Author's Note: A fairly short but still important chapter here... Darkrai POV, some more explanations from everyone else, and Iris being snarky. What else does a chapter need, am I right?

Chapter Ten: Reflection

Darkrai sighed and folded his arms as he glanced around the now-dark cavern.

On the one hand, he'd learned a lot of valuable information from Giratina earlier today. He hadn't gotten to spend very much time practicing, since he wanted to get back before everyone caused a scene, but at least he knew more about Dimensional Holes now. Giratina had also been willing to help him if he wanted to come back later.

On the other hand…everyone had still realized he was gone, and they were even more on edge than they had been before. Darkrai had expected that, to a degree, but it was nonetheless annoying. It could make it harder to go back to World Abyss.

Even worse, Claire could see things that he'd done. It was possible she'd be able to tell what he was learning about if she touched him again… Darkrai wasn't sure if she could see things he would do, too, but that was something to watch out for regardless.

The one bright spot was that everyone had finally given him some explanation as to what was going on once they'd gotten settled.

"You…did something wrong with Dimensional Holes once," Claire said, pausing and taking a deep breath. "We just don't want you to make that same mistake again."

"We're worried about you," Bruce added cautiously. "We just don't want you to do anything dangerous and hurt yourself, or anything like that."

Well, the explanation was utterly bare-bones, but it was better than nothing. Still, maybe if they'd told him sooner, it would've been more helpful. Now Darkrai wanted to keep using Dimensional Holes out of spite—which he (silently) admitted was petty, but he wasn't sure if he cared, either.

Besides, that didn't tell him what this 'dangerous thing' he'd done was. That didn't matter too much, though… Darkrai was sure he'd get more ideas—some potentially 'dangerous' ones—if he got more information. And they wouldn't stop him.

Of course, they were trying their best. Now that Darkrai had already sneaked out once, Team Shadow was keeping an even closer eye on him than they had before. Normally, Darkrai might admit that was fair, but…

He was currently sitting near the wall, staring blankly at Iris. As the Cacturne already stayed up later than everyone else, she'd volunteered to watch him overnight. In her defense, she didn't seem terribly excited about it, either… Though it was probably (definitely) for different reasons than Darkrai had.

"You can stop giving me the evil eye," Darkrai said, sighing dramatically. "You treat me like I'm some terrible villain, even though I haven't done anything wrong."

…Well, it was likely that he'd done something wrong, but Darkrai couldn't remember what that may have been. Besides, they hadn't seen him do anything wrong recently, had they? Of course not. He was really just hoping to get them off his case so he could do what he wanted, but that wasn't the point.

"Yeah, yeah," Iris replied dryly. "You haven't done anything wrong, ever. You'd be a lot cuter if you'd just behave, you know. I mean, I guess I'm one to talk about 'behaving,' but that's not important."

Darkrai groaned and looked away from her. This was ridiculous. (And it was only partly his fault, too.) Why couldn't they just believe him?

…All right, maybe he was acting like a petulant child now. It was fair, though. Weren't they just putting Darkrai in time out? Wasn't that treating him like a child?

He was going to figure out a way to get back to Giratina sooner or later. Darkrai might just have to get…creative about it. Regardless, he'd give it a few days… It would be too obvious if he tried to go too soon.

He would go, though. Darkrai eyed Iris one more time before lying down. He may have been semi-nocturnal, but he did need to sleep eventually… Perhaps that would help. Darkrai might get some ideas by the time he woke up.

And once he had a plan, Darkrai would act on it.