Chapter 4:
"C'mon, girl. Get to your feet," rumbled Vagus pulling her to her legs with Michael's help.
Narda howled in pain and collapsed once more. She swore under her breath, the agony from injuries she suffered during the plummet were too much, even with the band Kangaskan had given her and the guidance of good fate. Her body had simply failed to absorb enough of the shock to avoid agonizing injury like Vagus' did.
"Here," offered Michael forcing an Oran Berry into her mouth. "Eat this."
She chewed the sweet berry and swallowed it as her senses became reinvigorated. Michael watched as the pain in her ebony eyes eased.
"I'm...ok," she moaned as Michael and Vagus helped her to her legs once again. "Where are we?"
Michael's head flopped back as he let out a laugh "Where the hell do you think?"
Narda stared into thin air for a moment before a sharp gasp escaped her mouth.
"No! We can't be!" she exclaimed "The fall should have killed me…and Vagus. How did we-"
Michael silenced her rambling with a forced grunt before he gave her the explanation. Like Vagus, he could tell that she was angry at him for gambling with their lives even though she made no attempt to express it verbally like he did.
"You made the right choice," she then said to his bewilderment "You've kept us alive and on track…that's all that matters."
At this Michael smiled, amused by her gratitude. "Just remember to thank Kangaskan when we get back."
"That's if we ever get back." Added Vagus.
Narda narrowed her eyes at him, not appreciating his comment and noticing his darkened mood. "You've been giving him a hard time again, haven't you?"
"You best mind your own business," he growled stretching to his full height "Or getting out of here is going be the least of your worries."
"Enough!" snapped Michael
Heads flicked in his direction as his outburst slowly faded into the never ending distance. Vagus shrunk down to his usual hunch as Narda's eye's remained fixed on Michael.
After a long silence, Michael spoke again.
"Narda," he said, his voice disturbingly clam "Do you sense anything?"
Relived to be getting back to work, Narda gazed upwards into the blackness above. She closed her eyes and entered a state of deep thought as she consolidated the conscious minds around her.
She felt Michael's next to him…his thoughts strong and focused. She then extended her mind to its limits, crying out into the never ending darkness, searching for anything that would respond to her touch. For a while she felt nothing and heard nothing but the echoes of long vanished minds. Their lives long ago claimed by the abyss. Then she felt something…it was weak and very distant. She felt a shiver roll down her spine as she brushed against it. It felt so alien…she had never encountered a mind such as this before. It was far too ordered to be that of a menacing Aerodactyl and was far too advanced to belong to most other forms of pokémon. Her heart skipped a beat when she came to this realization. She just had to conduct one last test to be sure…
Michael and Vagus stood staring at her for what felt an eternity and flinched when her eyes flung open. "She lives!" she suddenly exclaimed, the words springing from her. "Come! Quickly!"
Without as much as a thought she dashed off into the dark with Michael and Vagus attempting to keep up.
"I guess you gamble was well placed, Michael," complemented Vagus, his grim mood now lifted.
"We haven't found her yet," he replied coldly, without even looking at him. "Stay prepared for the worse."
After several minutes of endless sprinting, Narda was beginning to get away from them and from the light that surrounded them. Seeing the danger at being separated in the darkness once again Michael yelled out a warning.
"Narda, wait!" he barked knowing that excitement was writhe within her. "Stay inside the light!"
She stopped for a moment and threw her attention back at them "She's close, Michael! Please hurry!" She then proceeded to run again seemingly at a faster pace. Ignoring Michael's warning.
"Dam it, Michael!" cursed Vagus "That girl is going to get herself killed one day!"
"Narda!" he called again "You idiot! Get back here!"
For a moment she escaped the warmth of the light and vanished into the darkness that lay beyond it. But the light soon caught up to her and revealed her standing frozen on the spot. It was as if those few moments in darkness somehow froze her joints in place.
Panting heavily, both Michael and Vagus caught up to her, arriving at her sides.
"Narda, you moron!" snapped Vagus. He raised a claw to swipe at her but was stopped by Michael.
"Calm," he said simply.
Annoyed, Vagus let out a growl, crossed his arms and turned his back to two of them.
Narda had not moved an inch, she still stood locked in place, staring at the darkness ahead of them. Looking around him Michael noticed a wall of rock to his right and realized that he was at the base of the cliff that they had dove from. The wall continued into the darkness before him. For how much further he did not know.
"Narda!" he snapped making her flinch.
"Y-yes?" she asked stuttering
Something was wrong with her. "Are you ok?" he asked becoming concerned
"Yes…yes I'm fine it's just-"
"It's just what!" snapped Vagus turning his attention back to her. His frustration was beginning to boil over.
Narda then uttered the words Michael had been waiting this entire mission to hear.
"It's just that…Latias is…there." She nodded into the dark before her.
Michael's eyes widened when her words struck home. "Stay here, both of you," he ordered.
Behind him, they both gave simultaneous nods.
Drawing another Luminous Orb from the team's Rescue Kit, Michael proceeded to march forward into the abyss. The orb warmed in his hand and forced aside the darkness as he walked. The further he went he began to notice crystal like rocks beginning to appear and then noticed a deep depression in the side of the wall to his right. When he strode closer it he found it to be some form of a canyon pass. It was very wide, about twenty meters across. Alone, he began to stride down it and found it to be quite a lengthy pass that began to gradually narrow as he proceeded down it. For a while all he could see was rock and white, powdery sand but for a moment he thought he saw something different. Something that didn't belong.
Lifting the orb in aloft in his hand he gave it a small toss into the darkness until it landed upon sand with an eerie absence of sound. Its light pierced the dark and the sight it revealed, pierced Michael's heart.
Backed up against a wall she lay broken on the soil, wings and arms spread across it, waiting to die in possibly the loneliest place in the world. Weakly, her neck rose up to him, her golden eyes reflecting in the light she never thought she would see again. She gazed up at him. Was she afraid? Or was she glad to finally, after all this time, be rescued? She seemed to lack the strength to show either emotion.
"Latias," whispered Michael.
