Pokémon World Online
Part 26: A Living Nightmare
Disclaimer: Holy cow, 26 parts long o.o; this is indeed my longest fic ever. Yep, cliff hanger last time, kinda, but remember, the plot is only half over so there is more action to come from me. I kinda miss the mindless not plot I had in the beginning, but that was mainly to get you to know the characters and become attached to them and such. This part is dedicated to Guy who is sore at Helium for stealing some of his lines XD
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"Twilmer!" Aura yelled once again as she ran towards their admin, but the Pichu image flashed and vanished into thin air just as she bent down to catch her fallen friend. What was going on? They were supposed to have thirty seconds to use revive potion, but now... She watched as Emily23 backed away in fear but not before she had chance to see what Aura was afraid of; a set of sharp claw-like fingers had dug into her sides from behind. She screamed as they broke her skin and slipped into her flesh; virtual blood pooling from the wounds.
"Eskarine, honey, it's not nice to run away from me like that." A sweet voice by her ear caused her to flinch yet again at sound of her name. She tried to reach for her swords, but the hand that was digging into her right side pulled out with the sickening sound and grabbed her wrist, preventing her from reaching for her weapons.
"You're not her." Aura whispered, as she struggled with her nightmare. "You're not... you c-can't be..."
A clawed hand by the side of her face caressed her cheek as the lips of brown-haired woman came close to her ear. "I am. Oh believe me, I am real." The other set of claws pierced her wound harder and Aura yelped in pain. "But even if I wasn't, there is no way you could hurt me... is there?"
And she knew she was right.
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Trellaine pushed his other away and created an ice slide on the ground with his magic. He jumped on, sliding as fast a she could towards where he had heard Twilmer's scream coming from. "Beats walking, eh Haunter?" He asked his partner, who looked at him confused. "Oh right, no feet." Trellaine looked behind him and noticed his other self rushing towards him on a similar ice flow. "Copycat," he called over his shoulder.
"Trellaine, I am you. Great minds think alike." The other him smirked, sending spikes forward, which dived under the ground and rose up, piercing the ice flow. Trellaine jumped off the ice and flung a bolt of lightning behind him, hitting his nightmare. The other Trellaine stumbled.
"Haunter, old friend, if you would do the honors," Trellaine motioned. Haunter nodded and grinned, his fingers turning black as pitch. He shot his hands forward which dug deeply into Trellaine's nightmare. The image disappeared and Trellaine nodded in approval at the Haunter. Haunter grinned and floated around Trellaine happily. Trellaine then remembered why he had been traveling so urgently. He created a new ice path and continued sliding on his way.
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Helium had seen Twilmer fall. He had seen her ex-boyfriend cut her down. He had seen her disappear and die. He had seen all of this and had done nothing. He hadn't been able to overcome the bees. "I told her I'd always be there for her," Helium hugged his knees. Oh how far he had fallen. The carefree young lad who loved plants and romance novels had done a lot of growing in the past few days. He had learned that not all of his friends could be trusted one hundred percent. He had killed the Ho-oh of the mountain accidentally and now he hadn't been there when the person most important to him had needed it most. Some party member he was. The bees surrounded Helium when he stood up fast.
"I'm sick of being held down and held back." An image of Jason laughing at him flashed before his eyes. For the first time in what had to have been years, Helium was angry. He pulled out his powders and closing his eyes so he wouldn't see the bees, began to throw them every which way. The sound of fallen insects came from all sides, however he didn't dare open his eyes until the last of the powder was gone. He cautioned a glance and noticed the piles of bee bodies all around him. Taking a deep breath, Helium ran as fast as he could out of the circle of bees. He took deep breaths when he reached the other side, Vileplume waddling up beside him.
"I did it," Helium breathed in awe. He then ran as fast as he could to the spot where Twilmer had fallen; his beloved Twila. Where had she gone? He felt hot tears sting the corner of his eyes and let them flow freely as he pounded his fist against the ground.
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As Aura laid on the dark ground gasping for air, she could vaguely see Drix facing a young man in a wheelchair. Not really understanding what was going on, she tried to focus; however, a clawed hand turned her head back so all she could do was stare into the bright azure eyes. Her swords were taken away, god knows where, maybe even into another dimension - Aura couldn't care less. The empty hilts at her sides were of little concern to her during the present.
"Seeing you so venerable makes me want to play with you some more." Her brown-haired nightmare had pinned her to ground, even though the swordswoman didn't really have any will in her to actually run away. "One glance of your own past reduces you to that pitiful creature you really are." Aura hissed when the claws scratched her cheeks, leaving four thin trails of bloody lines. "It makes me want to tell you over and over again how much more you will have to suffer to repay for what you have done." That might have been true, Aura thought. There was nothing in the world she could do to make the rotting feeling of guilt leave her mind. Lying there weak and vulnerable made it even clearer.
Aura laughed. The top ten had told her that if she helped Twilmer along on her quest to find the glitch, then she would receive something that no amount of expertise in the bounty hunting and item collecting fields could give her. In a way, she had known from the beginning that Twilmer was going to be destroyed, but she had not cared. After all, what was one admin's character being destroyed if it meant hearing her precious Madeline's voice once more? Their relationship had been a rocky one, but their love had always brought them together. From the moment they met in Paris to the moment Madeline had died before her eyes, she had loved her like she had never loved anyone before. Eskarine had been a selfish girl growing up, however Madeline had changed her and brought out the good in her. If Madeline could see her now, manipulating the small Pichu admin the way she had done, what would she say? Though, Aura had come to realize that she cared for the young admin and couldn't allow harm to fall to her, especially at her knowledge.
"Madeleine wouldn't hold a grudge for me." She whispered her voice raspy and tired. "She was kind and gentle. Never left me, no matter what idiotic things I have done in the past. Never felt the need for revenge." Aura grabbed the wrists of the clawed hands that were over her heart, ready to strike down. "She was all I ever needed, the better half of me. That was the woman I fell in love with." Aura moved her hands to the nightmare's neck, surprising her opponent with the sudden movement. "And. You. Are. NOT. HER!"
As she wrapped her fingers tightly over the neck of a monster that was posing as the person she had loved the most, Aura felt a stinging pang of fear and regret. Was she really able to do this? The brown-haired woman trashed around, her claw-like fingers cutting trough swordswoman's arms deeply until red streaks of virtual blood streamed down her arms. Soon, the struggling ceased, and the usually bright eyes now stared at her accusingly, the light in it disappearing, dulling the azure irises as the life slipped away, though the nightmare had never held life in the first place. The body gradually vanished into thin air and once it was gone, Aura had collapsed on the ground, exhausted, staring into the dark endless sky above their battlefield.
And then, slowly, a sound emerged from the back of her throat. Aura, the genius swordswoman, one of most feared bounty hunters in Pokémon World Online, the ice-princess and former Top Ten member started to weep miserably like a little girl.
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Drix looked around and noticed that the state of the party was not the best. Emily23 appeared fine; however she was kneeling and weeping. Drix shrugged as Twilmer had just died and so it made sense that she was sad. He wasn't sad, but he had never cared much for Twilmer and it didn't bother him in the least bit that he was not affected as he should be by this. Drix, both in real life and in the online world, rarely felt any emotion besides anger and a snide enjoyment when he irritated another. He wasn't a sadist; however, he was a broken man without even realizing it himself.
Then he spotted Aura who was sobbing in a way that greatly disturbed him. "What the hell happened to make her cry?" If something had made Aura cry, then it was something to be afraid of. He knew the party needed to move fast and defeat Dream with or without Twilmer by their side. He walked over to her and used his sword to help him kneel down. "You okay?" he asked, placing a hand on her shoulder.
She wanted to say yes, that everything was fine, that he should just leave her the hell alone and take care of his own business. She needed to say this, to make him go away and to save at least the last little bit of her dignity, but what was the point now?
"No," she replied in a choked sob, even though her tears had finally stopped. "No, I'm not okay."
The weight of his hand on her shoulder should have been offending, she should have shrugged it off angrily; however, no matter how much she may have detested the man, the weight was a comforting anchor to reality as she raised her hands to her face, watching them tremble.
"I've killed her," she whispered more to herself than to anyone else, unaware of the worried and slightly confused look Drix gave her. "I've killed her...again."
There was a lot of blood covering her wounded sides that needed to be treated. Drix helped her to get up, supporting the unusual silent woman. Normally by that time, she would have already cussed him out and shoved him back; possibly taking a stab at him with her katanas, which were lying on the ground beside where she had been. They must have fallen out during her fight with her nightmare.
"Always the knight in shining armor, aren't you, Drix?" Aura sighed, blinking weakly.
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End part 26
Short part is short, but I wanted to get the nightmares out of the way. So yah, reviews much appreciated. Feedback makes me type faster 8D