Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Adventurers of Dawn and Dusk

Chapter 11: A Shadow of a Doubt


Satou's POV

"Are you going to tell me noooow?" Hope nagged for liek the seventh time that day.

I mentally sighed. I wasn't about to break this promise. I would lose Shade's trust forever, and nothing would be quite the same ever again. Also, Hope wasn't really an optimal person to tell this secret to. She'd freak. On the other hand, if I didn't tell anyone, Shade would probably get killed. …Hope couldn't fly, though, and neither could any of the other few Pokémon we'd seen on this frosty isle. Aaahh, what to do…

"I'm going to keep this promise to the grave if I have to," I finally replied. "And even if I did tell you, it wouldn't change the fact that you can't fly across the sea after her."

Hope did an impressive imitation of a puffer fish, but stayed silent. I let out a breath of relief, and concentrated on finding out where we were going to find berries. Maybe over this random hill…?

We trudged on for a while. Except for the occasional unruly Pokémon, this island was… really boring. There was hardly anything here except dead grass and snowflakes. We found a slightly wilted Nanab berry tree with a few berries still clinging to the branches, as if hoping to last the newly started winter. We ate them, of course. They were… edible enough.

Hope and I settled down for the night in a conveniently placed cave. We stayed near the entrance. I lit up a small fire of twigs and old leaves and lay down beside it, Hope following my lead. She dozed off first, snoring slightly. I lay silently for a while, counting the stars that the gently snowing clouds hadn't yet covered. Then I, too, fell asleep, dreaming of running through the stars and sliding down the crescent moon until daybreak.


Misty's POV

Fogspin and I flew silently through the snowy sky, with only the occasional ruffling of feathers and the splashing of waves below for sound. Fogspin carried in his talons a large drawstring sack for capturing a certain Chikorita. The night was chilly, and I wished for a nice burning tree to warm my slightly frosted body.

"Hurry up, Fogspin!" I hissed to my dawdling partner who was catching snowflakes on his tongue. He frowned slightly, but closed his beak and flapped harder, catching up to me.

We arrived at our destination about twenty minutes later. I descended down to the cave entrance, followed closely by Fogspin, and ducked in. I quickly spotted our target: Hope. She was sleeping beside adying campfire, along with Satou. Shade was nowhere in sight. I floated cautiously up to the pair of snoozers, then Hypnotized them, gesturing to Fogspin to come over.

He dragged the sack behind him as he walked toward Hope. He opened it and pushed Hope gently inside, as if fearing for her safety, then closed it and tied the strings in a knot for good measure. I bit a string, while Fogspin held onto the other with golden talons. We headed outside, then took to the sides with our cargo.

It must have looked pretty strange, two Pokémon soaring through the air with a bag suspended between them, one holding a string between its teeth, the other in its talons. Aaahh, well, there was no one to see us kidnapping a napping kid (jeez, that was bad) in the middle of the night anyway. Hope was pretty heavy. It felt like my fangs would fall out.

Fogspin and I arrived at the old shack we used as a hideout, plopping our package down in the middle of the room. I rolled my jaw around, trying to get rid of the feeling that my teeth were being ripped out. Hazard hissed with pleasure as he uncoiled himself and ventured out of his corner.

"Tie her up on the possst," he told us. I floated over to the moldy log I had set up in the corner earlier instead of helping Fogspin with Hope. No way was I carrying that lump again.

Fogspin pulled Hope out of the bag and sat her up against the wood. I looped the rope around Hope and the post, trying not to breathe in the stench of the rotting post. I gestured to Fogspin to tie the rope, since I couldn't tie it (blast!). He tightened the ends and tied them around each other.

We traipsed over to Hazard after we were finished with our work. Hazard grinned maliciously.

"Now we wait," he said gleefully.


It seemed like days later when Hope's eyes finally fluttered open. She looked about in fear, then seemed to figure out where she was, because she calmed down. She glared at all three of us, but mostly at Fogspin, who skittered backward slightly.

"So, you've finally woken up. Good," Hazard stated, uncurling his dark purple body and slithering over to the prisoner. "I was wondering if Misssty had done too well a job on you."

I inwardly rolled my eyes at his idiocy. Hypnosis didn't kill anyone, nor did it put them into comas. Just a very heavy sleep. Getting out of it would be like swimming in syrup. Only not as tasty.

"Can you guessss why you're here?" Hazard asked.

"Yes, I'm able," Hope retorted. "Ransom?"

I had to step in at that guess. "Seriously?" I snorted. "We have better things to do with our time. Try again."

"Ummm..." Hope stared at the ceiling, mouth hanging open slightly. "I got nothing. Why?"

"So we can interrogate you, of course," I purred. I was enjoying myself. This was the first real kidnapping we had done in a while.

Hazard glared slightly at me stealing his thunder. "Don't interrupt, Misty," he chastised. Turning back to Hope, he stated, "We would like to know how you got like that, human. Unless you would like to have us force it out of you." He hefted his sharp tail. I knew from experience it was poisoned.

Hope seemed to know that too, because she gulped. "I don't know. I have amnesia."

"Sssure about that?" Hazard nagged.

"Very sure," Hope told him.

"What a ssshame," he sighed. "I wasss going to kill you quickly and painlessssly after we were done, too. Now you've made it painful for yourssself." His blade nicked one of her hind legs. Hope hissed in pain, snatching her leg (which was now bleeding slowly) away from the jagged blade of poison.

"I have a question for you..." Hope rasped slightly. "Why is it necessary that you kill me? Can't I get out alive?" I had been wondering that too, and Fogspin and I turned to my leader for enlightenment. Apparently he had been wondering the same thing.

"Becaussse you're working with my sssworn enemy, of courssse," Hazard hissed.

Hope blinked in confusion. "Satou or Shade?"

"Not them, idiot," Hazard snapped, whipping his blade in agitation. It slashed across her right shoulder, and she yelped slightly. "I mean that ssstupid chicken."

"I don't know any... chickens..." Hope told him, gasping for air now that the poison had caught up to her. "I only... know Pokémon..."

Hazard rolled his eyes. "You don't underssstand insssultsss, do you?" he muttered. "Bet you don't underssstand jokesss, either."

Now, for some reason my mind was in overdrive this evening. Or maybe the evidence was too obvious. Whatever the case, I knew something was up with Hope. She'd responded to Fogspin with a rather amusing joke before; what happened to the comedic personality?

Then I remembered Shade's response to the joke. She didn't get comedy at all. Add to that that she was a Zorua, capable of creating illusions...

"That's not Hope," I stated. Hazard and Fogspin looked at me like I had OVER 9000 heads or something.

Hope (?) grinned weakly. "Heh... heh... nice job, Misty... But... can you catch me...?"

A black-violet light shone from Shade and enveloped her. I squinted at the bright light, and Fogspin and Hazard shielded their eyes. When the light faded, the ropes were on the ground, devoid of anything save the moldy old pole inside it.

Hazard shrieked in fury. "Find the Zorua!" he roared at us.

Fogspin and I raced out of the hideout, which was an old human shack, followed closely by Hazard. We searched out on the sandy desert for a while. But if we had stayed just a little longer, we might've heard a strangled cough come from inside the empty shack.


Shade's POV

I stared at the blood I had coughed up for a second, then dropped my illusions once the little band of idiots had disappeared from my sight. There was hardly a point with them occupied for a while, and the illusions were hard work, anyway. It was a bit advanced to do any kind of Pokémon illusion that looked realistic, and even more so for invisibility.

I bit at the rope, and gradually chewed through it, enduring the disgusting taste. The rope dropped to the dusty ground. I stumbled like a drunk out of the shack into the barren desert. The heat stung at my cuts and baked my fur. I wanted to create a nice illusion of white fur so I wouldn't be absorbing as much sun, but my energy was sapped. The only thing I could do was find someone, anyone.

"Hello?" I called weakly. "Anyone here? Help me... please..." I coughed up a few drops of blood.

I staggered on for a few minutes on the searing sand, then collapsed. My wounds were stinging like crazy. I was at the limit of my strength. I gasped for air desperately.

Despite Satou's vivid misgivings about the whole matter, I had assured her that I would come back safely, but I was about to break that promise with my death. I hated breaking promises. It was like losing someone's trust forever.

I amassed my quickly ebbing strength and cried, "HELP!" one last time. I tried to focus on hearing anything except my own strangled breathing. There was no one near to hear my yell, though.

I coughed up more blood. My vision was fading to a blur. I wondered dimly if the rest of my team were all right. I hoped they were. I'm sorry...Satou... Hope... I thought as I passed out.


-End of Chapter 11-

A/N: My goodness. That was kinda fun to write. I think I'm a bit sadistic for hurting my Shadie-chan and liking it, though... I had that torture scene stuck in my head for liek a month before I wrote it down. And yes, this was the night before the start of the chapter. I did that to throw you off. *trollface* Also, this is about the climax of the first arc. There are two arcs, maybe three, to this story.

I lost the first part of this (don't ask) and I had to rewrite it. I was so darn irritated.

I got distracted in the middle of this and started reading a grade 10 chemistry textbook and listening to Blood by My Chemical Romance. Honestly, that song is the weirdest/funniest song ever.

Hopefully I can get Orabel and Alan into the next couple chapters.

Hope, Shade, Misty, Fogspin, and Hazard all belong to me, Esper12.

Satou belongs to NewYearJirachi.

I dunno, do I look like I own Pokemon? I don't, by the way. Just the plot. Which is getting SUPER HEATED UP

May your sails stay full and your socks stay dry!