Chapter 11

Rayne

...Who am I?

"Your name is Rayne, child."

Rayne... But, it's just a name... Who am I?

"You are Rayne Jarxis. Keeper of the Angel of Rain, Matariel; and now also Keeper of the Angel of Destiny, Oriel."

The Keeper of Angels... I thought they were just names...

"Everything has a purpose; even names. What that purpose is will be revealed in time."

...Still, knowing who I am does not tell me who I was...

"You were many things, child. You were meant to be many more things, but the course of time saw fit to pass you by for another and you lost the quest you were meant to carry."

"Go on, child. Do not fear me."

This all has to do with my past, doesn't it? That is the key to all that has been happening.

"Perhaps. But, not quite. Your past was important, but some things have been set in time The Path of Light has been ever going for millennia, and will continue for millennia more unless either Flame conquers over the other."

And if that happens?

"No one can say."

...Who are you

"I am one who you once lost, one who you once gained, and one who will forever protect you, child."

Then, does that mean you are—

"Hey, Shrike, something's happening to her; her heart rate seems to be getting closer to normal!"

Faintly I heard footsteps from somewhere around me, getting closer.

"Rayne! Rayne! Wake up! Come on!"

"Don't force her, if she is still too weak then let her rest some more."

"She's been sleeping for one whole week! I hardly call this rest anymore!"

The voices, where did they come from? All I could see was endless blackness.

Suddenly, however, I saw more. Before my mind's eye flashed an image of something I could just barely make out to be some kind of village surrounded by dense trees. I could see no people, nor could I make out specific details, but I had a feeling I had seen that place somewhere before. Just as quickly that image disappeared, leaving me in a sea of black once again.

"It is time for me to leave, child. Remember this, I will forever be with you, yet I will rarely be able to communicate with you as I am now. Farewell, my beloved Rayne..."

Shrike

Aggravated I paced about in the hospital room Rayne was being held in, my hands clasped behind my back. She's been sleeping for a week! A week! Why won't she wake up yet! "God damn it!" I yelled, slamming my fist down onto a table with a planter on top of it, almost hitting my sleeping Cyndaquil, Zethro, who lay on top of it. "This is all my fault! If only I had thought about going to meet up with Rayne as soon as we left the holding room, or if I had been a little faster in restoring the power to the elevator, she may not have gotten in this condition!"

A girl with long blue hair stood up from the chair she sat in and walked over to me, pulling her hand back and smacking me across the face. "Stop blaming yourself. There was nothing you could have done. Just look at that heart monitor, she's getting better, just let her take her time."

Sighing I slumped into a chair and held my head in my right hand, ignoring my stinging cheek. This shouldn't be happening... This was just supposed to be a normal Pokémon journey; why us?

Despite fully expecting the reality of my Pokémon journey to be far different than what all the shows and cartoons on TV portrayed a trainer's life as being, I had never expected to be kidnapped by anyone, nor did I ever think that I would almost be killed as I tried to rescue all the prisoners that had been caught by a strange weapon that "captured" organic life while destroying everything else. The fact that it had all happened was almost unthinkable, and if it wasn't for the fact that Rayne was being held in the hospital due to the mysterious nature of her blacking out when she somehow managed to deactivate the AEWG's power core, I don't think I would have believe it had happened myself.

Plus, there was also the fact that the entire half of Petalburg City that faced the now abandoned CORE base was completely in ruins. The few buildings that still stood were riddled with holes that made them resemble Swiss cheese, but most of them had collapsed leaving the ground covered in a mess of twisted and partially melted steel girders and siding. Fortunately the Pokémon Center Rayne and I were staying in, along with Petalburg's primary hospital, were located on the side of the city that remained largely undamaged. Aira hadn't been so lucky, though; the Pokémon Gym and the Pokémon Academy's main building were completely obliterated, barely any hints of their existence remaining. Fortunately, the dormitories were still mostly intact and she had been able to retrieve her possessions; including her Houndour, Fury.

"Shrike?"

Startled, I looked around for the voice; quickly scrambling to my feet and rushing over to Rayne's bedside as I realized she had opened her eyes and was the one who had spoken. "Rayne! You're awake! How do you feel? If you still need rest, take it easy."

"I thought you said she had had enough rest?" Aira remarked as she walked over next to me.

"Where's Matariel?" Rayne asked, her voice quiet.

"By your side; as always," the female Absol on the other side of the bed from me said. She had some faint scars visible through her fur, but other than that there was no sign of the wounds she had suffered a week ago. She has been falling asleep, but at the sound of Rayne's voice had stood up without any hint of tiredness. Next to her sat another Pokémon, an Espeon called Oriel that Matariel had told us Rayne had saved while in the CORE base. She sat quietly watching everything, but didn't make a sound.

Rayne turned her head around to look at Matariel and Oriel for a moment, Matariel and her staring at each other. I had a feeling something passed between them, but I didn't know what. At last Rayne nodded, before turning back to me, "This is a hospital, isn't it? I never have liked them..."

"You've been getting better treatment here than you would elsewhere," I said.

"Perhaps so, but are all these really necessary?" To my surprise Rayne sat up in the bed, the blanket that had covered her dropping down to expose the plain gown she wore, wires snaking beneath it and up her chest. Frowning at the wires, she lifted the gown up and started pulling the heart monitor leads off her bare chest.

"Hey, wait, those are there for—" I exclaimed as I quickly looked away; I could almost feel Aira about to slap me if I looked at Rayne's bare chest any longer.

"Oh, don't make a big fuss; I feel fine." Rayne said as the heart rate monitor machine next to her bed suddenly emitted a loud, drawn out beep.

"But your heat rate and other vital signs were really low..."

"They're fine now. Come on, let's get out of here." Rayne jumped out of the bed and looked around the room; other than the white hospital gown she wore and her messed up hair she looked completely normal and lively again.

Before I could say anything more the door to the room burst open and a man in a white lab coat rushed in, trailed by two female nurses whose short hair was hidden underneath white caps on their heads. They stopped when they saw Rayne standing there, perfectly alive. "Hey, you're not ready to get out of bed yet; who removed your heart monitor leads?" The doctor said, looking at Aira and me as we shook our heads.

"She did," we both said at the same time.

"I don't see why they were necessary. Do I look like I belong in this place?" Rayne shrugged, "While you're here, can you tell me where my clothes are?"

Muttering something about not being paid enough the doctor pointed to a closet and turned away, walking back out the door and into the hallway with the nurses.

Eventually the three of us along with Matariel and Zethro, Rayne had recalled Oriel back into her Pokéball, managed to get out of the hospital despite Rayne being stopped at what seemed like every turn by some nurse or doctor who insisted she still needed to stay. Rayne managed to push her way past all of them though, and eventually they seemed to accept her as a lost cause. Finally we had managed our way though the hospital's main doors and out onto the moonlit streets of Petalburg City. I held the sleeping Zethro in my arms and led the way towards the Pokémon Center as Aira, Rayne, and Matariel followed behind.

"So, Rayne; are you sure you feel fine?" I asked.

"Yes, I do," Rayne said as she sniffed the air in disgust, the smell of smoke still heavy from the AEWG's attack, "And I want to be leaving this city soon."

"To where?"

"Wherever you want; just not here."

"I suppose Dewford then; hopefully there's still some ferries heading out there after what happened."

"Speaking of that, nobody knows that we—" Rayne began.

"We what? We were never anywhere near that base, if that's what you're thinking. And I have no idea how all of those prisoners got free, they're claiming they don't know either," I winked. I had made sure that on our return to Petalburg City we didn't stand out in anyway from the other citizens, claiming that I had no idea how Rayne and Matariel had received such injuries and that they were probably unrelated to what had happened.

Rayne nodded, "Yeah, and I have no idea how that thing got shut down either." A look of consternation flashed across her face briefly as she lowered her head and frowned.

"Is something wrong?"

"N—no. Nothing's wrong."

I knew I wouldn't get any farther so I let it drop. We walked in quiet for the next few minutes, before I realized something and stopped walking, turning around to face the two girls. "Hey, Aira, what are you going to do now? Aren't they closing the Pokémon Academy and transferring the students to other cities?"

"Huh? Well, yeah; they are."

"Then, where are you going? You could go to Rustboro, it's pretty good there." In addition I quietly mumbled under my breath that a certain teacher with the initials "MJS" wasn't that great though, although he did have his decent moments.

"Well..." Aira looked at the ground and shuffled her feet some, "I'm not transferring. As I told you before, I only had a couple months left, and I'm the best in the whole school; so the school board graduated me early."

"So, you're going to be starting your own journey then?"

"Well, about that..."

"I can see where this is going..." Rayne sighed.

"I wanted to know; do you think we could all be traveling companions together?"

I took a step back and blushed, "W—what? You mean you want to travel with Rayne and me?"

"I have a feeling she doesn't care about me..." Rayne said.

Aira looked down and smiled, a faint hint of redness on her cheeks, but remained silent.

"Well, I suppose I can't just say no..." I muttered, trying to figure out whether I should be overjoyed by this, or fear it like nothing else.

"Good," Aira said as she nodded, "You say we're going to Dewford then? We should probably get some rest being setting out for the ferry terminal tomorrow."

She's already saying 'we'... I thought in dismay.

We began to walk towards the Pokémon Center again, but as we walked Rayne spoke up, "Say, where's Aira been staying? And where's she staying tonight?"

"Your room at the Pokémon Center," Aira responded.

"But..."

"...There are only two beds..." Rayne looked in dismay at what seemed to be such a small room now that the three of us were all standing in it together.

I shrugged and dropped down onto my bed, setting Zethro down next to my head. "You two can share the other bed or something. Or one of you can sleep on the floor."

Rayne and Aira glared at each other as Matariel walked over to the boarded up window and lay down beneath it. "I think you should sleep on the floor," Rayne said.

"No, I think not."

"Well I'm not sleeping on the floor."

"Neither am I."

"I'm not sleeping in the same bed as you, if that's what you're thinking."

"Good thing it's not."

"Maybe you should go get your own room."

"Can't. To late now."

"I'm sure you could always return to the Academy to sleep."

"They won't let anyone past the gates unless it's to get their stuff out."

"I saw some hotels on the way here."

"All full of people whose houses were destroyed."

"The road sounds rather comfortable."

"Illegal. If someone were to see me I'd go to jail."

"Sounds fine to me."

As I looked on in dismay, both girls turned to look at me, a smirk growing on their faces. "Uh, I think I'll be falling asleep now..." I nervously said.

"You know, I just realized that there are two beds in this room," Rayne smirked.

"Yeah, you're right. Don't know why I didn't see that one before."

The next thing I knew Aira and Rayne had grabbed me by the legs and pulled me off the bed, dropping me onto the floor as my head whipped back and hit the foot of the bed hard. A Cyndaquil was then thrown into my lap followed by a single sheet. "Hey, that was my bed!" I snapped, attempting to jump up only to be stopped by a pounding pain in my head from where it had been slammed against the bed. I grabbed my head and gritted my teeth as Zethro stirred in my arms. Miraculously he had somehow slept through all the intervention from doctors as we had left the hospital, the whole trip back to the Pokémon Center, Rayne and Aira's little argument, and now being thrown into my lap.

"Not anymore," Aira said from behind me on the bed.

Grumbling I crawled to the space between the two beds and dragged my backpack over, pulling out my sleeping bag and lying on top of it as I spread the sheet over me and put Zethro back down on the floor. "Hey, can one of you turn the lights off?"

"I'm not turning them off," Rayne's voice said from my left.

"I see no reason for me to," Aira said from my right.

"Doesn't matter to me anyway, I can sleep perfectly fine with them on."

"So can I."

"Artificial human lights are no bother for me," Matariel spoke up.

"Don't... Mind... Lights..." Zethro mumbled in his sleep.

Growling I scrambled to my feet, clutching my head and stomping over to the light switch, flicking it off and plunging the room into darkness before stomping back over to my makeshift bed and lying back down.

"Hey, can someone turn on the ceiling fan? It's really hot in here," Aira's voice said.

"I'm not getting up," Rayne replied.

"...Shrike?"

"Restoration efforts to repair the damage caused by the mysterious attack one week ago are underway in most major parts of the city with residential districts taking top priority. Petalburg Gym Leader, Norman—"

Click.

"—Away from Petalburg Gym at the time of the attack and is now leading restoration efforts—"

Click.

"—He was reported as saying 'Despite the nature of these attacks, this is no time to—'"

Click.

"'—We must band together to restore our city to its former—'"

Click.

"God! Is there nothing on besides these stupid news reports!" Rayne burst out as she pressed a button on the remote a final time, turning the small TV in our Pokémon Center room off. Angrily she threw the remote at the TV and slumped down in her bed again.

"That's pretty much all that's been on this past week. The worst part is what they're saying isn't really changing: 'Repairs are underway. Cause of attack is still unknown. Building which staged the attack is still being investigated by the police. Hospitals and hotels packed full.' It's all the same everyday, just with different wording." I sighed from the floor where I was working on schoolwork on my computer. Despite having had almost nothing to do for a whole week, I had been neglecting my work and had a lot to do to get caught up now.

"With good reason... Nothing like this has ever happened anywhere before..." Aira said from where she lay in what was rightfully my bed.

"It doesn't mean they have to keep going on about it," Rayne grumbled.

"Ow, my back hurts..."

Turning on my side I saw that Zethro was finally waking up, stretching out and shaking himself. I set my computer down on the floor and picked him up, setting him back down on my chest. "Finally; you realize you sleep way too much?"

As I stroked Zethro's fur Matariel spoke up, "Rayne, I must ask when we are leaving. Do we not want to get to this ferry as soon as possible?"

"Yeah, we do. Well, I have no reason to stick around here any longer." Rayne said as she leaped off her bed and picked up her backpack which she had already packed up with her stuff, including a portion of the potions she had bought with my money.

"I'm ready too. Come on, I can lead us to the ferry docks; I've been there before." Aira said, standing up and collecting her stuff together as well.

"So, you're really coming with us..." I mumbled, sitting up with Zethro clutched to my chest and turning to face Aira.

"Yep, I already said I was. Is that really such a bad thing?" She flashed me a smile and I blushed, turning away.

"So does that mean I can have another chance at Fury again sometime?" Zethro asked.

"Yep, you can count on it; I'm sure Shrike wants to try again as well," Aira answered.

"Hey! Wait a second!" I shouted, my eyes snapping wide as I leaped to my feet and faced Aira. "You understood Zethro!"

"Well, er..." Aira took a step back from me sheepishly, "Well, you remember when you went to rescue Rayne and left me by myself back at that base? Well, I was looking around some of the rooms there as I was curious about what CORE was exactly doing, and I found these..." She reached into her backpack and pulled out a handful of small, plastic wrapped objects that resembled putty. On the plastic were the words, "Pokécom v5 universal translator. For use only by CORE personnel."

"Wait, you found those at the CORE base?"

Aira nodded, "I remembered what you said about having that translator in your ear, and I figured that these must be the same thing. I suppose I owe you an apology for doubting you..."

"So, this means the company Zack mentioned is..." I let the name hang in the air as I shook my head. "Come on, let's get out of here. This city is only bad memories for me."

I gathered together all of my stuff and hoisted my backpack onto my shoulders, letting Zethro ride on top of it as he looked over my shoulder. Looking around the room I nodded as I made sure we hadn't left anything behind; my eyes pausing on the boarded up window for a second longer as I shuddered at what we had been through. Turning to follow the girls down the hallway to the elevator I rested my hand on Jehiel's Pokéball. I hadn't told anyone about what had happened with the illusory Zelos and didn't plan on doing so; after all, neither Rayne nor Matariel would say what they had done.

"I'm not riding in the same elevator as you," Rayne suddenly said as we reached the elevators.

"Nor am I with you," Aira answered.

"I won't ride with Shrike either; you can."

"I was thinking the same thing."

Elsewhere...

"Sir?"

"Yes, General; what is it?"

"The data you requested has been received."

"Excellent. Bring the recording up."

In a well lit room deep underneath the ground, a man wearing a black cloak sat behind a large desk that faced a wall that was covered completely by one large screen. Other than the man at the desk, and another man who stood at the side of the desk, the room was devoid of life. Under the gaze of the man at the desk the screen flickered to life, showing a color recording from a security camera. As the man watched, a young boy on the screen scrambled to his feet, dropping a Cyndaquil which he had been holding in his arms. A flash of light emitted from the muzzle of a gun the boy was holding seventeen times, before he dropped it and fell to the ground, holding his head in his hands.

"Sir, may I ask why you requested this test be done?"

"I needed to verify something. It appears that I was right after all; he doesn't have complete control of the boy. No, he never would have acted in that way."

"By he, you mean Z—"

"Do not call him by that name. It would be better if he was not named at all."

The General nodded and watched the recording loop a few more times. "By the way, we received word from headquarters this morning that Iruel is beginning to show signs of stabilization again."

The man behind the desk nodded, "Yes, I was already aware." Nodding some more he pressed a button on the desk and the screen went blank. "For now, we must concern ourselves only with the completion of Project Thanatos. I will go down now and prepare for the activation phase."

As the man walked towards the door the General's feet snapped together and he saluted, making not a single movement otherwise. The cloaked man walked through the door and out into the hallway, being greeted by two more soldiers who snapped to attention and saluted him as he passed. Continuing his journey through the maze of the underground facility, the man came to an elevator and took it down several levels to the deepest part of the base. When the doors opened he passed through a security checkpoint without being stopped and continued on into a large, white walled room. Vacant computer stations littered the floor right up to a dais on which another metallic desk sat along with a high backed chair. The man ignored all of that though and continued over to the opposite wall of the lifeless room; staring down through the large window set into the wall that overlooked a large, water filled chamber.

The man smiled as he observed the large, sleeping form within the chamber; various cables and pipes emerging from the wall and connecting to various spots over its body. "Hello, my precious trump card," the man spoke to no one in particular, although he was looking at the sleeping creature, "It is time for you to wake up soon, and when you do we will together shower this world in blood; the final retribution for all the sins mankind has ever committed. Together we will rule this world, and with your power not even The Fierce Flame will be able to stop us," the man grinned, fire shining in his eyes, "No, even The Fierce Flame will be forced to bow down before me. 'All hail the divine Lord Fira! Ruler of Earth and all its inhabitants!' I will force him to say."

The man tossed his head back and laughed crazily as he stood alone in that white walled room, the sleeping form of the feathered creature within the chamber motionless and without life.

End of Chapter 11

End of Part 2, Evil's CORE
To Be Continued in Part 3, Crimson Light