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Wraiths From an Age Passed

Summary:

[UNFINISHED AND NEVER WILL BE - Most recent updates are me posting chapters I have already written but never posted]

PNF-404 is a beautiful planet, but beautiful things in nature are often deadly and this strange planet with its monstrous wildlife is no exception. This doesn't stop them from returning when the pikmin are threatened by an unnatural force.

However, trying to save these creatures so dear to them may have been more than what they were prepared for.

(Was originally titled "Star Touched")

Notes:

This story is one I’ve worked on for a long time, and it’s the first where I worked heavily with a beta to make it as good as it can be! Please be sure to check out my beta reader, princce7 here on Ao3!

IMPORTANT NOTE: there are some things in this story that are messed up, but I wasn’t sure how to tag without spoiling them. Chapters that deal with some of the heavier themes will have the ability for you to scroll to the end for a detailed but spoiler ridden explanation of the triggering content. I hope this helps everyone!

(As for the romance B-plot, it's far from a major focus hence my not tagging the ship. I don't want to put this under the ship tag when we're going stretches of time without mentioning it. That being said, if you guys want to have it tagged anyways just let me know and I'll add the tag!)

Chapter 1: The Colony

Chapter Text

Olimar paced around the room, nervous. His arms were crossed and pressed closely against his body, and his long ears kept twitching. The fact he was able to have Koppai's three heroes agree to meet with him – let alone being able to contact them in the first place – was a miracle and a half. Well, the contacting more so than the agreeing – once they heard “the pikmin are in danger” they wasted no time promising to be there. It was arguably even harder to convince his boss to let him take time off to do this. Louie had to talk to the man for him. Olimar didn’t know what Louie said to change the old company president's mind.   

He didn’t really want to know either.  

Thankfully his family was much more understanding. They knew what the pikmin meant to him. They were even scared themselves.   

“Olimar. You don’t need to be so nervous.” Louie spoke up. “They’ll listen to you.”   

Olimar turned to his much younger co-worker, who was well over twenty years younger than he . “I… I know they’ll listen. That’s not what has me worried.”   

“The pikmin will be okay.” A second, more feminine voice spoke. “We’re launching you guys up no later than tomorrow, I promise.”   

Olimar turned to the koppaite woman who made this whole mission possible – an older woman by the name Ella. “I just… I just hope you’re right…”   

Before Ella could respond, the office door opened and Koppai’s three hero e s came filing in. They were quiet, worry clouding their faces. All Olimar got was a nod from Charlie. Louie got a scrunched face from Brittany.    

“Thank you all for coming here so quickly.” Ella began. Olimar took it as his queue to go ahead and sit down next to Louie. “As Olimar here has informed you, the pikmin may be in danger. A while ago a colony was spotted on PNF-404.”   

“B-But it’s a protected planet! No one is supposed-“ Alph began before stopping and looking away, as if just realizing he had interrupted the woman.  

Indeed… after all that work you three put into making sure it stayed a wild planet… I can understand your frustration. That being said, this colony appears to be inactive. The mission is simple; explore the remains and see if you can find any evidence to what planet has broken the law. ”   

As the three heroes looked at one another, Olimar added on “And hopefully protect the pikmin and their ecosystem from them as well. ”   

Charlie took a deep breath, looking down at his hands. “It… will be hard for us to return there, after all that’s happened. I’m sure of it.” Brittany looked away a little, and Alph began to rub his right arm. “But we owe the pikmin so much. We would have never gotten home – never had a home to return to – if not for them. Of course we’re going to go.”   

Olimar smiled weakly. “I understand… Thank you. ”   

“No need to thank us. This is for the pikmin.”   

“For the pikmin!” Alph repeated, then he sunk back into his chair a little as if he had spoken out of turn.   

Poor kid… he’s anxious all of the time… “For the pikmin.” Olimar echoed back. Alph smiled a little from hearing that. So did Charlie, Olimar realized, which made him raise a brow.   

After a short moment of silence, Ella began to speak again. “Well, with all of that settled… you’ll have the rest of today to prepare. We’ll be launching you guys into space tomorrow, in the S.S. Drake of course. We’ll have the coordinates of the exact location you’ll be landing programmed into the computer for you.”  

Alph nodded. “Thank you. ”   

Ella nodded. “Of course. This meeting is now dismissed.”   


There wasn’t really much to prepare for, in all honesty. As they were all space explorers, they had done this song and dance time and time again. They were able to leave Koppai without a hitch . It took them only a day to leave the solar system – a fairly uneventful day filled with small talk, mind you. Once they were a safe distance from all other planets, Alph initiated the cosmic drive. The Drake raced at a speed incomprehensible to Olimar – he never had to go this fast to deliver products. As Alph secured the cosmic drive key in place, Olimar noticed so mething.   

“Did… did you tie the cosmic drive key to the Drake?”   

“It’s- It’s a little more complicated than that.” Alph insisted, seemingly getting flustered. “I welded some cable down to the Drake.” He pointed at a spot on the floor, where a long, thick, black cable attached to some kind of loop was. It looked as if it had always been there, but Olimar knew for a fact it wasn’t there last time he was on the Drake. “And then welded that same cable to the cosmic drive key.” He then pointed to the key itself. The fact something had been added onto it was more obvious due to its shape, but it didn’t look bad or unprofessional either.   

“Hm. Good job kid. ” Olimar decided not to address the obvious – they both knew why the cable was added. No need to make Alph uncomfortable by bringing it up.   

“Of course it’s a good job!” A deep voice rang. Olimar jumped a little from shock before turning towards Charlie. When did he get in here?   

The captain walked over and put a hand on Alph’s shoulder. “It was my engineer who did it. And I only have the best in my crew!” Alph looked away a little, his cheeks burning an even brighter red.   

Olimar couldn’t tell if Charlie was trying to make Alph feel proud, or if Charlie himself really was proud to have the kid on his team. Probably both, he decided.    

“Well, I came in here to tell you it’s dinner time. So go ahead on to the kitchen, alright?”   

Olimar nodded, and let Charlie lead him into the Drake's kitchen area. Brittany already had the meals all laid out – some instant Hocotate noodles for him and Louie, and some kind of Koppaite dish Olimar didn’t know the name of for the rest of them. They all talked and bantered as they ate, conversation and laughter filling the room. Mostly Charlie’s laughter – the man had a deep and loud voice.   

Alph lifted his glass to take a drink, but before it could reach his mouth his arm froze up and he dropped the glass. It shattered, sending glass and fruit juice everywhere. His right arm just stayed there, stuck out and shaking.   

Everyone else moved quickly. Olimar and Brittany worked on cleaning up the glass. Louie wiped up some juice off of the table. Charlie led Alph away from the commotion, who still seemed to be frozen in fear.   

Once they were all done cleaning up, Olimar looked up at Alph. It seemed he had finally regained feeling in his arm, and now had it pressed firmly against his body. “Are you okay Alph?” he asked.   

“I… I… I need to go.” He wiggled out of Charlie's arms and made his way for the door.   

“Alph, wait, your food!” Charlie tried t o stop him, but the engineer was already well on his way. Charlie frowned, grabbed Alph's plate of food, and left with only a “I need to make sure he eats…” before leaving.   

Olimar looked over at the other two, ears leaned back from worry.   

“Go ahead and finish your meals.” Brittany spoke after a moment. “And stick around to help me clean up, please.”   

They did as told, now staying quiet as they ate and cleaned up. Louie washed some dishes, and Olimar put Charlie’s meal away. Not really knowing what else to do, Olimar decided to just slip into his bedroom and call it an early night. It'd be six more days before they arrived at PNF-404, so he might as well just try and get as much rest as he can before then.   

He walked pass Alph's room on the way to his own, faintly hearing Charlie trying to comfort Alph. Poor kid… after what happened to him, he’s still willing to go back there? PNF-404 had hurt everyone on board greatly, but Alph was the only one left with physical scars from the planet. Olimar sighed and walked away, and into his own bedroom. There was no need to pry, and he trusted that Charlie would be able to calm Alph down. He turned his light out, curled up, and tried to fall asleep.  


Olimar held his breath for a second as PNF-404 came into view through the Drake's large window. The planet was as beautiful as ever; he could see the wide blue oceans, the green land, parched desserts, and frozen poles all from here. The particular angle they were coming at the planet from also revealed a large mountain range that tore across the plains.   

“The coordinates say the colony was… here-ish.” Alph spoke up, pointing to a spot in the plains that was east from the mountains.   

“Alright then. Let’s prepare to land.” Charlie ordered.   

Alph nodded, clearly shaking a little. Olimar frowned – he only ever had one good landing on this planet. The koppaits had crashed the one and only time they came here. He didn’t know what it was about the damn place that caused ships to crash into it so regularly. But they had to be careful.   

“I-In… initiating landing sequence!” Alph managed out, taking control of the Drake to glide smoothly in. Charlie walked over and laid a hand on Alph’s shoulder. Olimar and Brittany looked on, just barely breathing from the fear. Louie was nowhere to be seen; probably curled up in a corner away from the stress.   

The Drake shook a little as they passed into the atmosphere. The crew looked on, wondering if maybe they did it…  

And then all the lights went off in the Drake.   

Alph’s eyes widened as he struggled with the controls – no matter what he did or how he turned them, the Drake didn’t respond. The ship’s emergency lights came on, a pale white at first before switching to a harsh red.   

The ship was falling, faster and faster as the planet's gravity sucked it in.   

Everything happened so quickly. Alph had started to cry from the stress, and Charlie held onto him. Brittany grabbed onto Olimar for support as the ship tumbled. Louie screamed. An emergency hatch forced itself open, and the crew members were sucked out into space.   

Olimar could barely move as he fell – Brittany had a death grip on him, and she wasn’t willing to cooperate. He couldn’t blame her. He was able to turn his head. Left of him was Charlie, who was also clinging onto Alph. Further from them was Louie, free falling alone. Olimar panicked, his heart racing as he tried to figure out just what he could do. And then he blacked out.