With the fighting having moved towards the edges of the plateaux, the open field became distinctly more eerie. The sleeping bodies of the grouped-up Huntsmen and Huntresses were near motionless giving the illusion that they made up a field of corpses. The only signs that they were still alive were the rising and drooping of their chests with each breath, and the slight contortions on their faces when their nightmares became too intense.

One amongst the sleeping hoard seemed to struggle much more than the rest. General Ironwood's body tightened and relaxed with his expression constantly showing one of intense distress. Grunts and escaped from his lips as he grew more and more restless. Beginning to toss and turn his inner mind showed flashes of darkness obscuring prominent silhouettes and figures. With each image he struggled more and more until a pair of red irises stared back at him in his mind.

Ironwood suddenly woke up in a panicked sweat. Placing his hand over his rapidly beating heart he looked around to see he was surrounded by the dozens of sleeping Huntsman and Huntresses from across the world. The memories of what happened with Darkrai suddenly all came rushing back down to him in an instant, recollecting them while he shakily got to his feet.

"Right that thing…that Pokémon it…it did this." Ironwood looked down to see Goodwitch, asleep and seemingly struggling just as he had been.

Beside her was his white revolver which he quickly picked up, keeping a tight hold of it while scanning the field in attempt to see if Darkrai was still in the area. To his surprise the open field was much rougher and more decimated then he had recalled from earlier that day. It was clear to him that a struggle of some sort must have taken place but he still wasn't quite sure what. The sudden sound of an explosion in the distance drew his focus, directing him towards the direction of the cave he discovered Darkrai hiding in, and the rocky wall high above it featuring a newly discovered crater.

Ironwood cocked his gun and pointed it in the associated direction. "Time to put an end to this."

Penny stared off against the supposed 'Grimm' having seen her closest friend in danger at its hands. Five of her Floating Array blades were raised and pointed towards Darkrai, who gently kept their hand on the area Ruby managed to inflict serious damage to.

"Another attacker…? One whose dreams I have not influenced. Intriguing but troublesome…" Darkrai grunted.

Penny kept her guard up, cautiously keeping her fingers strained to keep her blades steady. "It appears you can communicate. That is a shame since I have been ordered to eliminate you."

Darkrai removed their arm from their wound and floated off the ground. "You may try but on your own, you will not last long."

The tips of Penny's blades began to glow, making Ruby slowly back away in the background. "I feel that I should warn you that I have been granted permission to use excessive force if it is deemed warranted. I believe your attempts at harming my friend are within those parameters."

All five blades fired blasts of energy at once. Darkrai suddenly vanished in place, causing the energy to strike the rocky wall, blowing apart chunks sediment that scattered over the ground as pebbles. The green explosion made Ruby cover her face, before looking back to her friend.

"Penny watch out! It's going to sneak up and attack your blind spot!" Ruby warned.

Penny looked back to see Ruby. "Understood Ruby! I will prepare the necessary defensive precautions."

Penny began spinning her blades rapidly around her waist to form a defensive line, keeping Darkrai at bay. She carefully took in her surroundings when Darkrai suddenly appeared above her head.

"Feint Attack!" Darkrai called out.

Darkrai came down fast but Penny looked up in time to see it coming. Her back opened up and three more blades shot upwards to halt Darkrai's approach, forcing it to vanish again to reposition. Darkrai suddenly came charging from behind and Penny swiftly turned on her heels, making three of the blades around her waist shoot out to strike it. Darkrai quickly disappeared and reappeared behind her but was warded off by the spinning blades around her, giving Penny the chance to swing at it horizontally with her three overhead weapons. Darkrai dodged again making Penny readjust the position of her blades in mid-flight to cover her from above. Darkrai continued to blur in an out of sight, attempting to find an opening amongst Penny's defences.

Darkrai reappeared at a much higher altitude and accelerated downwards as a black blur, with faint amounts of dark aura trailing off itself. Penny saw it coming and made all eight blades converge behind her. She made them point straight ahead on Darkrai and thrusted them forward. Darkrai showed no hesitation and took the blades head on, crashing through them with its mythical speed and power. Each blade managed to lacerate and cut Darkrai from multiple sides but the formation fell through, sending the weapons spiralling away. Penny wasn't able to recall them in time when Darkrai crashed into her body head first, dragging her over the ground. Its clawed hand tightly grabbed onto Penny's face and slammed it against the earth, scraping her against its rough surface before tossing her into the distance, alongside her blades being pulled by her strings.

After tossing Penny away Darkrai came to a stop, exhaling heavily when its body convulsed from the poison. Darkrai struggled to recover when it heard the sound of thrusters firing off. Penny shot back into the area with four blades at her feet to propel her and five hovering overhead. Her feet came to a skid on the ground while she twisted her upper body, using the momentum to send her five blades spinning at Darkrai. Darkrai saw the attack coming and dodged to the side making the spinning formation of blades continue its path through a nearby tree trunk. Penny used the strings to pull it back towards Darkrai, forcing it to dodge again, this time by jumping into the air. Another tree was cut down before the blade's formation came apart and they returned to Penny. The propulsion from the blades at her feet fired up once more to chase Darkrai into the sky. Penny crossed her arms tightly to pull her overhead blades in before thrusted them to her sides, allowing two blades on each side to pierce the fallen timber. With her sudden ascension the strings tightened and went stiff when Penny came to a sudden stop, using her strength and upward momentum to pull the trees into the sky with her, flinging them at the mid-air Darkrai.

Darkrai momentarily gawked at the feat of strength before narrowing its eyes and growling. "Dark Pulse!"

Darkrai flung its arms forward to send a wave of malicious aura outwards. The aura collided with the tree trunks, reducing them to splinters. Penny immediately flew straight through the mid-air debris, not even giving it a chance to fall. Darkrai prepared to counter but was halted in its tracks by the poison striking back once again giving Penny enough time to close the gap. She brought her five blades together again, swinging upwards to cleave Darkrai vertically, then readjusting herself to cleave them again in a downwards attack. Retaining their momentum Penny made the blades spin again in a wheel that she tossed back at Darkrai. In surprise Darkrai's eyes shot open followed by it vanishing to let the wheel of blades pass through the air. Penny frowned at its recurring disappearance when Darkrai appeared behind her back before she could prepare her defences. It used Feint Attack to slam their arm into Penny's robotic spine, shoving her away.

Darkrai grunted again from the poison sapping at its health and growled at Penny. "Why won't you just go away?! Why must humans persist on meddling with affairs that aren't their own?! In tampering with the lives of others!"

Penny readjusted the blades at her feet to re-attain her balance in the sky, turning around to face Darkrai. "I do not quite understand your question. But I do know that people are not as cruel as you might believe. I know that even when it is not their business, people who care will always support you! To make not just their life or your life better but everyone's!"

Darkrai scoffed. "Then you are either naive…or a liar."

The two combatants scowled at each other before clashing once again, going back and forth across the grey, blanketed sky. Below them Ruby looked up to see her close friend and the bringer of her nightmares going blow for blow, unable to assist and left desperate to help.

She looked away and began running past the surrounding trees, looking rapidly back and forth on both sides. "Come on, come on. Where are you Crescent Rose?"

Pushing through more and more of the mysterious terrain Ruby finally came across her weapon, which had its blade rammed deep into a large nearby stone. Ruby's eyes beamed in relief when she gazed upon its red and black frame which she tightly grabbed.

She made an effort to pull it out from the rock, grunting and wheezing as she tugged the home-made Scythe-Sniper Rifle combo with all her might. "Hnnngh! Why do they always make this sound so much easier in the story books!"

The fight above her continued to escalate with Penny chasing Darkrai down from a distance, firing short blasts from her blades to keep Darkrai moving. Darkrai looked back and began concentrating dark aura into its palms, making sure it knew where Penny was and where she was going to be. Penny fired another shot from her weapon when Darkrai seized the moment. Darkrai looped overhead making Penny's shot miss and giving Darkrai the opportunity to change position and appear diagonally above Penny from behind.

"Dark Pulse!"

The stream of darkness blasted forwards towards Penny. She rotated the blades near her feet, and flew backwards to dodge the special attack. Unfortunately, the attack continued going downwards, on a direct course towards Ruby. Penny saw Ruby in the attack's way and widened her eyes in horror, her blades at her feet firing on all cylinders to try and get to her in time.

"Ruby! Please move away now!" She called out.

Ruby continued struggling to pull her weapon unaware of Penny's warning, when the rock began to creak and crack. The cracks became large and wider until eventually Ruby loosened the weapon enough to successfully pull it out.

"Yes! I did it! Oh, I missed you!" Ruby cooed and cuddled her beloved scythe.

"RUBY!"

Ruby perked up from the sound of Penny shrieking her name from above. She looked up towards the cry to see the Dark Pulse racing towards her and darkening the area around her. Unable to escape from the darkness's pull in time Ruby looked at the impending attack and braced herself.

A cannonball of water fired off from the distance, colliding with the Dark Pulse and cancelling it out in a massive explosion of dark vapour. The vapour expanded and fell over Ruby's body, coating her in a thin layer of delicate water droplets that lay gently on her defensive figure. The feel of the moisture on herself made Ruby look at herself and realise that she was relatively unharmed.

"Huh?" She asked herself.

"Ruby!"

Ruby heard familiar voices call for her and she looked to see the rest of her team coming into view to check on her.

"Are you alright?!" Yang desperately asked when she arrived at the scene.

"Don't worry, I'm fine Yang. Well I almost wasn't when that attack came at me, but then it didn't so it all worked out." Ruby explained.

"You're even more clueless than I thought."

The judgmental voice came from Robin, coming through and clicking away her rollerblades. At her side was her Clawitzer whose claw had little drops of water falling out of its grasp.

"Clawitzer Clawitzer Clawitzer. (Consider yourself fortunate the Captain decided to intervene.)" Clawitzer pointed out.

Penny flew down to land, placing her blades away to confront Ruby. "Oh Ruby, I came as soon as I realised my mistake! Are you injured? Do you require medical assistance?"

"Penny. Penny. I'm fine. Why does everyone keep asking me if I'm okay?" Ruby asked.

"Because a few minutes ago, you were being held hostage in the air by a very dangerous creature that wanted you dead." Weiss reminded.

"And a few seconds ago, you almost got hit by a dark aura blast." Blake reinforced.

Ruby sheepishly looked off. "Well…when you say it that way it sounds bad."

"Everybody just stop!" Robin suddenly stepped forward to see Penny. "You. Did you restrain Darkrai before coming down here or not?"

Penny looked at Robin openly. "Oh, you are the second Pokémon trainer that recently joined Atlas. I do not believe we have been introduced yet-"

"Simple question yes or no!" Robin pushed insistently.

Penny awkwardly looked at Robin after her interruption. "…You are a very pushy person."

Suddenly the area around the girls got significantly darker. High in the sky where Penny left them, Darkrai raised its hands over its head to generate a large Dark Void sphere, looming over the training huntresses.

Darkrai winced from the poison, but maintained its focus on its enemies. "Do not pretend this is over!"

Darkrai split apart the Dark Void sphere into dozens of smaller Dark Void's that rained down from above in tighter concentration than previously. The group on the ground looked up when Weiss stepped forward.

"Everyone stay close!" Weiss formed a white glyph under everyone's feet and stabbed it with her rapier.

Ice immediately grew outwards into a spiked dome, keeping everyone inside of it safe from harm, as though they were inside a giant snow globe. Dark Void battered the ice structure but the non-damaging move couldn't do so much as a scratch against the protective layer of ice. From above Darkrai narrowed its eyes at the defensive strategy, forming a look of thought and frustration. Inside the ice, the glyph under Weiss disappeared while the others admired her handiwork.

"Quick thinking ice queen." Yang complimented.

"Please stop calling me that." Weiss sighed.

Blake looked around the ice with a frown. "We may be safe for now, but we've seen how powerful that thing is. The moment it starts attacking us instead of putting us to sleep, this ice might not hold." She finished talking and turned to her leader. "Ruby do you have any ideas?"

Ruby looked to the ground. "Honestly…that big move I had earlier was all I had. If that didn't work then…" Ruby shook her head. "No. There must be a way to win! I'm sure of it! As long as we keep standing and fighting back together it will wear itself out eventually."

"So, your plan is that you don't have a plan." Robin judged, shaking her head in disapproval. "We need more than that."

"Well you're the Pokémon expert. Do you have any ideas?"

"I-!" Robin stopped and looked towards her Clawitzer. Her thoughts trailed back to the woman in white before she looked away from her. "…don't…"

Clawitzer saw her trainer's frustration and gloomily looked at her. "Claw… (Captain…)"

"Well staying here and being sitting ducks isn't going to help." Yang confidently smirked cocking her gauntlets, pulling her arm back. "Who cares if we don't have a plan. If it's between giving up, hiding or fighting back, I think it's pretty obvious which one we should go for."

Penny looked at Yang, before leaning over to her sister. "She is referring to the fighting back option, yes?"

Ruby leaned back to her mechanical friend. "I'm pretty sure."

Penny nodded and got her blades ready. "Good. That was my preferred tactical approach also."

Weiss and Blake glanced at each other, raising their blades to show their readiness leaving only Robin seemingly undecided. Eventually her grip loosened and she looked up to see the light peeking through the frozen structure.

"I may not like this, but I've still never been one to back away from a fight I've already started. Especially one that I caused." Robin looked down at her Clawitzer who seemed more than ready to fight on, before looking to Ruby. "So, what are we waiting for? Let's end this."

Ruby smirked at Robin's regained confidence and looked to her sister. "Yang."

Yang cracked her knuckles and pulled her arm back. She took a single breath before charging forward and swinging her fist forward. The ice in front of her shattered instantly and broke away, flooding the inside with a momentary white light. The girls inside ran out as one, ready to attack Darkrai on sight. However, that was exactly where Darkrai wasn't.

Weiss looked at the seemingly empty area they were in, cautiously confused. "It's gone?"

Robin gritted her teeth. "No. It must still be here. It makes no sense for it to run. Clawitzer, don't lose focus for a second."

"Claw Claw Claw (Aye aye Captain)." Clawitzer kept her large claw straight ahead, ready to fire on any suspicious sights. Its field of vision surveyed the area, but was unaware to the odd shadow that snaked away behind her.

"You said that your Pokémon poisoned it right? Maybe we've been doing more damage than we thought, so it was forced to retreat?" Blake tried to explain, unaware to a shadow sneaking into her own.

"Plus, now that everyone's here to back up Penny. Maybe it realised that together we were too tough to be beaten." Ruby optimistically theorised.

Robin continued to remain sceptical, looking up into the sky to see any trace of the mythical Pokémon. "Even so Pokémon, even one's we consider myths are known to be stubborn. Every Pokémon is very very territorial. Some may run before a move is made but once the first one is cast, the only way to leave is if you somehow manage to flee or if…"

Blake's shadow suddenly began to thicken and contort, transforming into the sinister silhouette of Darkrai. The shadow began to stretch upwards before it ripped, when Darkrai burst from it into the air. Despite the injuries and poison status visible, it still looked battle ready as ever with one remaining Dark Void orb held tightly in its grasp.

"You're put to rest!" Darkrai quickly threw the orb down at a high speed.

The others suddenly realised Darkrai's presence but were too late to stop it from acting. Robin felt her body go stiff in worry at the move striking her, when she noticed a crucial detail. She wasn't the target. Instead Dark Void's movement quickly came closer, to eclipse the outside light reflecting off her silver eyes. Ruby saw the nightmare inducing move falling towards her and took a step forward to run. Her mind was racing but her body was too slow to react as the oncoming move was too quick for her to dodge. The others around her were in a familiar bind, seeing the move coming but unable to move in time to save Ruby. The team leader was left alone to succumb to her fate while Darkrai watched on from above, its blue eye staring deeply at the human who managed to deal significant damage to it. The human whose nightmare it will enjoy viewing.

A black low-heeled boot stomped the ground, followed by a shadow streaking across the ground. Dark Void suddenly made contact, engulfing the area around Ruby in a pitch-black dome. Ruby's eyes were wide open and wide awake despite the darkness cast over her, when she realised in horror that the void was not around her but in front of her when it opened up again to reveal its captor.

"…Blake?" Ruby whispered.

In front of her Blake was barely standing as the remains of her copy disappeared from where she used to stand. Her eyes were barely open and she looked like she was about to collapse from exhaustion.

"I told you…I'd keep…you safe…" Blake's eyes closed and her body gave in. Her knees bent and she gently fell onto her front, fast asleep and dreaming terrible dreams.

Ruby quickly dropped onto her kneed and gently rubbed Blake's arm. "Blake? Blake! Wake up! Come on!"

To the side Weiss saw her sleeping friend in distress before looking to Robin. "Do you have any more of those berries to wake her up?"

Robin shook her head. "All of my berries are back in my bag, back at the tent. I'm sorry but I can't do anything to wake her up."

Darkrai slowly floated back down to the ground and stood on its leg appendages, to the sight of Clawitzer and Penny aiming their artillery at its direction. "Do you not tire of this? Surely you realise how frivolous this all is. That one ally would take a hit for another, to borrow only a sliver of time before their fate would be repeated. I knew you humans would pointlessly sacrifice whatever resources you had to protect yourselves, but to sacrifice yourselves…how nobly idiotic."

Before the two could open fire, a figure calmly walked past the two. Her long blonde hair slightly blowing in the calm winds.

"Take. That. Back." Yang harshly uttered, as she stepped closer.

Clawitzer squinted her eyes when Yang got in the way, making her adjust her claw. "Claw. Clawitzer Claw. (Damn. I can't get a clear shot.)"

Darkrai looked at the oncoming Huntress in curiosity. "You suddenly believe that you can take me. That your friend's pointless actions would rally you the strength to beat me. How ludicrous."

Yang gritted her teeth and closed her, as she continued to approach. "Don't insult my partner like that…"

From behind Yang, Penny looked at her continue to walk with great concern. "Please do not engage it alone. Your aura has already reached critical levels."

Yang stomped the ground and clenched her fists. "Yeah. I know, but still." Yang opened her eyes to reveal a searing shade of red. "This monster…" Yang raised her arms up. "NEEDS TO PAY!"

Yang slammed her fists together making her body erupt into a burst of flame. The rising combustion drastically increased the surrounding temperature, making scorching winds blow outwards that forced Darkrai to raise its arm to cover up.

"What is this?! Another power!?" Darkrai grunted in recoil.

The burst of power around Yang blew away showing her body more energised than ever before. Her red eyes now glowing with burning intent. Her long golden hair, set alit like a coursing river of flame that flickered like a candle in the wind.

Robin looked at Yang's figure in awe. "Did she just light herself on fire? What happened to her?"

"Don't worry!" Ruby looked hopefully away from Blake, towards her sister. "With each hit, Yang gets stronger and she uses that energy to fight back! That's what makes her special."

Staring daggers at Darkrai, Yang cocked both her gauntlets in unison before jabbing the air in quick succession. Firing off large firecracker shots that Darkrai nimbly dodged, with each shot leaving a large impact against the ground as they dispersed into embers.

"She's gotten stronger." Darkrai cautiously murmured, channelling dark aura into its hands. "But not strong enough! Dark Pulse!"

The concentrated aura came Yang's way when a green laser came in from the back. The two energies clashed in a beam struggle. Darkrai and Penny fought for when both attacks cancelled each other out in a massive explosion.

Underneath the smoke Robin narrowed her eyes. "Use the explosion as cover! Clawitzer use Water Pulse!"

Clawitzer raised her claw up, building up a massive volume of water which she soon fired as a liquid cannonball. The enhanced water type move blew a hole through the smoke, to reveal an empty space making the others stay focused.

Darkrai suddenly appeared on ground level, charging straight for Yang. "Feint Attack!"

Robin's eyes sharpened. "Clawitzer! Intercept with Aqua Jet!"

Clawitzer shot into the air at blistering speeds as a jet of water, zooming past Yang and colliding her claw with Darkrai's palm. The two struggled to push past the other with them both giving it everything they had.

A gunshot followed by the snapping of fingers signalled Clawitzer to fire a blast of water downwards from the back of her claw, rocketing herself upwards. Darkrai suddenly charged ahead to Yang shooting herself forward and performing a spinning axe kick. Yang's heel smacked the top of Darkrai's head, knocking it onto the ground leaving. Yang quickly followed up with an explosive punch, followed by a fiery uppercut. Yang continued her assault by punching Darkrai back down to the ground, landing in front of it to deliver three consecutive hits that sent Darkrai soaring backwards through the air.

Penny fired off the blades at her sides to pursue the recovering Darkrai, catching and bringing out two blades at the sides of her head to ram into Darkrai's body like a charging Tauros. Her side blades went full throttle, piercing Darkrai's body while it continued to hover helplessly off the earth. Darkrai raised its arm out when Penny tightened her fingers to make the edge of the four blades glow. Without mercy the four stabbing blades fired from point blank range that Darkrai was unable to escape from. The green laser carried Darkrai all the way back to its cave, sending it deep inside where a green light exploded from within.

Penny flew back to the familiar scene followed closely by Yang shooting herself to the location, with Robin roller skating alongside her Clawitzer. The four stared deep into the cave in suspense, until a blue eye greeted them back.

"…!" Darkrai moaned as it gently floated back into the light, showcasing the vast amount of scratches and scorch marks it had obtained from the battle. It groaned once more when the poison took effect again, making its body lower perilously close to the ground in conjunction with venomous bubbles rising up.

Penny stared at the injured Pokémon and gestured her arms in a circle to re-align her Floating Array into a circular formation. "It is time that we put an end to this conflict."

Robin put her thumb and finger together. "Clawitzer…"

"Claw Claw. (Ready Captain.)" She replied.

Yang got into a defensive, boxer-like stance with her rage filled eyes focused on Darkrai. "Enough talking. Let's finish this monster!"

Darkrai growled, forming Dark Void in both of its clawed hands. "Just…Go…AWAY!"

Robin snapped her fingers. "Aqua Jet!"

On cue Clawitzer flew like a bullet, claw-first into Darkrai's chest to cut it off. Darkrai winced when Clawitzer changed the flow of water to drag Darkrai up into the air, slamming her large claw into Darkrai's face as she shot up and away.

Darkrai realised its concentration was fading and threw the two orbs at its disposal in desperation. Penny retaliated instantly by firing her blades all at once to vaporise the two orbs with their piercing light. Darkrai saw its last move fail before itself when Yang fired both her gauntlets at her feet to shoot herself up to its level.

"This is giving us all those nightmares!" Yang smashed her knuckle into Darkrai's face, sending Darkrai crashing down. She aimed her remaining fist behind her to shoot herself down as well to keep up. "This one's for trying to take Kai and Robin away!" Yang spun in the air and hit Darkrai again with her rapidly falling fist, making it fall even faster and smack against the ground with enough force to make it crack and to bounce it back up. Yang landed on her feet with enough pressure to make the earth splinter when she pulled her right arm back. "This one's for choking my little sister!" Yang struck Darkrai with enough force to embed its back against the rocky plateaux wall. Darkrai gave a sound similar to whimpering when Yang reappeared in front of it. "This one's for insulting my partner!" Yang unleased a fiery uppercut underneath Darkrai's chin, igniting it while its body was sent upwards through the hard rock.

Yang's hair glowed even hotter where it almost began to look white, highlighting the excessive rage her deep red eyes showed as she fired both gauntlets and rose into the sky one more time. "And this one…" The world around Yang only seemed to get hotter, that combined with her acceleration made it look as though the whole world was completely white from the intense heat. "IS FOR PISSING ME OFF!"

Yang's inferno empowered knuckle cracked as she collided with Darkrai in a white glint. The air ignited into a violent explosion of flame that filled the downcast area with heat and light. A cloud of fire expanded rapidly that made trees violently blow back and dry out. From underneath Penny, Robin and Clawitzer recoiled from the immense energy crashing around them.

Further into the trees Ruby and Weiss stopped carrying Blake through the scenery to witness the sudden change in air pressure and temperature.

In the spot where the girls had previously regrouped, Ironwood felt the shockwaves of the burning attack. "What was that?!"

The deafening sound that followed echoed loudly throughout the plateaux, leading to a concerned gasp.

Kai's Perception empowered eyes widened and he quickly stepped up from a crouched position. Around him were all the sleeping Huntsmen in training struggling in their sleep and Slurpuff sniffing the air concerningly.

"That parfume?! It's fiery and yet…somehow bares a faint familiar parfume from within." Slurpuff analysed.

Kai looked over the treeline to witness the massive fireball at the plateaux's edge fading, being replaced by smoke. "This isn't good. We might be too late."

The smoke and debris from the damaged rockface fell down to ground level making the three girls underneath cover themselves. Robin closed her eyes and coughed into her fist from the irritation until it had settled into the dirt. The atmosphere was quiet and tense, as though a large crowd was anxiously waiting the result of the bout when the dust cleared, leaving the outcome decided.

Yang was seen standing over Darkrai, whose body was sprawled out on its front. Covered in very intense looking injuries on all sides, and its eyes not visible as they were looking face down into the dirt. Yang breathed in and out intensely. Her breathing almost giving off the appearance of steam when it exited her mouth. Her eyes returning to their natural lilac colour as she began to calm down and come to her senses.

Penny and Robin looked at the scene in cautious optimism when they were alerted by the sound of foliage moving behind them. They turned around to see Ruby and Weiss, carrying the sleeping Blake into the area.

"Is it over?" Weiss desperately asked.

Yang's body suddenly flashed with a yellow aura before it seemingly broke. Her body began to give and she dropped to her knees. Ruby saw her sister fall, instinctively pushing the remainder of Blake's weight over to Weiss.

"Yang!" Ruby quickly ran to her older sister's side, who placed her hands and knees on the ground while her long hair draped down her sides. "Yang! Please tell me you're alright?!"

Yang's body gently went up and down with each breath, until she slowly turned her head and looked over to her sister with a smile.

"What's the matter sis? You almost look like you didn't expect me to kick this guy's butt." Yang cheekily smiled while giving a thumbs up.

"Honestly, you two really are unbelievable. No wonder you're related." Weiss criticized while carrying the sleeping Blake. "How can you even be smiling after completely exhausting your aura?"

"Hey, this isn't exactly my first all-out brawl you know." Yang got to her feet and looked to her sleeping partner. "She still hasn't woken up? I thought that beating this thing would do the trick."

"Well even if she isn't awake yet, Robin did tell us she could give Blake one her berries. Or maybe she'll wake up on her own besides." Ruby looked back at the heavily injured Pokémon. "I don't think it's able to give anyone nightmares like this."

Ruby wasn't the only one staring at the Nightmare Pokémon. Robin was also casting her gaze on Darkrai, thinking deeply on the battle they just fought.

"Something doesn't feel right." She muttered to herself.

"What does not?" Penny asked from directly behind her.

Robin quickly turned around in surprise and took a few steps back, staring at the female android. "Do you have any concept of personal boundaries?"

"Oh, I have an ample understanding the space people occupy." Penny explained. "Is your lack of knowledge on the subject causing you to feel uneasy?"

"What? No. I'm uneasy because for some reason it feels like…Darkrai was holding something back." Robin cautiously began thinking again. "Or maybe, something was holding Darkrai back."

The air went colder as an ill wind blew darker clouds over, minimising the amount of light in the area even further. The tall grass in the distance suddenly began to rustle intensely. The tree branches and leaves from the canopy the girls had travelled through began to rustle and shake agitatedly. The sound of rocks cracking and rumbling began to echo out of the cave. Then more sounds began to be heard. Indescribable sounds that none of the girls managed to recognise that were getting louder and louder.

Ruby and her two awake teammates listened to the sounds around them, looking for a source.

"What's going on? Where are all these sounds coming from?" Ruby asked.

"More like what even are these sounds? I've never heard anything like it!" Yang exclaimed in confusion.

"Claw…"

Weiss briefly looked away from her teammates to see Robin's Clawitzer frantically looking around herself at the sounds she was hearing. Aiming her large claw defensively.

"Clawitzer?! Clawitzer! (Who goes there?! Show yourselves!)" Clawitzer shouted.

Robin looked at her Clawitzer sharply. "Clawitzer calm down! Get a hold of yourself!"

Clawitzer suddenly gasped. "…Claw. Clawitzer. Claw… (…Get up. Fight back. Win…)"

Near a black claw-like hand, dark crimson energy began to spark.

"Claw. Clawitzer… (Get up. Please get up…)"

The black hand dragged its nails through the dirt and clenched into a fist.

"Claw…Clawitzer…Claw! (The voices…They're saying…Get up!)"

Darkrai's body twitched. "This place…" Its bright blue eyes widened. "WON'T BE TAKEN AWAY BY THE LIKES OF YOU!"

Darkrai rose above the ground coated in a dark purple light. By the time the girls looked to see it rise up, it spread its arms out wide, expanding the dark energy outwards to send everyone flying back. The dark energy expanded far beyond the range of the cave's entrance to encompass a large area in a nightmarish dome, removing any colour in the world to reduce the environments to a dull grey. The sounds of the plateaux going silent.

Ruby groaned while moving her exhausted and injured body. She looked up and lowered her jaw in disbelief. "No…We-we beat you!"

The remaining girls all managed to lean up to see a view ahead of them, all of them having similar looks of despair.

Floating menacingly in the distance was Darkrai with an intense red aura around it. The aura made its spiky growth illuminate red, its hands and the edges on its lower body glow orange, and apply a sinister red outlie to its white wispy hair.

Darkrai stretched its arm out in front of itself, turning its palm upwards and gesturing its fingertips up. "Rise…"

A faint pink outline suddenly encompassed the sleeping Blake's body making her squirm and frown. The outline briefly flashed around her when a pink translucent apparition of the faunus girl rose into the air.

Weiss saw her teammate copy rise into the air, leaving her in suspense. "What's it doing to her?!" Weiss called out.

Blake's apparition went wide eyed and had her face filled with fright, her legs beginning to run across thin air. "No! Please! Stay away!"

Ruby got to her feet and ran to her floating apparition of a teammate. "Blake! Don't worry I've got-"

Ruby grabbed Blake's apparition, only for her to pass through Ruby and ignore her. As though she were a ghost.

"You…?"

Blake continued to run past Ruby when she noticed another apparition running through the tall grass behind her. "Jaune?!"

The apparition of the Huntsman in training came into view, experiencing similar levels of fright. "Go away! Please! Someone help!"

More and more apparitions of students ran for their lives into the area, running past or through the four waking students, while they could watch in paranoia.

"I…I do not comprehend what is happening!" Penny struggled to say.

"Are they ghosts?!" Yang cried out.

"No. I…I think…" Robin slowly got to her feet, looking closely at the apparitions near her. "I think this is their dream selves."

"Their what?!"

"I'm not entirely sure but in my world, there's this theory that came about from another region. That when we people and Pokémon dream our sleeping minds enter some form of…Dream World." Robin stared intensely at Darkrai. "And I think Darkrai is using its full power to somehow merge the Dream World with the real one."

"That sounds…insane. It's ludicrous!" Weiss sputtered out.

Darkrai suddenly pulled its fingers back to form a claw, while raising its other arm to above the first while making a similar claw hand gesture. "You're mine!"

All the apparitions were suddenly rendered immobile, their bodies being surrounded by a bright pink mist that held them in place.

Robin saw the pink mist and went wide eyed. "Dream mist? That's-! Then the reason it was being held back was-!" The realisation made Robin quickly looked for Clawitzer. "Clawitzer stop it right now! Use Aqua Jet!"

Clawitzer quickly snapped back into action and shot straight for Darkrai. Darkrai saw Clawitzer coming and jumped high into the sky, missing the attack by less than a second when Clawitzer slammed against the rock wall.

"Crap! This is really bad!" Robin fearfully blurted out.

"What is Robin?! What's it doing?!" Ruby insistently asked.

While Darkrai rose, it winced from the sudden movement aggravating its injuries but managed to stay awake. "Your human comradery…Will be your downfall."

Robin went stiff, a bead of sweat going down the side of her head. "Each Pokémon…can only use four moves. So far Darkrai has used: Dark Void, Feint Attack and Dark Pulse."

"But that's only three. You mean it's using its last move now? Why would it wait that long?" Yang asked.

"Because this move…can only be used under certain conditions. When a Pokémon is asleep." Robin frustratedly looked down at the ground. "And that move is-"

Darkrai swung its raised arm down, interlocking both hands. "DREAM EATER!"

All the apparitions exploded into pink dream mist that siphoned rapidly into the air. The mist collectively merged into Darkrai, obscuring it in a massive pink cloud. A green light could just be made out from within the cloud, showcasing Darkrai's silhouette from within. The Huntresses in training could feel their hearts beating outside of their chests when the dream cloud exploded outwards, revealing Darkrai. With any and all damage…completely healed.

Penny's eyes reflected the dark silhouette in horror. "It's physical injuries! They have all been fully recovered!"

Yang's confidence suddenly dropped like dead weight. "No…I fought back with everything I had! And it just-just…"

"Everything we just did…it was all for nothing?" Weiss grimly realised.

Ruby looked up at the Darkrai, feeling her body tremble. "But…We were protecting everyone. We were supposed to win."

Darkrai remained in the air, taking a deep breath now that it didn't pain itself to do so. Its blue eyes winced when the poison leeched away at its full health pool. "Gah! A shame I could not undo the poison. But with my vigour restored-"

Penny fired up her blades to fly high into the sky to confront Darkrai. Darkrai lazily gazed down to see Penny heading its way and vanished from sight. Penny prepared her other blades to defend her when Darkrai had already appeared behind her. Darkrai slammed its clawed hand against the back of Penny's head with Feint Attack, sending her crashing into the earth within a dirt filled explosion.

"They are no match." Darkrai vanished again from sight.

On the ground, Penny was pushing herself back up on her hands while her blades laid scattered on her sides. Darkrai reappeared at ground level, swinging its arm back it slashed Penny with another Feint Attack to send her careening into the rocky wall. Darkrai glanced behind itself to see Clawitzer aiming at it with her large claw, then vanishing again. Before Clawitzer could react, Darkrai reappeared in front of Clawitzer, swinging its arms upwards to knock Clawitzer helplessly in the air. Darkrai quickly leaped over the spiralling Clawitzer and backhanded her, hitting Clawitzer into the treetops to the sound of branches cracking and leaves falling.

Ruby struggled to take in the sights of her friends and teammates falling around her. Weiss was standing beside Blake, with one hand on her hip to keep herself stable.

"This is too much…it just won't stay down…" Weiss panted.

Yang stepped forward to fight back only to lose her balance and fall on one knee. "Damnit…my body's exhausted…I can barely move…"

Robin at the tree Clawitzer was launched into and shakily went to get another Pokéball, before moving her hand away. "Throwing more Pokémon won't work…they'll just be put to sleep before they can do anything. But there has to be a way to beat Darkrai! There has to! I can't…give up…" Robin thought back to her brief exchange with Darkrai, where for a brief moment she made it struggle against her. "Maybe if I can somehow use that power again? But I don't even know how I used it the first time?! I'm not even sure what it was?!"

From above Darkrai looked down at the scheming Kalos trainer and grunted from the poison her Pokémon inflicted on it. "You all came close. I will give you that. But not close enough."

Ruby witnessed Darkrai descend to her level and carefully aimed her weapon. "We haven't lost yet! So, don't act like you've already won! As long as we keep fighting back, we can-!"

"Can what?! Prolong the inevitable. Give yourself a false sense of hope. Take a good look around you." Darkrai gestured around the area. "Haven't you realised it yet. This isn't a bad dream you can just wake up from, this is reality! This nightmare is real!"

Darkrai's words sent a shock through Ruby's resolve, making her grip on her weapon become less secure. Ruby's optimistic look faded, in its place showing one of terror. Suddenly her grip tightened more strongly and her eyes sharpened.

"I don't care if this is real! I won't let my dreams of becoming a Huntress just fade to darkness! You hear-!" Ruby suddenly gagged; her mouth was left open when she was cut off.

Darkrai's fist was deep in her stomach, the force using the last of her aura, signalled by its red colour flashing and shattering across Ruby's body. Darkrai removed its fist and let Ruby tumble onto her knees, winded and unable to fight back.

"Finally, a rest from that annoying voice of yours." Darkrai mocked.

A rock flew through the air, smashing against the back of Darkrai's head with little to no reaction. Darkrai turned to direction of the thrown object to see Robin, angrily staring at Darkrai with her arm stretched out.

"Really. A pebble. Have you finally become numb to using your Pokémon as barriers?"

"…!" Robin gritted her teeth, unable to argue against the mythical Pokémon.

"Nothing to say? Very well." A dark aura flared from Darkrai. "Time to finally enact justice."

Robin felt backed into a corner, her options limited and her chances of victory having plummeted. Even if Ruby and Ironwood hadn't intervened, she was now positive that on her own, she wouldn't have lasted ten minutes. Robin took a step back subconsciously to try and do anything to save herself when she heard rustling from behind her. Robin didn't have time to think about what it was when a concentrated beam of electricity blasted precisely over her shoulder. The light flashed in Dakrai's eyes, making it jump into the air to dodge the attack that scorched the rock behind it. Its leg protrusions extended downwards to land safely on the ground.

"What now?" Darkrai groaned.

Robin was taking in the sudden interaction when she felt someone walk past her. The person walked in front of her and became visible. Someone with a large pair of metal gauntlets on their hands and a grey fedora on their head.

"Kai?" Robin murmured.

Kai looked over his shoulder to see Robin through his Perception empowered eyes. "Sorry I took so long to get here. Believe me, I came as fast as I could." Kai looked back around to glare at Darkrai eye to eye. "Now if you'll excuse me, there's someone I need to have a word with."

Kai slowly took several more steps towards Darkrai. Robin kept watching Kai's calm movements carefully, so much that she didn't even notice Slurpuff running past her and making her way to Kai's side.

"Parfume. Parfume. Parfume. Parfume." She said in mantra while she caught up.

Also watching his approach, Darkrai narrowed its eyes cautiously. "So, you've saved me the trouble of hunting you down. The second trainer who taught his Pokémon to speak in human tongue."

"That's rich, considering you're speaking my language right now." Kai stopped, allowing Slurpuff to arrive by his side. "Still its nice to know that if I didn't have Lucario, there were more options to open up the communications barrier."

Darkrai quizzically continued to stare at Kai, notably at his eyes and gauntlets. "I see you have also obtained strange powers and technology. But as you can see, that will not help you win against me!"

The wind blew after Darkrai's words, highlighting the tense, anxious quiet atmosphere of the area. Having drastically changed from the fighting happening not so long ago.

"That's the thing, I don't want to fight you…Darkrai." Kai remained stoic, keeping his gaze locked on Darkrai as it growled. "That's right. I know who you are. I know that you're the one giving everyone here nightmares. That you're the one who attacked Pyrrha last night. The one who put everyone to sleep back there and…" Kai paused to take in the damage done to the area and the looks on his fellow Huntresses in training. At Yang and Ruby whose auras were broken and were on their knees in exhaustion. At Weiss and Penny who were just barely holding on. And at his roommate and fellow trainer Robin who looked as emotionally taxed, as when she had flashbacks of being in Vale's wild. He looked back at Darkrai. "You're the one who hurt my friends. By all accounts I should want to kill you. But right now, there's something more important, something bigger than you or me. So, I'm giving you one chance. Stand down now and we can end this peacefully."

Darkrai darkly chuckled. "A human wanting peace. Let alone one that possesses traits of a trainer and a huntsman. What a novel concept. Why should I even believe your words?"

"Because I know deep down that if you really wanted to fight. You would have done so as soon as we arrived here, or at least on the first night. To be honest I've been trying to figure that out since we first fought and only recently did it all click." Through his Perception Kai took in the plateaux's scenery without moving a step. "Something about this place seemed so…familiar to me. And a while ago I finally figured out why. You see Darkrai I finally know how this place got here." Kai's expression turned into a deadly serious glare. "I know what you're protecting."

Darkrai's eyes widened. "That's enough!" Darkrai formed a large pitch-black sphere above its head. "Dark Void!"

Darkrai tossed a myriad of sleep-inducing spheres at Kai who saw them coming easily through his Perception. Without making a command Slurpuff stood proud in front of Kai while he closed his eyes and sharply inhale though his nose. Two Dark Void spheres collided with Kai and Slurpuff, amongst the barrage came his way, encasing the two in darkness.

"Kai!" Weiss shrieked from the side-lines.

Ruby leaned up and gasped in fright along with the struggling Yang. Penny tried to move from her position in the rock only to seize up as something happened with her systems. Robin just braced herself, while witnessing Kai's incapacitation in an uncharacteristic concern. The move finished and Darkrai lowered its arms exhaustedly when the darkness faded away to show Kai and Slurpuff standing up with their eyes closed.

Darkrai sighed, looking down at the earth. "I have had quite enough of humans lecturing me this day…"

Kai's body exhaled. "…Well that's disappointing."

Kai's words shocked Darkrai and the others in the area who all took a closer look at Kai who gently opened his eyes, still awake with bright blue eyes.

"Impossible…How are you still conscious?!" Darkrai demanded.

Kai smirked. "Why don't you ask her?"

Kai gazed down at Slurpuff at his feet who opened her eyes and took a deep sniff. Robin looked at the Meringue Pokémon from behind when she gasped in revelation.

"Of course! Slurpuff's ability is Sweet Veil! As long as she's out, all sleep-inducing moves have no effect!" Robin explained.

"Bingo." Kai confirmed, while keeping his eyes on Darkrai. "Maybe my so-called powers and technology can't beat you on their own, but with Slurpuff on my side…" Kai stretched out his right gauntlet, opening its palm to showcase a bright yellow light, with tiny sparks of electricity escaping from its muzzle. "I'm certain you'll lose."

Slurpuff opened her mouth, baring her small fangs. "Your Parfume of yours shall be overpowered by ours!"

Darkrai growled under its breath. "Very well trainer. If it's a fight you want, it's fight you'll get!"

Darkrai disappeared from the naked eye making Kai's eyes flash. Through his Perception, the translucent vision of Darkrai was visible, dashing to the right in an arc to catch Slurpuff off guard.

"Slurpuff, brace yourself with Cotton Guard!" Kai ordered.

Slurpuff quickly responded by covering herself in cotton wool, drastically raising her defence. Darkrai reappeared seconds later, punching Slurpuff in an attempt to knock her away. Instead Slurpuff didn't even budge, her raised defences and resistance to dark types keeping her steady. Darkrai frowned at its inability to harm Slurpuff but was alerted by the sound of crackling. Kai raised both of his gauntlets out in front of himself, each one powered up with electric Dust. Beams of lightning shot from each gauntlet seconds apart that Darkrai weaved in and out of easily. Kai used his Perception to predict Darkrai's movements to catch it off guard but its reflexes were fast enough to keep up. Kai aimed both beams in one spot where they crossed underneath Darkrai, creating an upwards shockwave of electricity that Darkrai avoided by leaping back. Darkrai hovered over the ground unscathed after gaining some distance but suffered from again from the poison syphoning away. Seeing Darkrai momentarily remain stationary, Kai quickly thought on his next move.

"Slurpuff use Dazzling Gleam!" Kai exclaimed.

Slurpuff began to twinkle with pure light when the poison ceased acting up. Darkrai saw the glints of light and quickly zoomed off to the side, dodging the ensuing sparkles that spread out like shrapnel. In the middle of the light an eclipsed silhouette travelled through the light, using it as cover to hid their approach.

The gleam dimmed showing Kai waiting for Darkrai to charge into him, with his gauntlet ready. "Now I've got you!"

Darkrai vanished once again to everyone other than Kai's Perception. Even through a slowed down perspective, Darkrai was still moved fast enough to leap over Kai's head and appear behind his back.

Kai sensed Darkrai's presence appearing behind him and tensed up. 'Feint Attack is a move that doesn't miss. Even if I see it coming, I have no way to dodge!'

Darkrai dealt a strong blow against Kai's back, his aura momentarily flashing as a sign of a critical hit. Kai's body fell to the ground hard with enough force to make it crack under him. Darkrai floated momentarily above Kai when Slurpuff threw an Energy Ball in its direction. Darkrai casually leaned to the right to dodge the concentration of life energy that exploded in the midst of the trees. On the ground Kai's Perception told him of Darkrai's momentary distraction, giving him a chance to roll onto his back and jump back up, clenching his gauntlet to a fist and conducting it with electricity.

Kai threw the makeshift Thunder Punch at Darkrai only for it to effortlessly catch it in its hand, barely reacting to the electrocution from touching it. Kai adapted and quickly raised his other gauntlet to fire a shocking laser at Darkrai's chest. The area momentarily lit up from the concentrated electricity power only for it to look seemingly unaffected once the beam ceased. "What?"

Darkrai gave a dark chuckle. "I told you that your tools would not help. But even so-"

Darkrai backhanded Kai to daze him before using Feint Attack to reposition at Kai's side where he was once again unable to dodge. The impact sent Kai tumbling across the rough terrain, closer towards the cave entrance so that his head was facing it.

"I did not imagine you to be so much slower and weaker than those I had previously bested. It seems no matter what, trainers are only as strong as the Pokémon they steal away!"

Kai lifted his head up to get a full view of the cave. His Perception focused deeply looking inside to see how deep it got. Kai felt his mind space out as he stared into the cave but felt his recent injuries provide a feeling of pain that kept him focused.

"AH! I need…to stay focused!" Kai tried to pick himself off the ground again when Darkrai tightly squeezed the back of his head. "GAH!"

"I remember your nightmares now…So that explains your desire to leap forward into certain danger. To make up for what happened to you in the darkness." Darkrai squeezed tighter before raising Kai's head slightly further up letting the familiar thoughts plague his mind as they had the last time he looked in, before Darkrai slammed his face into the ground.

Ruby winced at the sight of Kai's beatdown, trying to get back to her feet. "We need to do something! We can't just-!" Ruby tumbled back down onto her knees.

"Ruby!" Yang called out.

Ruby ignored the tiny pebbles and dirt on her and pressed down on the ground to pick herself up again. "Don't worry about me. Kai's the one who-"

Ruby fell back down again. With her body exhausted from fighting earlier and both her aura and semblance run dry, try as she might she could do nothing to help her friend in need. Robin saw Ruby's efforts to help and looked down at her own arms, which despite being covered in bandages had hardly been injured by Darkrai since the fight started. Her aura having hardly been touched.

"Damnit…I'm weak and useless…" Robin thought back again to the brief moment she hovered over the ground and began tightening her fists and gritting her teeth. "Come on! Please! Let me do something!"

Darkrai rose gently into the air. "And here I expected more. A shame, something about you seemed…different."

"Hold your parfume!"

Darkrai looked down to see Slurpuff passionately shouting at it. "I take it, you too have been brainwashed by your trainer. Believing him to be just and right."

"My trainer's parfume is more than that!" Slurpuff proudly shouted. "His parfume is kind and brave and strong! A unique parfume only to him, that makes everything and everyone who partakes in it that much better for it!" A teardrop began to form in Slurpuff's eyes. "If what Kai parfume said about your parfume's true intention is true, then stop fighting his parfume at once!"

Darkrai looked curiously at Slurpuff, thinking on the emotion in her voice and of the similar things uttered by Robin's Pokémon. It sighed. "I can tell you feel genuine emotion for this human. Perhaps you and the other Pokémon weren't completely misguided after all. But I have no choice but to eliminate every single one! Say your goodbyes!"

Darkrai vanished from sight, leaving Slurpuff to look on at her struggling trainer. She determinedly closed her eyes and began taking deep breaths through her nose.

On the ground Kai felt his heartbeat thumping through his head. "GAH! My head! I've…never used my semblance for this long all at once before! It's too much to handle…"

Kai tightly closed his eyes, keeping his face low and on the ground. He felt his senses began to soften and become less sensitive to the world around him while he lay there. The others watched on unable to do anything as they were awaiting Darkrai to strike down, most of all Robin who just couldn't muster up anything.

She saw Kai laying at the ground and stomped the ground with her metal heel trainers. "What are you doing?"

The vibrations of her feet and the sound of her voice trailed through the air and earth, becoming too quiet to hear by regular standards. But still enough for Kai to pick up on.

"Robin…?" Kai murmured, gently cracking open his eyes.

Robin looked down in the ground in frustration, continuing to talk to herself. "Did you forget that yesterday that I called you my rival? I don't make choices like that lightly, and I didn't measure myself up to you just for you to take a dirt nap."

Slurpuff sniffed more intensely, catching whiff of a very nightmarish parfume.

"I've been having to fight this thing for what feels like hours. What gives you the excuse to show up and just give up right of the bat. I know you're better than this. I don't care if you're tired! So am I!"

Kai's eyes began to open more fully, his Perception starting to become more active as he could piece together his environment just as clear as before.

"So fight. Win. That's what you came her to do right? So just do it! Prove that your win against me wasn't just some fluke! Prove to me that you deserved to beat the champion! Prove just how hard you've worked since coming to this world!"

Kai pushed himself up as everything started to get even more clear. The translucent image of Darkrai suddenly became just as clear as if he was still visible, and he could see him going straight at him to finish him in one blow.

"Prove why you're…"

Darkrai reappeared high above Kai, charging down from above with dark specs of aura coming off it. "Feint Attack!"

Robin desperately looked at Kai. "MY RIVAL!"

Kai's semblance empowered eyesight flashed blue tight when Slurpuff got a full whiff of Darkrai's scent.

"I will not let you hurt KAI PARFUME!" Slurpuff's eyes shot open releasing large streams of pent up tears. Her wail echoes through the air, making it slightly distort as her cry made it to Darkrai's hearing range.

Her tears and emotion made a wave of guilt pass through Darkrai for a split second, making a dampening blue aura befall him. "What is this feeling?"

Robin saw the aura in conjunction with Slurpuff's crying reaching her second epiphany in a row. "That's Fake Tears! But that's a move wild Swirlix typically have! Did she re-learn it just now…to help Kai."

Darkrai's attention went back on Kai. "So, you've lowered my special defences! That won't stop me from dealing the final blow! Fall trainer!"

Darkrai accelerated further to the ground, smashing into it in a debris filled eruption of power. Inside the dust Darkrai looked down in front of it, to see its clawed hand embedded in nothing but rock.

"The trainer! Where did he-?!"

The familiar sound of crackling cut Darkrai off as it felt its head glow and its skin prick with oncoming light and electricity. To its side was Kai standing tall both gauntlets placed at near point-blank range.

"I saw you coming…" Kai stretched his fingers out inside his gauntlets. "But you didn't see me!"

The two gauntlets released powerful beams of concentrated electricity directly at Darkrai's head. Blinding it in light and blasting it out of the dust, towards the trees. Darkrai lowered its smoking head at the ground recovering from the literal shock. Poisonous bubbles escaped from its mouth once more when Kai leaped through the dust cloud.

"He's back up? Why? How? I don't understand how you humans are still able to fight!" Darkrai yelled. It looked around and saw Robin's look of relief and Slurpuff's newfound strength and put it together. "I understand now…It seems we both have something to fight for."

Darkrai and Kai's resolves were loud and clear, their presence giving all those nearby a feeling of hope or despair. Yet hidden behind the rows and rows of trees, having paid attention for quite some time was a very invested General.

Ironwood looked at Kai and Darkrai intensely. "So, this is what people in the other world have had to survive against. No wonder I seemed wary of their strength."

Yep this fights going to be a three-parter. And yeah a lot happened this chapter. Since I feel there might be some confusion allow me to explain a couple of things.

For those who are going to ask: Yes I took some inspiration from Pokken Tournament (again) when describing Darkrai's new appearance and nightmare world. Yes the floating apparitions were based of Rise of Darkrai and I am aware that they weren't just as a result of Darkrai but also time of space falling going haywire (though given the space-time shenanigans Team Flare have done connecting Pokéarth and Remnant one could argue...). Yes I know Dream Eater can only hit one opponent but there have always been moments in every Pokémon media where that has been bent on occasion. But I though these were interesting abilities to give Darkrai supported by different sources, so I went with it. And believe me if I wanted to I could have gone further.

Aside from that, Slurpuff has a new move. I finally got to show off Yang's semblance for the first time. Robin's first signs of development are beginning to show. And even Kai's semblance has begun to evolve. I really pushed myself for this one and we still aren't finished yet.

So until next time, this is Kallerston signing out!