Disclaimer: Pokémon is copyrighted by Nintendo, Game Freak, Warner Bros, and Wizards of the Coast. I in no way claim rights to Pokémon; this fic is a non-money-making venture for free distribution on the Web.

Dedication: This fic is for Lightning-Strike. Lightning-Strike is a talented, cool author here, whose user id is 141533. This is her Christmas fic, especially for her! ^!^ Merry Christmas, L-S!

A/N: All Pokémon speech is translated, unless otherwise indicated. Review thank-yous at the end of the chapter.

Light of a Dark Black Night

6: Questions Return

However, try as Shadowgleam might, she couldn't deflect all the questions that Touchwood so cleverly asked.

"Well... my team," she mused. "Fearow, Golem, Lanturn, Dewgong, Eevee. We worked pretty well together."

"How do you mean?" Glimmer asked.

"Well... we all liked each other. We all got along. Fearow... she was good, a good fighter... She had the nickname FarReaches, or Far. She always used to use her Drill Peck on me." Shadowgleam rubbed her shoulder at the memory...

"Golem was steady... a strategist... Lanturn... nice guy... he was very nice. Obliging. He wanted to return to the sea someday. Dewgong... ColdCrystal... my friend. The Eevee..." She laughed. How long had it been since she'd laughed. "I think I did more work training that furball than Gavin did! She certainly paid attention to me!"

"What, like you're trying to train me?" Touchwood said.

"I'm only teaching you one move. I was coaching Breeze on everything. Dependent little Eevee brat. But, speaking of which..."

She used that as an excuse to give Touchwood another training session.

v v v

This time, she refused to let him off until he'd actually learned Slam. Glimmer watched with respect as Touchwood got the hang of the technique, and used it, to good effect, on Shadowgleam.

"R...aahh," gasped Shadowgleam, as she was winded. "Okay, that'll do."

"Sure!" said Touchwood. Shadowgleam realised that he'd only winded her to make her stop. She cuffed him good-naturedly.

"On the road again!" she cried. She sprang up and took to the path. And it was a path here; not a human one, but one pressed in by wild Pokémon. The grass of the trail was thinner and wilted. Not that there was much grass here; vines and creepers abounded. It was a darker area of the forest. With her dark fur, Shadowgleam felt at home. Glimmer, however, kindled her tail globe and kept it going, faintly illuminating them, to make up for the lost daylight.

The conversation moved on to food. With Glimmer sharing, the last of the Pokéchow had been used up, and they were relying fully on what they could find.

"I thought you said that bulb-thing liked shade," Shadowgleam said to Touchwood. "Why isn't it growing here?"

Names were one way in which the Pokémon language was weak. It depended on gestures and body language, intonation and cadence, instead of actual vocalisations, but even so, a word in Raichu language wasn't the same as one in Furret. And names - especially those that didn't have real meanings - were hard to carry across. Shadowgleam tried to mimic Touchwood's cadence and posture when he said his name for the 'bulb-thing', but knew that this couldn't be the proper Raichu name for the thing. But even so, she knew she'd get there eventually, by trying out variations and seeing which one fit best.

It wasn't surprising that wild Pokémon usually had a smaller vocabulary than trained Pokémon. And of course, crude pictures were (rarely) used, but there was no written language. Even the Alakazam, as far as Shadowgleam knew, didn't have a script.

Touchwood replied with a detailed explanation of soil types and competition for nutrients on the ground level... sounding like a human horticulturist, or ecologist, or something. Shadowgleam was amused.

"You know so much about these plants, you should grow them," she said. "You wouldn't need to be a nomad. You could have your own little market garden."

"What's a market garden?"

"Forget it. I just mean a garden."

She hadn't even really needed to say that. Touchwood was fascinated by the idea. As the path got steeper, the vegetation a little sparser, and they made their way up a small peak, Touchwood hung behind. He muttered to himself and his tail swung gently back and forth. When they found something edible, he started to collect the seeds, and used the empty Pokéchow container to hold them.

"Do you mind?" he asked absently, taking it from her.

"Not as long as you carry it."

Shadowgleam had expected to enjoy the respite from Touchwood's questions, but instead, in the silence, they filled her head. She began to feel restless. She looked up at the path, judging the distance to the top of the mountain. "Let's go faster."

It was such a still day. Nothing seemed to move... they were deep into summer, and the scattered white clouds above them had nothing to do with rain. When they walked on the dust and it puffed up, it never went very high. There was nothing around. Shadowgleam was beginning to get a view across the forest, and in the distance, there was a glitter where she knew the lake to be. Shadowgleam's restlessness picked her up and set her down again, still on the path, not having got anywhere - or at least, that was how she felt.

"Come on!" she cried.

Random thoughts of Gavin filled her mind. She took small comfort in the thought that, coming from someone who had known him well, they would be like small itches in the back of his mind. She remembered images - losing the Rainbow Badge at the first attempt, walking away with only one Pokémon in her Pokéball - the defeated Fearow. Learning Light Screen. Gavin, at a phone booth, calling home as he did every month, doing his best to stop his father worrying about him - and failing, unable to sleep that night because of the distant anxious thoughts.

Gavin, storming out of the little Extra-Sensory Association clinic, tossing a hundred-Pokéyen note behind him. Shadowgleam herself had been at his heels, and she remembered what she'd been doing - looking everywhere but at Gavin, trying to temporarily erase him from his mind and concentrate on something else and remove her voice from the many in his mind.

Rage was temporarily replaced by pity.

I wonder how he thought he could ever become a Pokémon Master? He'd be a celebrity! It damaged his performance last time, when the Indigo Tournament was televised... and that was before he strengthened his awareness! But he liked to win. He liked to be a winner.

Perhaps his quest to be a master had been, in some way, defiance of his curse. Perhaps he'd wanted to succeed in spite of the voices in his head.

I wonder if he could ever have done it.

Shadowgleam still felt restless. Pity turned to contempt and anger for Gavin, pursuing a useless dream, motivating his Pokémon towards something that they might achieve but that he, as their trainer, couldn't.

"If he released me," she remarked suddenly, "he might have released others. I hope he didn't release Breeze. She wouldn't have survived on her own."

"You never know," Touchwood's voice drifted up - his words were a little harder to pick out because she couldn't see him - "she might have found a friend, like you did."

"You've got us, Shadowgleam," agreed Glimmer.

Shadowgleam nodded, but had to get away from them again.

Damn you Gavin.

Unexpectedly, she fell onto all fours and ran up the rest of the path - there wasn't much left - to the top. Such a view, but she couldn't see it.

You selfish idiot, Gavin!

Touchwood came up to the little ridgetop. She almost wanted to shock him if he came any closer, but he didn't. He did something else instead. "Take that, Sheila!" he yelled, picking up a small rock and tossing it over where the peak was sheerest. "Take that!"

Shadowgleam laughed!

She picked up a bigger rock, and heaved it over the edge. "TAKE that, GAVIN!" she roared.

"That's it!" said Touchwood approvingly. He picked up another rock. "Come on!"

But she couldn't.

She looked at Touchwood, and Glimmer (just now appearing up the path) and out across the mountains. "I don't want to let go," she realised aloud. "I want to know why."

She screamed across the mountains. "WHY?"

Lightning-Strike: The usual I-will-change-ANYTHING disclaimer applies.

Miss Black Dragon: Oooh look, Touchwood learned Slam. Finally. Now I'll have to figure out how he uses it for the good of the story. I'm very glad that you like the star-gazing bit - I was afraid that I was becoming trite in that area.

Pikacar/Marle: *nods fervently, gives characters stern looks* Behave! Of course, they will then reply that they answer to my Muses, not to me. But hey. I do what I can. Now that the basic, required trio has been set up, I won't be introducing any more travelling companions… for now. But I'm glad that you like Glimmer.

Carter Tachikawa: I'm glad you like it.