gently squeezed Papa’s fur in her hands as if giving him a big hug.

“Does this mean… that they can never try to take Mama away again?”

Papa faced her directly now, his eyes softening ever-so-slightly before he gave his answer:

“I believe so.”

“Yes!” said Molly as she squeezed him tighter. “I love you, Papa!”

After proceeding to give Papa the biggest hug that her tiny body could give him, she then turned to a certain other person.

“Aren’t you happy, Mama? Now we can finally be together forever!”

“H-Huh…!? Um, yes, Molly; that’s wonderful…”

Mama had been practically in a state of hypnosis the entire time from the sight she had just witnessed moments ago, with Molly’s voice having just broken it. Molly didn’t seem to notice the daze in Mama’s eyes, however, having simply smiled in response as she took Mama’s hand.

“Let’s go back inside now, Mama! It’s almost time for dinner, ahaha!”

“Yes,” said Mama as she let Molly pull her forward towards their house. But something else was on Mama’s mind as she turned her head back to the light orange sky behind her, the otherwise picturesque view still marked by that ominous plume of smoke going down, down, down.

She couldn’t help but remember a certain other time she saw such a sight, back on that fateful day so long ago, and for a moment, she wondered…

…
…
…
No, he wouldn’t do that.

She, of all people, would know that he would never, ever do that.

And so Mama took a sigh of relief, said a silent prayer for the fallen rider, and then walked over Molly’s side, still hand in hand, as they entered the house together.

[chapter end]​

 

[kintsugi]

Hiya, I've seen you around, and I think your reviews are really rad. I wanted to take a look at your other work, since it seems to be the one you're currently focusing on, but alas I'm a huge simp for Spell of the Unown, so here we are.

One-shot version:
I really dig the intro hook here. When is a ceremonial haircut a celebration? And the answer is, well, "very special day" and when "Papa and I first met" are nice-sounding phrases but there's a lot of stuff going on under the hood. It's a neat little mystery that works really well over the span of such a short story. I'm used to haircuts being used to mark big dramatic shifts in paradigm, coming-of-age ceremonies, etc--so it's neat to see the reverse here, where the paradigm is staying the same, Deliah doesn't actually cut her hair, and the understanding is all internalized and hidden (to match with the hair not being cut).

Fictional Rapunzel is, well, oof. I liked the duality that you've got there too--Rapunzel should keep her hair long, since it's her means of escape; Deliah should keep her hair short, because her son is a child who needs to be able to recognize her. It's bleak, since there's nothing left for her to do but make good with what she was given (and take away her big long hair, since it's not magical and can't save her), but I think it works. I liked the shift in focus to her caring for Molly. It's a kindness, one that she doesn't strictly have to show--especially since Molly's the reason she's here--but it's a conscious choice nonetheless, and it does show a lot about Deliah. I found myself wanting to understand a little about what it meant for her to be Molly's Mama here--maybe an action she'd do to comfort Molly, or maybe something to hint at teaching Molly that kidnapping is bad, actually. Not particularly sold on those ideas, but something to bring the "she was her son's Mama, after all. But for now, she had to be someone else's Mama" full circle--what does it mean to occupy both, neither, or one of those roles?

I liked the use of "Mama" in the beginning, when she's still unable to remember what happened to her. Her identity is literally Mama. I think, perhaps after the memories come back to her, it might've been powerful if she went by her non-Mama name, at least in her own narration, to drive the mental shift in.

Chapter 1:
It's fun seeing the different pieces here again: the hair, and also I swear I typed the "what does it mean to be Molly's Mama" bit before reading this! Hide and Seek is an excellently dreadful game to play in this situation, and I really loved the framing of an innocent game around the kidnapping--Spell of the Unown in a nutshell tbh! Aww, Mama is so easy to find! Isn't that cute. Molly's unbridled glee at watching Entei murder that guy is delightfully horrifying. It's so wonderful that Papa can keep everyone safe.

Is there a reward or something for Deliah specifically, or is Dragonite Rider supposed to be one of the main cast? (I haven't watched the anime in ages but I'm told Ash has a dragonite now ...)

-

Overall, oh no, we stan the AU's where things don't go well. Thanks for sharing these!

 

[DRX.maliant]

Hi. I don't know how to start this.

Really interesting concept to have this be split into a "one-shot" and "full multi-chapter" work. Definitely something I've'nt encountered before, so this is pretty cool to see. I enjoyed the way this was set, and even when the one-shot is "compressed" as much as it is, it still shows the same as the multi-chapter work.

Also, I'm going into this not having watched any of the Pokemon movies, and to be honest I didn't even know that Spell of the Unown was actually a movie. We all learn something new every day, I suppose. Even with my lack of knowledge in this matter, I still found this an enjoyable read. o/

 

[Welkamo]

I promise to one day read the whole story, but I’m a bit pressed for time, so for now, the one shot version will do. (Been wanting to get back to your stuff for a while as a token of thanks for reading my stuff, and I didn’t know this fix existed! Bad Ending Spell of the Unown. Let’s go.)

I really like the Rapunzel allusions here, with both women keeping their hair a certain way to keep the hope of escape. It ties into a theme of false innocence that permeates the fic—on the surface, and to Molly, this seems like the perfect fairy tale family, but to Delia, it’s a nightmare
(then again, so are the original versions of a lot of fairy tales.) It’s tragic for Delia, but also for Molly, because they’re both living a lie, whether they know it or not.

Very good stuff as always! Well done.

 

[lisianthus]

It took me a reread and a Bulbapedia check, but I finally got the story! My fault for not having watched the movie yet! (even though I have the manga for it)

But well... wow, so it's basically a 'bad ending' for Delia? Like with the Rapunzel allusion where she can't leave her tower... Delia is similarly trapped as well. She lost her son (and seems to be haunted by it as well), and for whatever reason, is still stuck with Molly, who not only is a reminder of that trauma, but who is also... basically, keeping her stuck.

This has made me think that Delia is in the illusion/dream world? I think that's what's happening, considering how she's invoking Ash's 「最後まで諦めるな！」 motto, and is biding her time (painfully) until her prince, her son, can rescue her. (and her not lying about the promise at the end, does that imply Ash not coming back? so many interpretations!!)

Anyways anyways, I did think that this was an interesting read! I might have been less 'ooh this is mysterious' if I was able to understand more of it on the first try, but... I think that kind of adds to it all?

Basically basically, this was neat. Not my king of thing usually, but branching out is good! I'll keep on hoping that Delia gets her happy ending... (and good job also!!)