Icy chills assaulted Force's body as he made his way down the stone steps leading into the infinite blackness below. His arms wrapped around his chest in a vain attempt to stave off the piercing cold. He had stuck around to watch Lin's battle so that he could finally witness with his own eyes just how strong Lin truly was, but the last Blizzard by her Glaceon opponent had been far too much for him to endure.
A Riolu's fur was not for protection from the elements, and the staircase leading up had been too far away. That left only this unexplored corridor, as uninviting as it was. Even without his aura powers active, Force could feel the foreboding vibes this passage contained. It reminded him of the infamous chamber beneath Mt. Coronet, but not nearly as powerful.
Another wave of shivers wracked the Riolu's body, and he stumbled at the bottom of the steps, grasping the stone wall to keep from falling over. His eyes were useless for penetrating the blanket of darkness all around him, and he was abruptly grateful that these steps had been completely intact and didn't have massive gaps in them, otherwise his reckless descent could have ended far more messily than it did.
Force took a few moments to regain his bearings. It was too dark down here to be sure of what he was dealing with, and without Lin to guide his movements or Cecilia's fire to light the area, he was ill-suited to exploring this area alone.
Ugh, he wouldn't even mind Cecilia invading his personal space at the moment. Her warmth would like be a blessing from Arceus in his current state, to say nothing of how much he'd appreciate light.
Taking a deep breath, Force focused his energy into his paw, until blue flames erupted from around the paw, casting a blue flickering glow upon the stone walls around him. His aura provided some relief from the cold threatening to freeze him from the inside out, but it was nothing compared to the sun's rays or actual fire.
Cecilia's absence was starting to concern him the longer it took for her to reappear. If the two Eons had been telling the truth, she would be fine, but what sort of injury could she have picked up while exploring here? He and Lin had encountered nothing remotely dangerous. If it weren't for the oppressive sense that something was watching them, he would have assumed that the Ruins themselves were entirely abandoned, but why did he sense the presence of other creatures, always lurking just out of sight? Every level down had heightened this feeling, but now he felt completely alone.
Except...that ominous prickle in the back of his mind. No matter how hard he tried to ignore it, it was always there. Ever since he, Lin, and Cecilia had arrived at the small town and the neighboring Ruins, he had become aware of the prickle. It was the same feeling he got whenever he was in the presence of the Spiritomb, but whenever he was away from it, the feeling had faded away.
The aura flames in his paw pulsed outwards briefly, shifting color from blue to black and then back again. It reminded him of a visual representation of a Zubat's sonar abilities. A pulse outwards, and then a ping when it struck an object. Rinse and repeat. And then the prickle in the back of his mind would be pushed to the front, like a recurring headache, only to fade away again. It was maddening, and Force had never experienced anything like it before, even when first learning to use his aura abilities.
Eager to keep his mind from dwelling on the various prickles of discomfort creeping over him, Force stepped forward into the darkness of the corridor, lifting and lowering his paw so that the glow would cast enough light on his surroundings to be confident in taking his next step. It was slow progress, but Force pressed on regardless. He half hoped that he'd find nothing but a dead-end, so that this whole little adventure could finally come to a close, but he doubted this would be the case. This corridor had been hidden in what outwardly appeared to be the Ruins' deepest chamber, so there was almost no chance that it would turn out to be meaningless.
At the end of the stretch, Force found himself standing in another room-like chamber. It was taking his eyes a long time to adjust to the faint lighting that his paw provided, but it appeared to be a vaguely circular room. Whereas the corridor leading this far had been plain and void of decoration, Force could make out faint shapes and drawings on the walls, accompanied by the entire alphabet of symbols stretching from one side of the room to the other. The eyes of the sigils seemed to follow him as he stepped further into the room, and he became uncomfortably aware of the prickle in the back of his mind beginning to intensify, like the legs of an insect crawling across his brain. Even the imagery of that thought alone gave him the shivers.
"What is this place?" Force asked aloud, but he was scarcely aware of saying it. He felt distant from the rest of his body, like an observer of a film that was playing in the background.
Something near the back of the room caught his eye, and he walked closer, moving without consciously willing himself to do so. It was the most unnerving sensation he had ever experienced. He was performing the actions, and knew he was doing them, but it was like moving on auto-pilot. No conscious thoughts or effort involved, just following the programmed plan.
Force shook himself firmly, dispelling the odd sensations in his mind. He had to stay focused here. For all he knew, those innumerable eyes in the room were putting him under a Hypnosis or something and commanding him to do something. He had enough issues with the Spiritomb possessing him previously without falling prey to another spell of that sort.
The Riolu focused his eyes on the rear of the room. Even without the prodding in the back of his mind, his aura was sensing something there, but the light was far too faint to make out what it was. He stepped closer with tentative strides, the glowing from his paw gradually illuminating a simple stone pedestal of sorts, several unreadable runes marking its base. The glowing of his paw intensified, casting more of its light upon the room, until at last he stood before the small pedestal and examined the peculiar stone placed upon it.
It was an orange stone, small enough to fit into the Riolu's paw, but large enough to be a gemstone of some kind. It was mostly transparent, with a distinct cats-eye sigil in the center. Standing this close to the gem, Force could sense power emanating from it, beckoning him to pick it up. Suspicious of such a sensation, Force moved his glowing paw nearer to the stone, focusing on the power surging within his paw. To his surprise, his paw glowed with intense blue light, filling his body with incredible warmth and banishing the lingering cold from his chest.
The Riolu frowned, allowing the aura to dispel from his paw, but then rolled his eyes as he was cast into complete darkness once again. Right, the only light here had been from his own aura production, but he found it much more difficult to produce the aura flames a second time. It was as though his body had become curiously fatigued.
After three successive attempts to rekindle his aura, Force gritted his teeth in frustration. Was he really this pathetically weak without using the Spiritomb's accursed power? He never remembered struggling this much to produce aura flames, even before accepting Diablos' so-called 'gift'. The only thing he could justify his impotence on now was that he actively had been resisting the additional power, ever since Diablos had revealed that he had been able to possess him.
Whatever. He didn't need the room to be lit to make a decision about the stone he knew was literally inches from his face. It didn't have the same malevolent black aura that Diablos' Keystone had, so that should be enough of a justification to consider it unrelated to the Spiritomb. Yet the Riolu had fallen prey to the temptation of power before and look where that landed him. All his life he had been reminded that he was weak compared to his peers, and any attempt to disprove the taunting resulted in him being trounced and mocked even more for being so clueless.
Before he had met Kaito, Cecilia, and Iris...especially Iris...he had barely been able to ignite his aura beyond the scope of a candle's flame. Battle after battle had ended in humiliating defeat, until at last he was on the verge of not even caring anymore. Training had done nothing to strengthen him, it only made him more resilient to being knocked around like a rag doll. He had survived that long simply because being trounced so often had hardened his body.
Tears filled the Riolu's eyes as bitterness welled up in his chest. He had dreamed of becoming strong ever since he was a kit. Originally, he had dreamed only of subjecting bullies to the fate they inflicted to others, but Kaito and the others had directed that passion and desire to more productive goals. He still needed to be strong, through. Strong enough to not only deflect his tormentors from himself, but to spare others the same suffering. The world would never be perfect, but to be able to save as many people from unneeded suffering as possible...for allowing abuse to exist was only allowing its pain to spread.
Iris had helped to heal some of the pain in his heart. She never expected him to be some uber-macho tough guy, or be some badass show-off in battle, crushing people left and right. She understood his pain and he could relate to her own sorrows.
Force wiped his eyes hastily. He didn't want to reflect on this right now. Whether he took the stone here or not, Lin would doubtlessly follow him down here and she would probably want to bring the stone back to Kaito or Diablos to figure out its purpose. There was no real choice here.
Paw shaking, Force reached over and felt the cold, smooth stone of the pedestal. After a moment of fumbling, he clasped his paw around the round gemstone. Immediately, warmth spread through his body and he gasped, his entire body starting to feel jittery, as if he had eaten way too many sweet berries in the last hour. At the same time, he felt rejuvenated, the fatigue vanishing from his body and his senses becoming heightened to everything around him. He could sense the aura he associated with Lin upstairs. He could once again detect Cecilia's aura within the Ruins themselves, and the auras of several other individuals, all vaguely familiar, but not as intimately recalled as that of his closest friends.
One of the auras was approaching his location, though, and with his senses heightened as they were, he picked up on a vaguely familiar, ominous presence mingled with the natural aura of the approaching Pokemon. It was the same feeling he felt within himself when he had tested his own aura earlier that day, but not as strong. Each step the other Pokemon took filled his heart with greater dread and unease.
Force clutched the small stone tightly in his paw, and blue aura flames erupted from his paw again, bathing the entire circular room in intense light, far stronger than any he had ever produced before. The Riolu shielded his eyes with his other paw, blinking several times to allow his eyes to adjust to the sudden brightness.
It seemed that the other Pokemon had also been startled by the sudden brightness, for it entered the chamber with great hesitation, and Force could see it clearly for the first time. It was the Espeon from upstairs, but now they were close enough to one another that Force could see the details of its body for the first time. He had thought the Glaceon's partner had been an Umbreon originally because of the jet black fur covering its body, but the silver gemstone in its forehead and the long, forked tail were dead giveaways to its true species. Silver eyes blinked back at Force for several moments. Neither of them spoke, they just sized up one another.
"Uh...hi?" Force said finally, not exactly sure what else to say. The Espeon did not relax in the slightest. If anything, he tensed further, his stance becoming even more aggressive, and Force noticed the Espeon's gaze was on his glowing paw. "It's just aura," Force said quickly, hoping to placate the psychic Pokemon. "It's a Riolu thing to-"
"Your eyes. Look me in the eye," the Espeon commanded, his tone like ice. Force felt for a moment as if the words themselves had a physical impact that left a cold chill in his mind. The Espeon's gemstone was glowing faintly.
"Um...okay?" Force said nervously. This command was reminding him unpleasantly of how Cecilia had confronted him back at the Chateau, by forcibly staring into his eyes and demanding he look at her. He made eye contact with a nervous smile, and the Espeon's gaze intensified, even at this distance. "Are you trying to read my mind?" the Riolu asked abruptly, feeling an uncomfortable tickle in his mind. "I only let Iris-"
"Who are you?" the Espeon demanded.
"Um...I'm Force...nice to meet-"
"We've met."
Alarm bells were ringing in Force's mind, and an expression of horror was making its way across the Riolu's face. The vibe he was picking up from the Espeon was too unpleasantly familiar, and while he certainly had no memory of ever meeting this Pokemon before, he had a feeling he knew exactly what-
He's bluffing.
Force's eyes widened. That voice was echoing within his head. It sounded like-
Don't lose your cool, Force. Play dumb with him.
"What do you mean?" Force asked, wincing when he realized he had spoken the words aloud. He had meant to address the Spiritomb's voice within his mind, but at the same time was relieved that his statement didn't sound stupid in the current context.
"Do you think I'm an idiot?" the Espeon snarled. "That weeks of reliving those moments in my dreams wouldn't let me recognize you regardless of your eye color?"
Force gaped at the Espeon wordlessly, his mouth moving in an attempt to object, but his heart was plummeting into his stomach. The pain in the psychic type's eyes, condensed into empty rage, hit him all too deeply. There wasn't even true hatred or anger in the Espeon's words, only desperation and pain.
He's grasping at straws. He is not certain of your identity. He's aiming to intimidate you into confessing. Implant even the slightest bit of doubt and his conviction will crumble. That will be my moment to strike and complete the transfer.
Force opened his mouth, his tongue forming the first syllable of a contradiction, but he paused. He wanted to be rid of the Spiritomb's power, to be freed from the curse of carrying the fragment of the Spiritomb within him. But could he really go through with this plan to extract it and place it in someone else? Even at the cost of freeing himself from this burden...to allow the Spiritomb to possess and manipulate someone else, someone who didn't willingly enter into a covenant with the malevolent spirit...
You're remarkably weak-willed, Force. I'd like to be free of this arrangement as well. It's quite restrictive in its current form. Would you prefer to absorb his fragment back into yourself and give me full access to your body again?
The Riolu gritted his teeth. "No."
Shadow's silver eyes narrowed. "No?" he repeated, sounding confused.
"I wasn't talking to you!" Force retorted, without thinking. Shadow growled and his gemstone flashed.
...you're quite stupid. If you're going to give the game away, then I'll sub in...does it matter what sport, Plasma? ...no, don't explain. I need to focus...
Before Force could even form a coherent thought in response to this, the prickle in the back of his mind exploded into a full-fledged headache, so intense that his legs buckled and he collapsed to one knee, his breathing becoming labored. And then his body relaxed, his mind becoming blissfully blank, no longer concerned about anything around him, or even what had been happening moments ago.
In his mind's eye, yellow eyes gleamed in front of his vision, and the Riolu drifted into a state of blissful unconsciousness.
Shadow's intense glare had faltered for a moment when the Riolu had practically collapsed. For a few seconds, he had been convinced that he had accidentally unleashed a psychic assault, but the aura Pokemon had recovered almost immediately and returned to his feet.
Then they made eye contact. Silver eyes met yellow, and intense fear gripped the Espeon's heart. A vaguely amused smirk flashed across the opposing Pokemon's muzzle.
"Hello again, little one. I suspect we have SO much to catch up on."
