Dark Hill, Base

The base was crowded with four purple, gem-eyed gremlins chattering away with each other and a black-maned, blue-furred, yellow-eyed lion, prowling impatiently around the place, literally crackling with excess lightning. At the sign of this, one of the gremlins gasped and looked at the lion.

"Uh, L-Lord Luxray," he stammered "I-I'm sure Mistress Mism-"

However, before he could finish his sentence, he was interrupted by a fearsome roar from the Gleam Eyes Pokemon.

"Be quiet, Sableye," he yelled, provoking the usual reaction of pure fear in the Darkness Pokemon's eyes, "what if our foe attacks us first? I was given orders by Master to stay in this place until Mismagius arrived," he spat in disgust, "but the motto of our tribe, passed down through the generations even before this dustball froze it's core is that we should always be the ones to attack first. How can we do that if we're constantly waiting for one of our comrades to show up? We'll just lead Dusclops right to us"

One of the Sableyes tried to respond, but Luxray's golden yellow eyes, coupled with a look that could pierce the armour of an Aggron silenced them instantly.

"I see that you're scared," he looked at the quivering gremlins, then smiled, showing his fangs while pacing around the opening of the hill "that's good, fear will only make you even stronger against the Dusclops that we might have to fight. Plus, I want you to remember something, I'm the master here, the alpha if you please. As long as you're under my command, you will listen to what I say. Got it? That's how it worked in my old tribe in Amp Plains. If one of us as a Luxio wasn't strong enough or wasn't quick enough, then they were left for dead. A Luxio had to challenge a pack leader to evolve and if they lost they were killed. Do you get it now? My tribe and Dialga's forces are both based on one key thing: fear. So if one of you are injured by that Dusclops, don't expect me to come rushing to your aid."

"B-But Lord," one of the braver Sableye yelped, "what happened to the tribe that made it so bent on fear?"

Luxray looked up at the colourless sky for a few moments, as if contemplating an answer. However, just before he was about to open his mouth, a psychic aura surrounded him and he was lifted into the air. When the psychic aura turned the surprised lion around, he wasn't shocked to see Mismagius there, her eyes glowing blue to indicate that she was using her psychic abilities to lift Luxray into the air.

"While I'm sure we're all very excited to learn the long and arduous history of your clan, Luxray," Mismagius said sarcastically, "we have work to do. Work that involves the recruiting of a certain cyclopic ghost to our ranks, so unless you five want to keep arguing, I suggest that we go now!"

She then released her psychic grip on Luxray and the lion smashed to the floor, groaning, "About time… you… showed up." the lion grumbled.

"Quiet, you overgrown mutt!" Mismagius yelled, "I was being strategic, if you've seen the things that this Dusclops could do, you would have acted the same way!"

"Oh, I have seen the things Dusclops can do," Luxray barked, electricity discharging around his fur and mane, "and that's why I wanted to go right away. If he caught us like we are, defenceless and unprepared, then we would have lost easily."

Mismagius sighed "You know, sometimes I think that the only reason that Master Dialga keeps you around to begin with is for your brute strength," she said in frustration, "If you were paying attention to what Dialga said, you would have noticed that Dusclops only exists in the lower levels of Dark Hill, meaning, there's no way they would come up to this clearing for any reason. Now, I could kill you for your disobedience and ignorance, but I can't beat Dusclops by myself and plus, you're part of the plan as well. Remember that."

With that, the mage floated away to get ready for the long dungeon trekking they had ahead of them. However, the Sableye then started chattering among themselves.

"Wheh-heh-heh, Lord Luxray's been put in his place, wheh-heh-heh!" they were smiling at this point while Luxray growled. He knew he couldn't do anything because as much as he hated to admit it, Mismagius was far more powerful than him and if he tried to be mean to the Sableye, Mismagius would be extremely annoyed with him.

"Alright," Mismagius sighed, doing a gesture that looked extremely similar to arm-folding, even though she didn't have any arms, "I'm ready to go. If you five decide to get at each other's throats again," she stared over the Luxray and Sableye, eyes glowing blue with annoyance and hidden anger, "then I'll get Tartarus to punish you accordingly."

Luxray and Sableye gulped in unison and looked at each other. They knew nothing about this 'Tartarus' save his reputation; he was extremely ruthless and merciless to everyone in the dark future and did not tolerate failure. Apparently, some of Dialga's henchmen had been put in a fate worse than death because of him.

And so, as they entered the hill of utter darkness, not a single other word was spoken, not by Mismagius, nor by Luxray or Sableye.


Thanks to Mismagius' power and Ghost-type attacks and Luxray's Crunch, Dark Hill was actually quite easy for them. While they did run into one of the dreaded monster houses along the way, where lots of wild Pokemon would unleash a group ambush on unsuspecting travelers, but because of their long range attacks such as Mismagius' Ominous Wind and Luxray's Discharge, even that wasn't a problem for the weary travelers. Luxray's 'job' as it were was to scan the walls with his X-ray vision to look for a sign of Dusclops or the elusive Reaper Cloth. Then, once one of them was found, Mismagius would float through the wall that concealed them to get to them. However, so far, Luxray only found Apples and Elixirs which, while still useful, weren't what they were looking for.

"Gah, how long is this going to take, Mismagius," Luxray was extremely pissed as his fangs enclosed around the scorpion-like tail of a wild Gliscor, making it yelp in pain.

"Well, it would be quicker if you weren't being such a blood knight to literally every single wild Pokemon around here!" Mismagius growled, finishing off the flying scorpion with a single, glowing Power Gem and sending Gliscor crashing to the ground, fainted.

"Hoo-hoo-hoo-hah! You two don't seem to get along well at all now, do you?"

The group of six suddenly froze in utter silence. They all knew the perpetrator of this voice, they had seen him before, he had easily destroyed the group that had hunted for them last. Luxray and Mismagius looked at each other in unison, then Luxray's eyes gleamed and he began scanning the walls for signs of the cyclopean powerhouse, he didn't need Mismagius to tell him how to do that. Whilst he was doing this, the Sableye were looking around in the room for Dusclops in pure fear, they didn't want the cyclops to come for them and kill them just like they saw.

"Where are you, Dusclops," Mismagius asked, "come on out! We don't want to fight you, we just want to talk, but we can't do that if we don't know where you are!"

"And why should I reveal myself to you?" the voice echoed around the room, "I have lived alone, without purpose for my entire life. What can you offer me, that I don't already have. What meaning can you give me, to live."

"Who cares about the meaning of living!" Luxray bristled up, his fur glowing with energy, "this world died long ago. Self-preservation is our on-"

At this, Mismagius' eyes glowed blue and Luxray was silenced for the second time that day.

"You'll have to excuse my friend here," Mismagius told the Dusclops, "he can be a little… hot-headed at times."

"So I can see," the voice replied blankly, "you know, I've been trailing you four for quite a while now. Don't take it personally, it was just to see what your motives were and why you were here. Forgive me for asking, but are you searching for the Reaper Cloth?"

Mismagius nodded nervously. Luxray had to admit, even she looked a little tense at this time and who could blame her? Luxray may have wanted to go quickly before, but that was before he knew Dusclops had trapped them and pursued them effortlessly. It was clear that he wasn't only a good battler, but a great tactician as well.

At this point, all the shadows in the room condensed into one omnipresent one and like an undead warrior rising up out of his grave, the ghost's shadow and his ethereal body formed in front of Dialga's henchmen.

"A noble and just thing to do for an insane god," Dusclops sighed, floating around the mislead wanderers, "however, there is one thing your 'almighty god' was wrong about. I'd recommend looking away. After all, you don't want to get sucked into Mu now, do you?"

"Mu?" Luxray asked, his eyes psychically shut by Mismagius' telekinesis whilst the Sableye were turned.

"Yes," Dusclops began to explain as the air began to become sucked towards him, "you see, Mu is the area of nothingness. When most Pokemon die, depending on their actions, they are sent to either the Hall of Origin to live with Arceus or the Distortion World, ruled over by the devil known as Giratina. However, Pokemon who are killed by me, the embodiment of the blank nothingness known as the void, and are killed by having their spirits absorbed, they never find true peace, their disembodied souls are left to wonder Mu forever..." As he finished his nightmarish description of the place, the sucking noise had stopped and Dusclops had produced in his hand a black cloth that Mismagius gasped upon seeing. The amount of souls inside it, the amount of souls Dusclops must have absorbed was uncountable. Noticing Luxray frothing in anger and about to charge, she once more held him back.

"Why!" he snarled, mouth frothing in anger as Mismagius struggled to keep a firm grip on the lion, "why kill all of those Pokemon? There must be hundreds. Thousands even, and all this time, you had the Reaper Cloth, you never even needed us!"

"That's a very good question, Luxray," Dusclops responded after a few seconds, "and I could ask you or Mismagius some of the exact same questions. Why do you kill several members of the rebellion of which Dialga speaks of. You'll find our answers are the same: we both do it in self-defence," he turned to Mismagius, "I assume that if the rebellion is successful in going back in time, changing history and stopping the planet's paralysis, then everyone here will die?"

"Correct." Mismagius nodded grimly, "we'll be erased from history."

"Well, there's your answer," Dusclops whispered, holding the eerie cloth up "I do not wish to kill, I never did, especially when it's like this, I try to avoid it whenever possible. But I need to because if I don't, I'll remain like this forever. There are a lot of hostile Pokemon in this world, Pokemon whose self important pride gets the better of them. I try to intimidate them into leaving, but if they refuse," he sighed, "I don't give them any second chances. You see, while this Reaper Cloth may be imbued with spiritual energy, it constantly loses it in a world where time is frozen over, possibly because the spirits aren't as effective and freeze in time more effectively. If the Reaper Cloth loses all it's energy, it just… disappears and as far as I know, there isn't another one in this world."

"But, why do you need the Reaper Cloth so badly?" Mismagius asked, trying to comfort the Beckon Pokemon by floating over to him.

"If I am exposed to a mystical energy when holding both the Reaper Cloth and the Link Cable, my evolution triggers," Dusclops explained, "I evolve into Dusknoir, the Gripper Pokemon and my power over Mu becomes a lot more controlled and stable than it is now as well as increasing my power a lot. I want to evolve because if I don't, I'll just keep feeding on the souls of the wild Pokemon here. I want evolution, more than anything!" he was beginning to cry, tears of inky blackness formed as his emotional levels rose, "I've observed you talking about your goals to stop the rebellion from changing history and I completely sympathise with you! This world… it's the only one we've got and I can't stand disappearing without anyone being able to remember me! So please, help me get a Link Cable, help me to evolve and I swear I'll pledge my loyalty to Dialga!"

At this, Mismagius just hovered over to Dusclops and hugged him, her veil like arms extending and proceeding to wrap around the ghost, drawing him in tight to comfort the troubled, fellow ghost and to her surprise, Dusclops returned the hug

"I'm sorry," she 'sobbed,' "I had no idea you had to suffer so much in order to evolve into your next form. I don't care how long it takes, we'll find the Link Cable, we'll evolve you and then, we'll work together to keep this planet alive! You'll finally be able to enjoy the feeling of living, of doing something right!"

However, there was something Luxray, Dusclops and Sableye didn't realise about Mismagius' hug, or their opinions on the matter might have changed entirely. Using the hug to cover her face from everyone, Mismagius was smirking, her face twisted into a malicious grin.

"Perfect," She thought to herself in her dark mind, "that was easier than I expected, I didn't even have to battle Dusclops. All I needed to do was play on his emotions and what he wanted to do and he's Dialga's- no Tartarus' forever. Keh heh heh, Dusclops, you've fallen right into Tartarus' trap. Everything is going exactly according to plan. We'll go to Dialga to ask about the location of a link cable. Then, we'll go back and use Dialga's temporal power to trigger your evolution."

"Alright," Dusclops remarked, ending his hug with Mismagius "well, we'd better get going back to Temporal Tower to ask about the whereabouts of a Link Cable."

"That will be unnecessary," Mismagius explained, "I can directly instigate telepathic communication with Master Dialga even here," activating said telepathic communication, she began to speak with the crazed god "Master Dialga," she thought, "I have successfully persuaded Dusclops to join my side with no casualties. It seems that he is sympathetic to our goals."

"YOU HAVE DONE WELL, MISMAGIUS," the god paused for a few seconds before responding, "PRAY TELL, WHAT OF THE REAPER CLOTH, HAS LUXRAY FOUND WHAT HE HAS BEEN LOOKING FOR YET?"

"Well, you see, that's the thing," Mismagius responded "Dusclops already has the Reaper Cloth, but he can't use it to boost his power yet because he needs it in conjunction with a Link Cable along with your primordial, temporal power. Do you know where we can find one?"

A long pause was enacted by the Temporal Pokemon before he finally decided to speak up "UNFORTUNATELY, AS YOU KNOW, MY POWER IS NOT WHAT IT USED TO BE. I MISCALCULATED THAT DUSCLOPS WAS ALREADY IN POSSESSION OF THE REAPER CLOTH, SO IT MAY TAKE ME A WHILE TO LOCATE THE LINK CABLE AND BE ABSOLUTELY SURE WHERE IT IS. I WILL SCOUR THE LAND TO FIND A SUITABLE SPECIMEN, BUT UNTIL THEN, I WILL GET YOU TO SCOUR THIS FUTURE. SEE IF THERE ARE ANY MORE MEMBERS OF THE REBELLION TO TARGET. SPREAD THE WORD OF THEIR TEMPORAL GOD TO THE POKEMON OF THE FUTURE AND WHEN I FINALLY GIVE YOU THE ORDER TO MOVE, YOU WILL BE READY."

"Right, got it," Mismagius responded emotionlessly before cutting off communication with the god and turning to Dusclops, Luxray and the Sableye, "well, looks like we'll be on the fields for a while, guys, we'll have to gather as many supplies as possible for the long road ahead of us."

"Yes!" Luxray roared in anticipation of the upcoming events, "more chances to test my strength and battle honourably till death do us part!"

"Wah!" the Sableye chattered showing their cowardice and fear, "we don't want to adventure, we want to stay here!"

"B-but Mismagius," Dusclops gasped, his eye wide open, "you have to realise that if I'm out in the open, with so many wild Pokemon, I'll have to kill some and send their souls to Mu, right."

"Well, there's no other way, is there?" Mismagius replied, implying Dusclops' evolution sarcastically, "think of it this way, you're going to be the hero of this world, the savior of every Pokemon here that's afraid of dying, even the suicidal rebellion. All those that oppose you and try to prevent you from following that path, they are the ones who are hurting this world, they are the ones who are truly evil."

Dusclops turned and nodded "I guess- that would justify the deaths a little," he said hesitantly, "better a few Pokemon than all of the species."

"That's the spirit!" Mismagius exclaimed with feigned emotion, she then turned to Luxray and the Sableye, "alright," she began to explain Dialga's plan, "Dialga needs a bit of time to look for this Link Cable, so we're going to have to do a routinely scout of this area. Also, Dusclops has to send Pokemon's spirits to an eternity of Mu every now and then to sustain the spiritual energy of the Reaper Cloth so if you see one of the rebellion members or any Pokemon that won't give up, we kill them and Dusclops absorbs their spirits. We set up camp here and leave in 6 hours. Any questions?"

"Can I keep first watch?" Luxray asked, apparently eager to fight.

Mismagius sighed "Yes Luxray, you may keep first watch, might as well make yourself useful." Luxray scowled, but still obeyed orders, crouching on one of the rocks in the clearing, ready to pounce on anything that needed to be put in it's place.

And so, after a dinner of rotting Apples and Oran Berries, Mismagius, Dusclops and the four Sableye slept restlessly, sometimes hearing electrical crackles in the air or the sound of Luxray's teeth ripping into something...


And that's Chapter 3: Meeting, done! I had quite a bit of fun in characterising Mismagius and Luxray in this chapter and I'd imagine them to fit quite well into the story. Bonus points if you've figured out who Dusclops is by now!

Q&A Time!

Q: I Like this story and I Like absol, update soon please. P. S. There Will be a riolu?

A: I don't have any plans to incorporate a Riolu into the story. Sorry to disappoint, I just don't think a baby Pokemon would be able to survive well in a dark future such as the one in these games. However, I could incorporate a Lucario into the story, either as part of the rebellion or as a singular agent.

As for Absol, I'm glad you like him! If you haven't noticed already, he's based on the Absol that joins forces with you in Red Rescue Team / Blue Rescue Team. He's definitely my favourite non-legendary Dark-type and I had to find a way to incorporate him into the story somehow, so I'm glad you like his character, he's certainly what I would describe as an old veteran hero, being the only one left.