(WARNING ABOUT THIS CHAPTER: This is where the PG-13 business launches off. Just a note. ...I guess you could say that there's an element of gothic fiction from this point on. So please forgive for violence, but I'll try to keep the graphics to a minimum.)
Also BTW, italics and underlined is either a flashback or a premonition. Not anything that's actually happening at the moment. Just thought I should explain for all the confusion that happens around the middle of the chapter.
Ch. 10
"What?" Jack's eyes narrowed. "What are you...what is this?"
BTW, stuff that's in
"Don't...don't know." Aura actually sounded a little freaked herself. All the while she had started unconsciously backing up, shaking. Jay was about to ask if she was okay when his breath caught in his throat.
Aura's eyes. They'd...changed. Completely black, save for the irises; they had turned a deathly shade of yellow. It looked VERY creepy.
What the H-E-double Corsola sticks WAS this?? This could not be good.
Wait a minute. Jay turned to look at Bannette. The ghost had frozen with his arms raised above his head, a dark energy sphere half-formed between them. If it wasn't for the fact that the snow around them was slowly starting to fall again, he probably wouldn't even have seen this sphere twitch and start growing both in size and intensity.
"Jack," Jay said in a low voice. "The time-freeze thing...I think it's stopping."
Jack shuddered. "Good. 'Cause I'm already freaked out enough."
"What about Aura?" Tedi whispered, as if afraid that she could shatter time just by speaking loud enough. "She looks a little bit green."
Jay noted that Aura did look pretty ill. Her eyes were closed feverishly, and...Jay's eyes bulged in horror.
She'd wandered straight into Bannette's attack path!
"Aura!" Jay shouted. "Aura! Run, get out of the w--"
"--BALL!" Finishing his battle cry, Bannette whipped his arms forwards and pitched the dark sphere at Aura. There was only a split second's warning for her to see the attack speeding towards her, and then she screamed as an incredible pain wracked her body.
"AAAUURGGH!!" Aura shrieked and crumpled on the ground, tears streaming down her face as she clutched her head in her paws. It felt as if she was being ripped apart from the inside out--it was all she could do not to vomit and pass out right there. Already everything had started to fade out in a red haze--
"Urghh!" He stumbled back a few steps, paws clasped over his side, and sank to his knees.
Blood.
"You--!!" She dimly heard Jack start off on a furious tirade, calling Bannette every nasty name he shouldn't have known at his age. Tedi was crying now. "I oughta burn your so bad your GRANDKIDS'LL be scarred for life!!"
"Look into my eyes." Blazing, garnet eyes. That gaze held her paralyzed with sheer evil. The hissing, awful voice. "Look at me, pitiful one. Gaze deep into my eyes...give way to the darkness."
"No, he ran away. He teleported when we heard you coming."
"She's going into shock. Keep her face covered," a voice instructed. Alakazam.
"You were both fools. Oblivious to the truth. He knew all along how this would turn out." The blades dug deeper in. She gasped, pain clouding what could be her last thoughts. "No...s-stop..."
"We can't even reach the hospital in this weather. How are we supposed to help her?"
"I'll take her." This new voice was an unknown--female, and motherly. "I'm not an expert, but six years of motherhood has taught me my fair share of medical care. I can keep her until this dratted weather clears up."
"You're going to die the slow, painful death of an overconfident brat. Just as your father did. Your friends will come after you, and these fools will all give up the blind faith they placed in three KIDS." She couldn't speak. The red clouds fogging her mind was thickening, spreading...
"Aura." Jay's voice, next to her ear. "Listen. They're going to take you back to the Square. Kangaskhan's gonna look after you. Just...look, Aura, hang tough, okay?"
"Darkness shall shroud all. Existence...will cease." ...dimming to black...
Aura felt herself being lifted into strong arms. Somebody had wrapped her in a blanket.
"Rest easy, kiddo," that motherly voice said. "You're in good hands now."
"One life given, and likewise two lives renewed
And so three will become one
To wake the Guardian of Dimensions."
--
Black.
A black haze.
Words occasionally floated to her.
Several times Aura thought it was too late, that she was dead and these people could do nothing to help her. Even though she could hear people talking to her, the words meant nothing. Because she was lost, wandering through the realm between reality and unconsciousness. In a way, she was in neither world.
She also saw them. Her friends. Over and over she relived her memories with these Pokemon, until she wasn't entirely sure that it had been real anymore. She wasn't even sure of her own identity, her own name.
And then one morning, she did wake up. And it wasn't in darkness.
--
"C'mon, dear, sit up." A roughly clawed hand was gently shaking her shoulder. "You have to eat something."
She groaned and stiffly pushed herself halfway up. Senses dimly registered a straw bed and a blanket over her. Her temples and lungs pulsed with dull pain; she gingerly felt her side and hissed in a breath as knives shot through her rib cage. Rags had been wrapped around her chest to serve as bandages.
"Hey, easy there, killer." A voice chuckled. "Don't want to go breaking anymore ribs, especially when they're still healing. Here, eat this." Somebody helped Aura sit up, at the same time holding a firm, cornflower blue berry in front of her.
Aura's stomach growled loudly; it occurred to her that she may not have eaten for some time. She eagerly sank her fangs into the Oran Berry, driven by a nearly obsessive hunger. The pain in her ribs lessened somewhat as she ate, and she gradually became aware of her surroundings. She had been taken to a large stone building, one with roughly hewn windows near the roof and very little in the way of decoration. Standing nearby and watching her with an expression of both slight amusement and immense relief was a Pokemon--another of the taller kind, with brown skin and a sandy yellow underside-which also sported what was apparently a large pouch-and ears. Several spikes and bumps dotted the Pokemon's skin here and there, as well as a round black section on her head, and she also had red eyes. Red eyes. It seemed Aura knew a lot of Pokemon with that eye color. Absol, Bannette, Tyranitar...
"Gosh sakes, you really had us worried there!" the Pokemon exclaimed. "We thought we'd lose you before this snow stopped falling long enough to reach the hospital! Or before we could get you to eat anything, for that matter!" She chuckled wearily.
Aura nodded, still partially distracted by her Oran Berry. "Mm-hm. It's very good. Thank you."
"I'm just glad you finally woke up," the older Pokemon said. "But I swear, if I didn't know any better, I'd almost think you'd been going hungry for two weeks instead of five days!"
"Five days?!" Aura looked up, alarmed.
"Yep, that's how long you were out for. Alakazam guessed that Bannette's the one to thank--or BLAME--for that. Normally you're not supposed to kill your opponents in a fair fight, but rules don't exactly apply to that scoundrel. What makes it worse is that he disappeared right afterwards, so we haven't been able to track him down and give him what he deserves."
Aura looked blankly at her berry. "No wonder I was so hungry."
"Oh, by the way, dear, I'm Kangashkan." The Pokemon gave a friendly smile. "I've been tending to you this whole time. Your friends said to say hi--they're pretty worried."
"I can imagine...Kangaskhan?"
"Yes, dear?" Kangaskhan said gently. Her pouch suddenly wriggled, and a small head poked out, blinking sleepily. The infant was a smaller, purple version of its mother, with large brown eyes and less pronounced claws.
If I've been out for such a long time, then there might be a chance that... "Is Team Zakuro back from Delta Pass yet?" Aura asked hopefully.
"Well...no, sweetie, I'm afraid not." Kangaskhan's expression became somber. "But actually, Team Hydro did return yesterday!" she added quickly, brightening. "As did Team Meanies and two of the members of Team EleFlor--a Cherrim and a Pachirisu, if memory serves me correctly. That's a good sign that the rescue's going pretty well for Darienne. Unfortunately it also means we have to deal with Gengar's group again," she muttered under her breath.
"Gengar? Team Meanies?" Aura vaguely recalled having seen that name on the list of missing teams.
"Yeah. Pretty original, isn't it?" Kangaskhan laughed dryly. "But boy, do those three live up to THAT title. The only members are Gengar, Medicham, and Ekans. They're not as dangerous as that Darkshade bunch, but they do spend an awful lot of time roughing it up with the lower-rank teams. Just hope that you won't have to meet them someday."
Aura nodded. She was suddenly feeling tired again. With a barely suppressed yawn she lay back down on the bed.
"Whoops, there I go running my mouth again," Kangaskhan chuckled. "Go ahead and get some rest, kiddo--you need it."
"By the way," Kangaskhan said, turning as she reached the doorway. "Your two friends, the Charmeleon and the Trapinch? They brought this by the day after the attack. Asked me to keep an eye on it for you."
Aura opened her eyes to look, and smiled weakly.
Her Brick Break TM.
TBC...
(Sorry it's so short. But I hope the quality overshadowed the quantity. Even if it was a bit...dark.)