A/N: A big thank you goes out to Teshy for showing tremendous support for this story.
SO…
Here is where everything changes and snaps into a little perspective. Here is where you will finally learn about the Tear of Arceus.
A lot of key foundations are about to be made so pay extra special attention to this chapter. Also, your memory of Arceus and the Jewel of Life will come in handy too.
Enjoy…
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The Tear of Arceus.
"This is not the path I thought
This is not the place I sought
This is not the dream I bought
Just a fever of fate I've caught." – Dean Koontz
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I looked up to the night sky and what was left of the visible moon greeted me. It had waned to a half moon now and I wondered for a moment what the end of next week would bring.
Darkrai hovered up beside me and allowed himself to stand as well. He too followed my lead of admiring the dazzling cosmos and finally spoke again. "I was wondering about this curse on you."
I directed my gaze at him, "What of it?" I said, my voice a lot more at ease now.
"Have you tried to break it?" He asked, meeting my gaze.
I met the starry sky. "Got nothing." I whispered gravely.
Darkrai seemed tense for just a moment then he collected himself and sighed, "Surely there must be something. Your parents must have known."
"How could they?" I started, "I can't even go back to ask them 'cause they died in a house fire." I pointed out.
Darkrai seemed in thought about it, "People don't just get hexed for the thrill of it. There had to have been a motive behind it." I stared at him, searching his blue eyes for an explanation.
"What are you saying?"
He shrugged his shoulders, the body language also nearly lost on him, "I'm saying that perhaps you should try and search your old home. It's a start."
I felt my brow furrow from my thoughts on the suggestion.
"What have you got to lose?" Darkrai tried after a minute of silence passed between us.
I felt unsure of it. My old home was a prominent feature of my dreams that I never returned to in real life. Was that the reason for its subconscious reappearance? A hint that I should take heed to? I looked back up at Darkrai from my musings. He had a point. "I guess you're right." I reasoned.
Darkrai seemed ready then, "We should travel through the void to get there. It's much faster."
"Right." I conceded and once again, we let darkness consume us.
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Our window to the world above was growing brighter until we resurfaced in my old hometown on the north-west side of Sinnoh. We kept to the shadows of trees of old, darting in our shadow meld forms down the roads. Of course I was steadily growing into a panic. I've never been trapped in the void if the sun rose while I was still melded with darkness. As my power waned, it somewhat had a similar effect to my encounter with that Cresselia. As their ability forces you out of hiding, so too does the sunrise force me out, and so I've never been careless to allow myself to 'appear out of no-where' amidst a potential audience.
We finally came to the burnt out shell of my parent's home. The building wasn't completely razed to the ground. It seemed like something out of a horror movie, condemned and still standing but never restored.
We darted inside and I had to rise from the dark. Stripped of my Darkrai-ness, I clung to the walls as the sound of my boots thumped across the creaking blackened floorboards, Darkrai not far behind me.
The scent of carbon still clung to the walls. Paint was blackened and the partially charred curtains in the living area waved from a draft coming through the boarded up windows. The glass must have blown out from the fire.
The ceiling swirled with black carbon all the way up the stairwell. I stood at the foot of the stairs, not wanting to venture further. Their bedroom was up there and I stopped to gaze longingly at portrait photos of my parents still clinging to the walls. The paper was severely bubbled from heat exposure but you could still see my younger self being held lovingly by my parents. My dad held me in his one arm and I marvelled at how extremely different I looked from them and I figured that smoke inhalation was the likely cause of their passing.
"Arson?" Darkrai asked attentively. I shook my head, "No, I heard afterward it was accidental." I filled in, looking up the stairwell.
Darkrai stayed close. "Perhaps there is an attic?" He mused. I looked to him. I didn't recall one but that was many years ago now, but I had to face up to my demons and I slowly rounded the rail and took the first uneasy step up. I was a bit nervous about them giving way from under me, but they stayed firm albeit unsettlingly creaky.
I got to the top. The air smelled really dank now and my eyes scanned the blackened ceiling.
"There." Darkrai pointed out the barely visible outline of a drop hatch. I had no means to reach it so he floated up and tugged on the blackened hook. The hatch popped open and soot and dust powdered down as the ladder unfolded and locked into place.
Miraculously, the ladder was still able to hold my weight as I ascended the rungs. I really wasn't sure what I'd find up there. Darkrai was already inside, making sure it was secure enough for me.
The morning sun streamed in through the cracked portal window and it lit up enough to see by. Boxes and chests dotted here and there. I walked past them all. After some deliberation we picked the lock of a huge wooden chest. I can't imagine how it was even transported up here to begin with it seemed that impossible. The ancient lock sprung apart and we opened the lid.
"Just books?" I wondered out loud as my gaze roved across their old leather-bound covers. Darkrai held the heavy lid up as I reached in and pulled out the dusty bindings and collected them on the floor before sitting down to page through them. Darkrai peered in as well but nothing caught his interest and so making sure the lid was secure he settled down beside me to read with me.
I had opened the first book by then and gasped. Scraps of old and fragile reed paper clung to some of the yellowed pages of the book with scratchy inscriptions across them. I could not make sense of them but…
My eyes focused to fresher inscriptions of old English and diagrams referring to the moon I think.
Darkrai couldn't make sense of them either so I continued to turn the pages ever so gently in fear they crumbled to dust in my hands.
"I don't think those pictures are of the moon." Darkrai reasoned after a while.
"What makes you think that?" I asked and watched as he pointed a black claw at another image to some fine inscriptions reading 'Life' and 'Jewel' I frowned in thought. "Perhaps there is more in the others." I whispered and opened other books. They started to take on diary format and soon we happened upon an old diary claiming to belong to what looked like my Great-great-great- grandfather.
The cover popped open and a letter slipped out and bounced on the floor. Darkrai picked it up and turned it over. We felt our eyes widen at what was written across the white envelope. My name. Darkrai looked up at me and handed it over. I placed the open book on my lap and took the letter and slowly opened it.
I gawked. "It's… from my father!" I started and begun to read out loud.
"My beloved Daughter.
By the time you happen upon this, a lot has changed and you are seeking the answers. I refused to believe such a thing could ever happen to you. I had refused to listen to the fated tale of our family. But the day you were born made me realize my error. You are no mistake, Shade, but your features so different from your mother's and mine told me otherwise. It was on that day did I believe such a curse was real and that it would soon claim you when you were older. I should have listened and used the Billing's Method as a guide as so many of our forefathers have. Then you would be my son and not have suffered this curse. I am so sorry Shade. Yet I'm sure it can be broken. The rest is in this diary.
Remember this. Your mother and I will always love you.
Dad."
I lowered the letter and blinked the forming tears out of my eyes and slowly picked up the diary.
The pages revealed the truth: An ancient setting in Machina Town, my ancestor Marcus and an ultimate betrayal…
"The Jewel of Life is finally in my grasp but I shall not let Damos relinquish it so easily. Stuff his promises! Machina will never be damned to a wasteland again!"
"Today, some woman had appeared claiming to have come from the future with a warning to return the jewel or all will be lost. If my efforts to destroy the greatest deity of all should be in vain then what do I do to save Machina? How do I claim some of the power as my own should I fail?"
"I have it! Through my musings I've realized my answer lies with a Rapidash magical creature. If diamonds are not strong enough to cut the orb a simple blade from a Rapidash hoof will be ten times harder!"
"The experiment was a success! I managed to cut a sliver off the Jewel of Life!"
"The power is mine now. Just as well, those meddling children with that woman returned the Jewel. But all is not lost though. I still have a small part of it. I have this. The Tear of Arceus!"
"Nightmares plague my thoughts. Arceus came to me in my dreams. He knows what I have done! But he is still weak. I'm concerned now. He told me that mankind shall not be punished but me! By my blood alone, my family will be forever cursed from this day forth. The first born daughter of my bloodline will be at the mercy of a curse. I cannot let this happen! My sons and my grandsons and their sons after that will carry my blood. No daughter shall ever be born to be fated by this curse of the moon!"
"The Tear of Arceus?" I asked no one in particular and looked up at Darkrai. He seemed disturbed. "Darkrai?" I asked a little worried.
"Arceus." Darkrai growled the name audibly. The sound was scary and demonic and I watched as his bright blue eyes rose up to settle on me and he glared. "Arceus has been using you all this time! To find me!"
"Darkrai, I don't understand." I started. He shook his head still staring. Without a word or explanation, I watched as he backed away from me and then melded into the shadows, leaving me alone in the attic.
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A/N: :D funny, I came across this in the dictionary too, it left me floored!
"Nightmare: n [3rd description] A demon or spirit formally thought to plague sleeping people."
How weird is that?! XD Your feedback is very much appreciated!
THE BILLING'S METHOD: "A method of planning pregnancy involving the daily status of the Menstrual Cycle." Trying for a baby around three days before ovulation greatly improves the chance of having a girl, while trying on the day of ovulation assures the chances of having a boy.