Nightmare
The night was black. That was not unusual. The night was always black in Alamos Town. Nestled atop an isolated mesa to the north of the Oreburgh Valley, it was shielded from the radiant light of Jubilife and Hearthome by the small peaks of the Ravaged Path in the west and by the indomitable Coronet Highlands to the east. On top of that, the light from Oreburgh city was hidden by the valley walls and Eterna was shrouded by the outskirts of the forest. So, night was always darker in Alamos. Darker than it was in most of Sinnoh.
Of course, tonight's particular brand of darkness had a strange quality to it. It shifted and undulated, morphing in the scant light cast by the sleepy rural town. Sinister shadow crept into Alamos on the wind, visible against the backdrop of the stars.
Tobias rose from his chair on the porch of his small home on the edge of the cemetery. He sat out in the dark every night the weather permitted it. He liked the simplicity of the night and appreciated the constellations as he watched the sky. He even liked the clouds at night, though he privately dismayed that they blocked out the stars.
Tobias did not like this strange darkness that slunk through the sky and blotted out the night. He scowled at the unnatural darkness and knew that something terrible had come to Alamos.
A shadowed figure sat perched upon the roof of his home, watching the moon disappear behind the darkness of an all-consuming night. Tobias felt unease as a cold shiver ran down his spine.
"Now, now," Tobias said quietly. "It's just the dark. We aren't afraid of the dark."
Morning brought the sun, and with it the shadows that plagued Alamos' sky overnight retreated. Tobias could still feel the unease in the air. It persisted in the fog that rose onto the mesa from the valleys below. It persisted in the chill that froze the morning few to the windows of his home.
He set the kettle to boil and stepped outside again, noting a small group of people solemnly marching towards his home. They were dressed in all black and a casket was sat upon their shoulders. A small procession walked behind them, all clad in black with their faces covered.
Tobias frowned. It wasn't the Hubbard family. He'd been expecting old Mama Hubbard to pass soon, but it seemed that this was someone else entirely.
"Hail, Tobias." The man at the head of the procession removed his black hood. Baron Alberto's bright red hair greeted the day. "I bring grave news."
"Hail," he replied, stepping off his porch. "It is grave tidings for a grave to be dug." He looked over at the blonde woman with her hand on the casket. He did not recognize her, but Tobias was hardly familiar with most of the townspeople. He preferred the solitude the cemetery gave him. "Who has passed?"
Tobias had never been fond of the Baron, most of Alamos had never warmed up to him after his appointment to the lordship. There had been rumours of impropriety in his selection, and the untimely death of the old Lord Godey had done nothing to quell those rumours.
"Tonio," Alberto said quietly. He caught the look of suspicion Tobias cast at him and furrowed his brow. "He was found in the gardens at sunrise."
"Fortuitous that Lord Godey's last descendent should pass shortly after he presented his claim to the Royal Congress of Sinnoh."
Baron Alberto shook his head. "No, Tobias. We are not fortunate at all." He turned back to face the casket and folded his arms. "I would have words in private, about our town's resident shade. Is there anywhere away from these chattel we can speak?"
The dour grave keeper cracked a small smile for the first of the day. The kettle screamed and Tobias gestured over his shoulder. "Come in, your lordship. We'll have a cup of tea and you can tell me all about what you think Darkrai has done this time."
Tobias walked back to his creaking chair by the window in the front room, a pair of large tea mugs held cupped in his hands. He leaned forward, pushing one of the mugs towards the Baron, himself already seated at the small table. "Much better," Tobias "I find that a nice tea often helps clear my mind and your mind seems especially troubled today."
"Thank you," Alberto replied. He lifted the mug and gently tested it. "You seemed unconcerned when I mentioned Darkrai. Might I ask why that is?"
Tobias placed his mug beside him and looked out at the sunny morning. "I saw it in the sky last night," he replied. "It covered the stars. A shame, it was a beautiful night."
The Baron put his tea on the table. "Why must you speak in riddle, Tobias?" He shook his head. "A man was found dead, drained of colour and his face contorted in terror. This has happened before, by your own admission to the Champion."
Tobias' eyes found the lone picture of himself with the Champion, sitting upon the fireplace mantle. They were younger then, more irresponsible. They hadn't known what Darkrai was capable of back then.
"And you think that Darkrai is responsible for this incident." Tobias frowned into his tea. He looked up at the Baron with a solemn expression. "I speak for the shade. He is not responsible for this."
"You will forgive me, but I cannot accept that on faith alone." The Baron Alberto leaned back and lifted his tea once more. "I require proof."
Tobias shook his head. "You know that not to be possible." He glanced down at the Baron's tea and then back up at him. "He does not answer to demands. Not even mine."
Baron Alberto's expression went rigid as his brow furrowed. "You are not above the law, Tobias. A man is dead and your pet shade is responsible." He rose from the chair. "I will see justice delivered. I will see Tonio avenged." He glanced around, his eyes settling on the picture of Tobias and Cynthia sitting atop the fireplace mantle. "Not even your history with our dearest Champion will protect you."
A malignant shadow emerged from the wall behind Tobias. The lamp dimmed and flickered as a living shade materialized in the small kitchen.
The Baron shrank back as Darkrai melted off of the wall, dragging long inky shadows with him. "I will protect Tobias," it said. The shadow spoke in a gravelly baritone, vibrations of darkness seeming to echo the words. "You will leave."
Alberto finally lost his stomach for bravery in the face of the Shade of Alamos. He did not shriek or yell, but the Baron retreated from Tobias' table with a quiet terror. Tobias watched him open the front door of the house and retreat without a further word.
"He will be back," Tobias said in soft amusement as his expression lightened. "Of that I am certain."
The shadows seemed to soften as the shade melted back into the floor. The lamp returned to its previous shine and the sunny morning was sunny once more. Only a small splotch of inky blackness on the floor gave any clue to the presence of the strongest ghost in Sinnoh.
Tobias felt the ancient shade's mind touch his. He felt the vastness of immortality's experience and the vague agreement of an entity shrouded in darkness. "He will be back," the presence agreed.
The grave keeper nodded in solemn agreement. "And we had better be ready when he does."
Two more nights passed. Two more nights of inky splotches descending on Alamos and shutting off the stars. The Baron did not return, but Darkrai could sense the fear radiating from Alamos proper. Something terrible was truly happening.
It was the third night when it finally came. Tobias had hoped that his isolation from the town might give him some protection from whatever was afflicting the town. He had clearly been wrong.
The inky void seemed to descend from the sky like a midnight rain. It soaked into the ground, permeating and drowning any remaining light from Alamos. Even the moon disappeared behind the shadow. Only the small lantern sitting in the front room of his home offered any scant light, and even that flickered as if the darkness might reach out and extinguish it.
Tobias retreated indoors. He calmly lifted the lantern and cast his gaze around the room. The oppressive blackness seeped through his front windows and under the door. Tobias glanced over his shoulder, at the encroaching night that swept across his kitchen and lingered at the edge of his lantern's light.
"Darkrai," Tobias started. "Is this you?"
The shade rose from the floor behind him, melting into the shadows cast by Tobias' lantern. "No," intoned the ghost. "This darkness is not mine…"
Darkrai crept over Tobias' shoulder, gently reaching out with his own whispy darkness. He brushed against the wall of night and recoiled as though it had stung.
"This darkness is not of this world…" Darkrai said in an ominous whisper. "Something here is—"
The door knocked three times in short succession, silencing the shade. Tobias heard the door open, heard the heavy footfalls in the dark. He raised his lantern, trying to peer into the shadow.
It crashed down onto him without warning, dragging him down into the embrace of tartarus and blinding him utterly. But Tobias was brave. He had seen Darkrai's trick before, had known the shade when it was still a vengeful revenant. He did not feel the ghost's presence, but he would not begrudge the shade a little bit of fun.
Tobias' shoulders relaxed slightly. The darkness felt no different than it normally did to him, felt just like Darkrai's embrace always did. It was calming and peaceful and isolated from the rest of the world, just like he liked.
"Darkrai, I tire of this game." He placed the lantern down on the table at his side, a small smile crossing his face. "Enough of this."
A figure loomed from the darkness, alive with twisting tendrils of shadow. A figure that he knew well. Darkrai stepped out of the pitch black room and snuffed out the dim light of his lantern.
"Tricky little gravekeep," intoned Darkrai's grave voice. It served to make his skin crawl and the hairs on the back of his neck to raise. It was a reaction he hadn't had towards Darkrai in years. "Thought you'd stay hidden forever?"
The voice seemed to shift and alter. Tobias heard his own distinct cadence mirrored in the shade's words, as if Darkrai were making a mockery of his own voice. A new trick for the ghost.
"But I have never hidden," Tobias replied. He frowned, unsure of where the shade was taking his joke. "You know that, Darkrai. This is our home, it has been our home for years."
Darkrai's figure solidified and Tobias got a glimpse of the ghost through the unnatural darkness. Its figure was thicker at the waist than normal, a midnight shroud draped from its form.
A tendril of darkness reached up for the black hood pulled over its face. Tobias tensed up. Darkrai had never pulled its hood off before. Something was—
Darkrai was there. His Darkrai. It slid out of his shadow and forced its way in between the other shade and Tobias.
"You will leave!" Darkrai growled. The ghost radiated fury with a guttural growl. "This is our home!"
Darkness swelled before Tobias' eyes, flowing off of his shadow like a great river. He instinctively stepped in front of the lantern, casting a yet larger shadow for Darkrai to draw from.
He closed his eyes as the unnatural wall of unlight surrounded them and pressed in. He felt it prodding and reaching and shut out the world. He trusted Darkrai to see him through, no matter what this was.
A guttural, archaic howl tore through the small cabin. Tobias heard a terrible bout of thrashing and violence and dropped to his knees. A terrible wind tore through his home, and he felt the foundations shake as the two shades mauled each other.
A thunderous crack and cry of anguish forced his eyes open. Darkrai was pinned up against the front wall of his home. His Darkrai. A sea of darkness boiled and raged, drowning his friend in its own element.
He turned and crawled desperately through the pitch black. It was dark, but he knew his home and his friend needed his help. He stumbled to his feet, feeling his way into the kitchen. He felt his way to the counter, his hand brushing against the knife block. He grabbed a gleaming chef's knife as his eyes slowly adjusted to the near-total darkness.
Tobias returned to the front room, knife held outstretched before him. Indistinct shapes tore across his home, tangling and writhing with each other. He slipped through the melee, well versed in the patterns of Darkrai's usual attacks and counters. The opponent's own attacks seemed to mirror their own, their own counters reminiscent of the same strategies that Tobias had used in his league battles.
But this was no League sanctioned battle. This was an all out struggle for survival, a violent outburst that could only be sated by blood. He leapt up, spotting an opening through the thrashing maelstrom of darkness.
The other shade caught him by the throat, effortlessly halting his surprise attack. He felt only a crushing cold grip around his throat.
It turned to look at him and he saw under the black hood. He saw a face that could not, should not have been there. He saw a face twisted and corrupted by dark power that had tempted him once before.
Then it laughed. High and staccato, almost barking as it spoke in a cruel mockery of his and Darkrai's voices. "Do you understand yet, Tobias?"
It released him, dropping Tobias unceremoniously to the floor. His knife went clattering away, spirited by a shadowy wave. He scrambled to his feet, looking up at the shade that had pinned his friend to the wall.
"What are you?" he asked desperately. He backed away in fear as the creature turned towards him.
It reached up, grasping the top of its hood with a free hand and tearing it down. Tobias' own face, infested and writhing with living shadow, stared down at him in utter contempt.
It spoke, in that same twisted mockery of Tobias and Darkrai's voices. "Is that not obvious, Tobias?"
It turned and lifted his Darkrai off of the wall and Tobias saw how grievous the damage was. The shadow cloak that hung loosely around Darkrai's physical form was in tatters. Darkness leaked from spectral tears in the cloak, ebbing away what little strength Darkrai possessed.
"I am you, Tobias. A better you. A perfect you." The shade with his face leaned closer, floating down towards him. He saw the corruption rotting in the abomination's eyes. He saw the truth told by the pain contained within them. "I know you, Tobias. You long for glory. You hunger for power. You searched out this old poltergeist in search of it."
Tobias shook his head. "I don't know who you think I am, foul spirit. But I am not glory fiend. I seek no violence."
"I'm afraid that the violence found you," the spirit growled. It lifted Darkrai, savaging it with a glowing spectral claw and spraying Tobias' home with ectoplasm before it looked down at him. "You'll be coming with me, Tobias. We have much to do."
It dropped the shade on the floor and descended on Tobias. Darkness and shadow consumed the pair and surged back out the doors and window. Flickering light and warmth spilled out into the small home once more.
The dim flame of Tobias' lantern illuminated the empty cabin. Empty, save for the crumpled and oozing shade that lay motionless on the floor.
The sun had never held much lustre for him. He was a creature of the night, an instrument of darkness that prowled on the night of the new moon. The sun that woke him now held none of the power that his preferred celestial body did.
He rose from the floor, nursing the tattered fabric of shadows that he cloaked himself in. They had been damaged, torn from him by claws that mimicked his own. He cast his gaze about, drawing in the meagre shadows of the day and spinning them into the remnants of his cloak. It was not much, practically translucent and possessing none of the power he had meticulously stored in his previous cloak. But still, it would serve until he could destroy the other shade and reclaim his stolen shadow.
Then it hit him with the crushing recognition of his failure. It had gone. The revenant that wore Tobias' face and commanded its own cloak of darkness had gone. It had taken his friend. It had taken Tobias.
Darkrai mentally chastised himself for not warning Tobias sooner. The strange darkness in the sky, the sense of unease filling him, the putrid Baron's fearful warning, he had ignored the signs of danger until it had been too late. He had ignored his instincts and it had cost him.
Angry shouting approached the small house, snapping Darkrai from his failure. He floated towards the front of the house, drawing up what scant power he could gather during the day. Darkrai floated through the wall and stared malevolently down at the rabble marching up the hill.
The Baron marched at the head of the procession. His attendants trailed behind him, an armed retinue marching along in a sturdy column behind the noble. More men marched behind them, a rabble of common folk that easily numbered in the hundreds.
Darkrai growled and drew upon what scant shadow he could muster. "I warned you to leave our home!"
"Where is Tobias?" answered the Baron. "I would have words with him, ghost."
Darkrai gauged the collection of souls before him. All of them burned in anger. All of them felt tainted by fear of the shade's unnatural darkness.
"He is…" he trailed off, watching a half dozen pokemon spring from their balls and swell the ranks of the mob. "Not present," finished Darkrai.
Baron Alberto set his jaw. He met Darkrai's gaze and refused to waver. "Ghost, I will not ask you again."
He released a lickiliky beside him, a fat pink blob that stared hard at Darkrai's malevolent form.
"You and your master stand accused of murder," Baron Alberto spat. He seemed emboldened by the mob at his back and Tobias' absence. He stepped forward, away from the safety of the group for a moment. "What say you, ghost?"
Darkrai felt righteous fury swell through him. Tobias was gone and this imbecile had the gall to accuse the quiet grave keep of a crime.
Darkrai drew up what darkness he had gathered into his cloak and dimmed the mid-morning sky. He was weakened and injured, but Sinnoh's shade still had fight left yet. "I said, STAY AWAY FROM OUR HOME!"
Darkrai did not wait for the Baron to order an attack. He could feel the terror and anger, the blinding fear that blocked out all reason. Darkrai felt it all and realized a simple truth. He did not care. These people despised Tobias because of him. They despised him because he was not human. Darkrai felt that realization snap into place and knew what he had to do.
Baron Alberto's mouth was open, no doubt shouting some insult or verbal jab. Darkrai reached through the man's shadow, wreathing himself in the scant darkness. It was not as effective or as quick as it would have been at night, but it was deadly nonetheless.
Darkrai burst from the shadow on the Baron's throat. His claw tore a wide gash in the man's jugular and Darkrai separated the head from the body with a savage tear.
He heard screaming, a vapid useless outburst that only divided his attention. He focused on the pokemon already moving to defend the living, driving a spectral claw into the lickiliky's gut and tearing an irreparable rend in the normal type.
A pachirisu attempted to loose a bolt of lightning upon him, but Darkrai spun on a dime and loosed a ball of crackling shadow that smote the pachirisu completely. Chaos and shadow tore across the small hill leading to their home. Chaos and shadow was loosed for the first time in years.
He did not know when the attacks stopped coming. He did not know when the mob stopped fighting back. But, once the corpses lay still and cold, he knew that he had gone too far.
Tobias would be furious and sad and disappointed. Darkrai was not a creature of hate, but of shadow and night. Darkrai was not supposed to delight in violence and yet he had. Darkrai looked to the sky, to the mid-day sun that cut through and dispelled his shadow.
Tobias had liked the sky. That much he had always made clear to Darkrai. He taught Darkrai about the phases of the moon, though he already knew them by instinct, and about the sun and the stars. He taught Darkrai about the constellations and stories told by the night's sky and the lessons imparted by those stories.
Darkrai saw himself now in one of those stories, in an old tale about Hisui's nightmare. He knew now that the tale told of Darkrai at his darkest, spreading terror and death across the region until a brave hero captured him and taught him kindness. He remembered now, the old man slipping away after so many years and him returning to the ways of shadow and death.
He did not want to return to the shade.
Darkrai knew at once that he had to rescue his friend. He knew that he would fall back into shadow and death without Tobias and he did not want to. He looked back at the small house, ignoring the corpses strewn about the path. He would save his friend. Darkrai would not fall. Not now, not ever again. He had a friend once more. He would save his friend.
The Shadow of Sinnoh melted into the small shadow cast by the house and disappeared from sight.
Slowly and carefully, it rose from the shadows cast by the hill itself. It descended on the scene of the slaughter, puppeting the empty vessels that had been left behind for its own purposes. The shade knew that Darkrai would return for Tobias. The shade would be ready when he did.
Tobias woke to the greeting of endless darkness. He blinked in surprise and scowled when the darkness did not abate. He knew what that had to have meant. He was alive, a prisoner of a shade that reflected the worst of his potential.
He listened carefully, gently testing the bonds that held his wrists. He felt the restraints tighten at the test and decided against forcing them until he knew more.
"It won't work," said a woman's voice.
Tobias jumped, startled by the sudden sound.
"It can feel the darkness," she continued. "It knew the moment you woke up."
Tobias stopped moving and sat up. He could see nothing, but that was by design. "We have to stop it," he started. "Whatever it's here for, we can't let it take it."
He neglected to mention that the shade had apparently been searching for him. And that now that it had him, he had no clue what was going to happen.
The woman snorted derisively. "Tonio said the same thing," she started. "Tonio is—"
"Dead," Tobias finished.
The woman swallowed the lump that had formed. "He is dead, then?"
Tobias cursed himself for his carelessness. "Yes," he replied solemnly. "He was found in the gardens…"
He heard a muffled sob and fell silent. He had never enjoyed interaction with other people, much less guiding another through a traumatic loss. "I am sorry," he said quietly. "The Baron brought him to be buried. I performed the last rites myself."
She fell silent as well. "Tobias, then…" she asked ominously.
He grunted an affirmation. She did not respond immediately and Tobias feared the worst. That she believed he was the shade.
"It wears your face," she said apprehensively, confirming his fears. "Claims to be you as well."
Tobias grimaced. "It may well be me," he said quietly. "I don't understand how myself." He shook his head. "It claimed to be me, perfected. I cannot claim to understand. I suspect that it is beyond even our dear Champion's understanding."
He heard the woman sigh heavily. "My apologies then, grave keeper."
"It is of no import," he said. "My face or not, some corrupted reflection or not, we must escape. The Royal Congress must be—"
"They will burn," said the dark mockery of his voice. "Pompous fools, one and all. This universe is filled with them."
Tobias looked out through the darkness, trying to pierce the veil and see anything. But the blackout was total and not a single mote of light reached his eyes.
"You will all burn in time. That much is certain." The voice drifted and echoed around the room, seemingly emanating from everywhere and nowhere at once. "Once I have Oracion and your evolution is complete, we will scour this world of life together!"
He grimaced. "Begone, foul spirit. My resolve is—"
It had him by the throat, dragging him through the darkness. He kicked out helplessly, his boots uselessly smacking against the floor. Then he felt it lift him, felt the cold breath of death brush against his skin.
As soon as it had come, it was gone. He was falling backwards through the void. He hit the ground hard, the wind driving from his lungs.
He heard another struggling shout, and the slow scraping of someone being dragged across the floor from above. Then she screamed as she plummeted down towards him. Tobias scrambled to move, but she landed hard on his chest and crushed him back down to the ground.
"Do you think that your resolve matters?" the voice asked cruelly. "Do you think that you can somehow stop this?"
The darkness seemed to abate slightly and Tobias caught a glimpse of an empty nights sky. Tendrils of billowing shadow streamed out of the tower and blocked out the quiet night.
There was still some scant light though, provided by the few residents that had yet to abandon Alamos. Either that, or the shade had simply left them on to offer some fake hope to the few still left alive.
He saw them through the dim light, shambling towards them with arms outstretched.
"Get off!" Tobias coughed, shoving the woman off him.
She scrambled to her feet and looked towards the figures. Tobias heard the sharp intake of breath. Then she screamed and ran, bowling him over as she disappeared into the dark.
Tobias forced himself up. He had to move, he knew what the figures were before they even drew close to him. He had seen what Darkrai could do. He'd seen it puppet corpses and parade them around in a macabre imitation before. He knew that save for striking at the shade itself, he had no recourse.
So Tobias did the only thing he could. He ran headlong into the dark and prayed that he was faster than the monster hunting him.
Writhing, twisting shadow crept across the face of the crescent moon. The small, uninhabited island below rippled as though it protested to the obstruction of the moonlight. Then the blanket of night expanded and spread as it blocked out the rest of the moon.
A beam of solid moonlight carved through his unnatural darkness, illuminating the island once more. A glittering creature coalesced from the moonlight, glowing bands of rainbow light spinning around his sibling's vaguely avian body. Her indistinct shape shifted and blurred behind the rainbows obscuring her true form.
Darkrai gathered what shadow he still possessed and pulled it close to him, leaving only his form as a silhouette against the pale background of the moon. He pulled the cloak over himself and swept back into the night. It was dark here, darker even than sleepy Alamos. While he would have preferred a new moon, the night's sky was a comfort during any of the lunar phases. The shade disappeared into the darkness and rose anew from the shadows cast upon Crescent Isle.
The shade lifted his head to look at the creature borne of glimmering light. "Dear sister," he began in his grim, gravelly tone. "You are radiant as ever."
The moonlight seemed to dance and shimmer around her. "Why have you come, Darkrai?" She floated forward and banished the remainder of his cloak with a warm glow. "Has the human perished yet?"
Darkrai felt a dagger of pain drive into his chest. Tobias couldn't be dead. Not yet. He would know. He cast the pain aside and hardened his heart. "There is another," he began. "Another human, another Darkrai."
"Impossible," she replied. The bands of rainbow light spun around her and Darkrai could sense her disbelief. "You are Darkrai. There is no other."
"It is not of this world. It is a foul, unholy abomination of the night. They had merged. Become one being, one whole." Darkrai shook his head and could feel frustration building. "It plans the same for us. It took him."
"Your human?" Cresselia replied. Her disdain was clear in her tone. "Find another. There are many."
Darkrai growled. "There is no other like Tobias." He felt the darkness swirl around him as he drew what he could into Cresselia's light. "I must rescue him. If only to banish that…" Darkrai trailed off.
"This creature… it bothers you?" she asked.
He raised his head and looked upon the shifting mirage around her. "It does. Tobias and I… we have—"
"Hmph" Cresselia interrupted. "You joined with him, didn't you?"
Darkrai nodded. "He has served as my vessel once before. It was… a powerful experience."
Cresselia seemed to retreat from him for a brief moment. "Creator forbade that," she began. "Forbade us from joining with a human. They have no right to your power, brother."
"I had no choice before," he replied. "What I did saved Tobias and defeated a man who sought to remake this world and supplant Creator." He shook his head, knowing that his suggestion was a long shot. "There was another—"
"I will not allow that meddlesome woman to serve as my vessel," Cresselia answered. "She is—"
"The most powerful human on the planet," Darkrai interrupted back. "Champion Queen of Sinnoh, Grand Champion of the Pokemon League and bearing blood blessed by Creator itself. She is a worthy vessel, perhaps one meant for one greater than yourself."
Cresselia narrowed her gaze and Darkrai could feel her displeasure at being outshone by Giratina, or even Creator itself. She did not respond for a long while, forcing Darkrai to wait and feel the intensity of her displeasure.
She was not one to be forced into decisions, but he had no choice. He leaned forward. "I must—"
"I will do it," Cresselia responded. "but not for you or the human. I do this only to claim her as my Vessel."
Darkrai's cold, baleful eyes met hers. "Then we have a Champion to speak with."
Cresselia did not answer and simply disappeared on a beam of moonlight. Darkrai's summoned what darkness the trees on the island cast and melted into the blackness of the night's sky.
Tobias had decided that he was supremely sick of the dark. He stumbled over something, the step up to the Baron's long hall, and scrambled back to his feet. The corpses that lumbered after him in the night were not quick but they were persistent.
He kept moving as he navigated Alamos by memory. He cursed himself more than once for not spending more time in town, losing his bearings as he passed the long hall and walked into one of the market stalls.
"I can see you, Tobias!"
The voice was taunting him now. He refused to give the creature an inch of satisfaction. An opponent refusing to engage in his banter, refusing to engage at all, set him on edge and infuriated him to no end. If it really was him, he knew exactly how to push his own buttons.
A powerful beam of light cut through the darkness. It swept across the market square as a half dozen townsfolk wandered into the market bearing lanterns and flashlights.
Tobias ran for them headlong. He waved his arms as a half dozen beams of light painted him. "Run!" he shouted. "Return to your homes!"
A nervous murmur spread across the crowd. Then one of the flashlights swept across the shambling corpses crossing the market and panic seized hold. The crowd scattered as horrified shrieks echoed across the market.
Tobias felt fear ripple through the air as the townsfolk rushed and ran in every direction. He could hear the guttural groans of the walking corpses and the terrifying screech of a townsperson that strayed too close to one of the dead.
The woman's scream shocked him into motion. He moved with purpose, grabbing up the half finished shaft of a spear that sat beside the blacksmith's cart. He didn't wait for the dead to force his hand and dove into the madness.
Baron Alberto's corpse shambled towards him out of the dark. A beam from one of the flashlights shone in Tobias' face for a half moment, but he struck true.
The spear sank deep and tore through the Baron's core, dropping the puppeted corpse to the dirt where it continued to struggle. Tobias wrenched it free, ignoring the pained grunt that the creature emitted. He didn't have time for sentiment. These people were dead, already tainted by shadow. He could not afford the sentimentality, if he had possessed any for them in the first place.
His spear burst through the chest of the puppet. The woman struggling in its grasp screamed and bolted as the corpse's grip slackened. Tobias didn't take the time to keep track of her in the dark. He couldn't spare her even a moment.
Tobias ripped the spear free and bashed the spinning corpse with the butt end. It fell to the ground where it still attempted to rise as through it hadn't just been impaled. Tobias drove the spear into the ground, trapping the corpse to the dirt.
More shouting reached Tobias' ears. The din of battle rang through the small, sleepy town of Alamos and a warm orange glow sprang up at his back.
Fire. A fire was growing, engulfing one of the market stalls as it hungrily reached up into the darkness. The creatures shambled towards the sudden flame as encroaching shadows descended on Alamos' survivors.
They had taken up weapons. A few of the men had grabbed up some of the blacksmith's half finished work. One of them brandished a hammer that was too large for his body, and another held one of the few mostly completed blades in a useless and shaking hand.
Tobias looked up to the sky, at the ominous figure that floated in the encroaching shadow. He saw where the shade's attention lay and saw his chance. The townsfolk would never make it, not with the shade actively hunting them. But he could make a difference if he could just get a call for help out.
Tobias ran. He ran and he didn't look back. Not even when he heard the dead descend on what remained of Alamos. He ran and ran until his lungs could take no more and he had very nearly left Alamos itself.
He burst into the small home and cast his gaze around desperately. A single lantern was dimly shining under the table, obscured by a large tablecloth that hung down to the floor. The small face of a child appeared from under the cloth, looking up at him in terror.
"They went out looking for the monster," the child started. "I don't know—"
"Where is your phone, child?"
The boy pointed over at the small cabinet, and Tobias saw the old rotary phone sitting and waiting. He lifted the handset and began dialling the only number he had ever bothered to commit to memory.
The picture was a hellish reminder of the life they had once held. It sat there on her mantle, as if it mocked her with the possibilities of what could have been. He was smiling back at the camera, an arm draped around her shoulder while she smiled absently at him. Their teams were happily frolicking in the background, like half of them wouldn't be dead by the end of that year
Cynthia shook her head and walked over to the picture. She placed it face down and frowned. Tobias wouldn't have liked her moping around as if he had gone and gotten himself killed. That was why he went to live in a sleepy little hamlet where nothing ever happened. So that he could be bored and alive for as long as he had left. And so that Darkrai stopped terrorizing the more antagonistic half the Royal Congress, though he refused to admit that part to Cynthia.
Her cellphone lit up on the table, a furious guitar riff announcing its anger to the world. She turned and froze on the spot. A murky shade was lurking in the window, casting an impossibly dark shadow that did nothing to dim the brilliant light shining through.
Cynthia did not speak, mentally gauging the threat. Darkrai had never been outright hostile towards her before, but shades were unpredictable at the best of times. Legion, her wily and irritable spiritomb, was evidence enough of that.
"Why have you come, spirit?" she crossed to her small bar and sat, pulling out a bottle of amber liquid and a glass. "I take it that Tobias has not deigned to make the trip along with you?"
Darkrai floated in through the window, an errant breeze silencing the candles she had burning there. "I was unsure of what to do, your grace. I am rather unused to making my own decisions of this magnitude."
Cynthia almost snorted at the shade's words. "You were a ruthless savage last we met. Does Tobias have you observing the pleasantries now?"
Darkrai nodded slowly and Cynthia felt pride radiate from the shade. "He teaches me of your ways well. Though, that is not why I have come." The shade moved aside and the brilliant beam of light he had been obscuring took form in Cynthia's study.
Rainbow beams of moonlight refracted off of her mirror. They swirled back around an indistinct form until they solidified into a corporeal body. The creature emitted a soft tone and loomed over the woman.
Cynthia gasped and bowed her head in reverence. She fell to her knees and lowered her voice in reverence. "Lady Cresselia," she began.
"Child," replied the moon goddess. "The world is endangered. You have served Creator well and saved the world before. Fate would demand that you join me now and do so once more."
Cynthia glanced up at the pair of obscenely powerful pokemon that had invaded the privacy of her home. The Royal Congress thought of pokemon like these as gods. She did not know what to think of them as, but her past dealings with Sinnoh's legends had challenged the idea of these creatures as divine.
"Forgive me for my ignorance," Cynthia said in a quiet voice. "But I was unaware that the world was presently in danger."
Cresselia rounded on her, rainbow mist shifting into vague and indistinct images. For a brief moment she caught the unmistakable silhouette of a trapped god, before the light shifted and replaced it with something far more sinister.
She saw twisting shadows dance among the rainbow light, the laughing face of a man that she had loved puppeting the dark tendrils. Thousands of shambling figures lurched towards the unmistakable gothic spires of Sinnoh's Royal Congress.
"Tobias plans this?" Cynthia asked incredulously. "Gentle Tobias who laid down Darkrai's power by his own choosing?"
It was Darkrai's turn to float forwards and join the conversation. "Not my Tobias," the shade said grimly. He remembered the treasured photo that Tobias had kept on his mantle. "Not our Tobias," the shade corrected. "Something worse, corrupted by darkness."
Cynthia narrowed her eyes. "Then tell me, shade. What are we dealing with here?"
"A visitor," Cresselia answered. "From a world other than our own."
"It wishes to create more abominable unions like itself."
She felt her heart sank. "Just like the way you two defeated Cyrus and Giratina."
Darkrai took pause for a moment. "Yes," he answered. "This is what Tobias and I would have been had he not broken the link and separated us."
"Then we can assume that it is as powerful as the two of you were." Cynthia shifted her gaze to the moon goddess. "Then I suppose it is safe to say that is why you are here."
Pleasant satisfaction radiated from Cresselia. "You are quite correct," she said. "We must—"
Cynthia's phone rang again, loud and aggressive guitar notes breaking into a raucous solo. She turned and knew before she even reached for it who was calling.
"Hello?" Cynthia answered as she picked up the call.
Heavy, laboured breathing came through the phone speaker. "Cyn," said a solemn voice.
Darkrai reacted as though he had been electrified by the man's voice. The cloak of darkness wrapping around him seemed to deepen and expand, reaching out from around the shade to snuff out the light.
"Toby," she replied with all the pain of years lost to them both. "It's been a long time."
"You don't sound surprised."
She had to bite back the chuckle. "I had a visitor," she said as she glanced over at Darkrai. "He filled me in on the situation. Brought some help with him too."
He sighed heavily over the phone. "Thank goodness for that." He paused for a moment and she could hear other voices. Then he was back. "I don't know how much you know. But it's me. It is me."
"I know," she replied. She swallowed the lump in her throat. "how long do you have?"
"I don't know," he answered. "He's looking for something called Oracion. Toying with me by picking off Alamos Town until I give it up."
She raised an eyebrow. "What's Oracion?"
"I have no clue, and I don't know what he's going to do if he figures that out." Tobias paused for a breath and she could hear the exhaustion in his voice. "He's massacred half the—"
She sighed and opened her mouth.
A terrified shriek ripped through the call. It went dead and static crackled before the call dropped entirely.
Darkrai howled as a spectral wind ripped through the Queen Champion's spire. He disappeared on the wind, the night's sky swallowing him entirely.
Cynthia stared out the window for a moment, searching for the shade. "How am I supposed to follow that?"
Cresselia floated closer to her, a beam of rainbow moonlight enveloping the champion.
"Darkrai may use the darkened sky to travel, but there are other means to traverse the night."
The moonlight swallowed Cynthia whole, filling her with such warmth and light that she never felt as though she would be cold again.
Cresselia looked over at her. "It is time that you learned how to travel in true style. Darkrai's shadow travel may be efficient, but traveling by moonbeam is an experience like no other."
The beam of rainbow light erupted from her spire and retreated to the heavens from whence it came. Cynthia's darkened room lay empty, only an upturned picture of two old friends leaving any clue to where she had gone.
The phone rang. Tobias stood there in quiet silence as the boy looked up at him from a place beside him.
"You've reached Cynthia," her answering machine began. "Leave a message."
He sighed and put the phone back down. Perhaps it had been too much to expect her to be awake at this hour. Perhaps he had been foolish to expect her to answer.
"W-w-was that the Queen Champion?" asked the boy in a meek voice.
Tobias nodded, reminiscing of his time journeying with the Champion. "She was… an old friend."
"Can't you try her again?" the boy asked. "She can save us, I know she can."
Tobias looked back at him. A solemn expression overcame him and he felt the exhaustion in his bones. "Can anyone?" he mused quietly.
"Stop it," ordered the boy. "I don't like it. She can help us. She has to."
Tobias looked back at the boy again. He was young, an unremarkable face. Tobias had no clue who the boy even was. And yet the boy held out hope that Cynthia could come and save them if he only called again.
He lifted the phone again, dialling the number again on the rotary. It rang twice and then was picked up.
"Hello?" said the voice of a woman Tobias thought he'd never see again.
He breathed deeply and forced the exhaustion wracking his bones away for a few more moments.
"Cyn," he said in a solemn voice.
The boy's eyes lit up as he registered that she had answered Tobias' call.
"Toby," she replied, her voice wavering almost imperceptibly. "It's been a long time."
He felt a smile come back to his face. "You don't sound surprised."
"I had a visitor," she said with a measure of amusement. Tobias knew instantly that Darkrai had gone to her for help himself. "He filled me in on the situation. Brought some help with him too."
He sighed heavily and glanced down at the boy. "Thank goodness for that—"
"Get her to—"
Tobias leered over at the boy and hushed him. "Go keep a lookout for movement. Stay quiet and only make a noise to alert me if it looks like they're coming for this house." He got down on one knee. "If they do come, you stay hidden and out of sight.
The boy nodded excitedly and dashed off, bounding up the stairs louder than Tobias was happy with.
He lifted the phone and prepared himself mentally for Cynthia's reaction. "I don't know how much you know," he started ominously. "But it's me. It is me."
"I know," she replied. He could hear the wavet in her voice again. "how long do you have?"
"I don't know," he answered. "He's looking for something called Oracion. Toying with me by picking off Alamos Town until I give it up." He leaned against the wall, feeling exhaustion come again in a wave.
"What's Oracion?" Cynthia asked.
Tobias sighed in frustration. "I have no clue, and I don't know what he's going to do if he figures that out." He paused for a breath, fighting to keep himself awake. "He's massacred half the—"
The house came apart on a gale of shadow. Tobias saw a brief glimpse of light as the lantern tumbled off the table and then was snuffed out completely. The cacophony of wooden beams snapping and bricks crumbling was all around him but no debris touched him.
Tobias clicked on his flashlight and he was there. Draped in a cloak of living darkness and standing on limbs that were never human, Tobias grinned back at him from a void that swallowed all the light.
"So," Tobias started. He knew he had to stall for time, but he wasn't sure how long he would give himself. "Let me guess, you never separated from Darkrai when you merged to stop Cyrus and Giratina."
The alternate him nodded his head slowly. Twisting lines of shadow ran along his face, corrupting and marring Tobias' own face. "An astute guess," the alter replied in a cruel mockery of Darkrai's gravelly undertone. "I presume that you did?"
Tobias nodded slowly. "I knew what remaining merged with Darkrai would do to me."
"And you still refused it?"
He fell silent for a moment and swallowed the lump in his throat. He hadn't wanted to separate from Darkrai. He'd wanted to stay together, to drown a cruel world in darkness together.
"No," he replied. "I just chose someone else over giving in to the darkness."
The shade smiled in a cruel replication of Tobias' own. "You chose the Champion," he stated plainly.
Tobias raised an eyebrow. "And you did not?"
It was the shade's turn to dwell on a memory now. Tobias saw the pain there and knew that he had struck something. "She was already gone. Cyrus took her with him and sacrificed her to that… thing." The shade looked back at him and he saw the pain in his corrupted eyes. "I never had that choice."
"My condolences," Tobias said quietly. "But the darkness you dwell in… it is not necessary. You can be more. You and Darkrai both. You can both be whole once more."
The alter closed his eyes. His shoulders bobbed once, then twice. Then the alter broke into laughter, tossing his head backwards. He laughed madly as his shadows echoed and rippled with Darkrai's own laughter underlying the man's.
"Did you believe that you could talk me down?"
The alter bore down on him, wrapping him in shadow and pinning his arms to his sides. Only the scantest amount of light peeked through the cloak of darkness, leaving only glowing and corrupted eyes in the blackness.
"I have become a god, greater than you could ever imagine being. I am made perfect. And I am merely just a soldier in his army."
The shadows squeezed him tighter as they rocketed through the air. Tobias bit back a sob of terror and dismay as the shade carried him into the sky above the sleepy hamlet.
Alamos town was burning. Raging flames tore through the market, casting shadows that danced with glee at the destruction. A path of flames traced back and forth across the town, leading back towards the Baron's home and the tower that stood there.
The base of the tower was aflame, the gardens illuminating the figures gathered and waiting for them.
The shadows released them as they swooped over the garden courtyard. Tobias plummeted the ten feet to the ground and landed hard. He groaned and forced himself up to his knees as the shade landed in front of the tower.
"I will ask again," the alter began. "Hand over Oracion. Hand it over and I will relinquish my hold on Alamos. You may bury the dead in peace and be allowed to live out the rest of your pathetic existence."
The Tobias alter grinned monstrously and Tobias knew what was next before he even started talking. "Or," it continued, pausing for dramatic effect. "Hand over Oracion and join with Darkrai once more. We could rule this universe along with my own, even challenge him once we gain our strength."
Tobias swallowed the lump in his throat. "No," he said calmly.
Shadow swooped from above and drowned out the light of the fires. All he could see was a faint hellish glow and the vague outline of his own face.
"You heard me!" Tobias shouted as he struggled up to his feet. "I don't know what Oracion is, nor where to find it! I am useless to you, just a pathetic man who refused power."
He felt a cold grasp on his throat and fought for breath, trying desperately to get one last snide insult out before his copy throttled him to death.
"Then die no—"
Darkrai hit the Tobias alter like a frenzied beast, claws glowing with a violet light. The alter shrank back, it's cloak of darkness being shredded by the sudden assault. It drew shadows in from every source, dancing flames casting a thousand shadows at once.
It was a flood against an arrow. Darkrai had the advantage of sudden surprise, but against a tide of shadow that Darkrai could not control, an arrow was useless.
Then the cavalry arrived. The moon pulsed with soft cleansing light, banishing the writhing shadows cast by the fires. The Tobias alter drew up what it could but the moon shone brighter than the midday sun. A beam of light descended from the heavens, wiping away the corpses that shambled clumsily towards them. It hit the earth and Tobias saw nothing except the flash of light.
Cynthia was there, standing astride a living rainbow. Tobias felt a warmth in his chest, felt his heart pounding in the presence of Sinnoh's Champion Queen.
He got to his feet. "You came," he said quietly. "Thank you, my lad—"
"Did you actually think I wasn't coming?"
Tobias paused for a moment. "I knew you could never resist a battle like this."
Cynthia wrinkled her nose. "Well one of us has to save the world." She glanced around, seemingly mourning the burning gardens and tower. "And you seem to be doing a fantastic job of it."
Darkrai crashed to the ground in front of them, growling as he retreated towards the pair.
"Ah, to remember the love we shared…"
Cynthia knew what Tobias had said, but her jaws dropped. "You weren't kidding. It's you."
Tobias shot her an annoyed glare.
"You will join me Tobias. Whether I have to force the merger myself or not, you will join me."
Shadows swelled and roared off the tower in streams. They rose into the sky, joining with all the darkness of the night.
Cynthia tensed up, glowing as she allowed Cresselia's power to flow through her. The moon seemed to pulse in unison as the Champion Queen erupted with divine light.
A moon beam smote Cynthia and the moon goddess, supercharging their light as the entire night's sky crashed down upon them.
Tobias felt the weight of the darkness bearing down on them, felt the unbearable pressure suck the very breath from his lungs. Gods were doing battle now. Powers never intended to be used upon the mortal plane clashed and swirled, ripping the ground itself with the violence of their meeting.
He felt his stomach spinning, felt reality losing its hold on him. He reached out for Cynthia, calling out to her as the air was sucked from his lungs.
The void itself descended on the Champion Queen's light. Rainbow beams and burning energy beat back the night but it advanced all the same. He felt exhaustion returning to cloud his mind and fought against the urge to fall asleep.
Then the clash was over as quickly as it had begun. The two gods separated, their light and shadow retreating towards their forms. Darkrai landed in front of Tobias protectively, growling at the alter.
Slowly, painfully, the ancient tower that stood in Alamos' gardens for hundreds of years bent backwards and collapsed. Dust and ash blew up in a huge cloud, smoke and flame leaping eagerly to swallow more of the structure.
"You are more formidable than my own Cynthia was."
Cynthia sneered at the alter's words. "Did she think you were as insufferable as I do?"
The Tobias alter screwed up his face in anger. He raised his arms, drawing up a thousand spear points of darkness. He cast his arms forward in anger and Tobias knew that Cynthia could never stop them all.
He knew what the only option was. He knew what he had to do to save the woman he loved.
He forced himself up, reaching out for Darkrai. He opened himself up to the shade, drawing the lonely pokemon in for something they had both long craved.
Darkrai's shadow touched Tobias' hand and the two halves became one.
He moved effortlessly across the shadow, drawing upon every scrap of darkness he could reach. He threw up everything he had, desperate to blunt his reflection's attack.
Darkness met darkness. Shadow wrestled with shadow. Then moonlight erupted once more, annihilating the night for a brief moment.
Tobias felt inspiration strike him like a bolt of lightning. He knew what he had to do. He knew what had to happen.
He reformed his cloak, stealing the darkness he could from his alter's grasp. Tobias-Darkrai launched himself at the copy before he could gain a chance to recover.
They collided in mid-air, two shades wrestling under the cover of impenetrable darkness. Cynthia drew up what light she could, pulsing the moon in response as she readied Cresselia's moonlight once more.
They hit the earth, tainting the very ground with sinister shadow. Cynthia held back for a moment as the cloak of darkness cleared slightly.
The copy struggled and writhed under the claws of Tobias. His face was flecked with shadow, complexion ghostly white. He struggled to hold the copy in place but his eyes never left Cynthia's.
"Do it," he ordered in a voice that was no longer his own. A voice that Cynthia had only heard once before. "Kill us," he begged in a defeated tone that she knew was his.
She hesitated, the light fading slightly. "I can't do that, Toby."
Tobias snarled at her and she saw the corrupted visage of his reflection peek through. "I won't separate from Darkrai this time," he said solemnly. "I won't make that choice again."
"Maybe you don't have to," Cynthia replied. "I'm different now too. I'm powerful… like you."
Tobias shook his head with the knowledge of a cursed soul. "You aren't like me, Cyn. You aren't like him." He looked down at the copy and sneered again. "I can feel his line of thinking in my own head. I can feel the urge to be what he is, to do what he does." He shook his head slowly. "I don't want that."
She shook her head as she held back the tears. "I… How would I…"
Cresselia turned her head to look at the Champion Queen. "It is my brother's wish as well," the moon goddess said. "They wish to do this as penance for what happened to Alamos."
She shook her head. "I cannot kill them. I cannot—"
"You will," replied Cresselia. "It is our duty."
Cynthia raised an arm. The moon goddess lit up along with her, a beam of moonlight supercharging their power.
Cynthia met his eyes. She saw the shadows dancing behind his pupils. She saw that Tobias believed he was right. She knew what she had to do.
"I'm sorry, Toby."
Cresselia's light flowed through them both. It lit up the burning remnants of the gardens, wiping away shadows with the intensity of a star. She didn't let up until the sun rose and a new day began.
She didn't say anything as Cresselia returned them to her spire. She didn't say anything when her servants entered her quarters to rouse her for the day. She simply mourned the loss, lamenting a love that could no longer be.
Unknown Location, Unknown Universe
"The Shade failed, just as you predicted."
Giovanni turned to the speaker, looking away from the display screen for a moment. "Just as I predicted that he would also plan to betray me at the first opportunity."
Another voice piped up. "Do we plan to try again? Is this particular version of Oracion not what we require?"
Giovanni shook his head. "Unfortunately, with the tower destroyed, Oracion would be useless to us." He scowled and turned his attention back to the display. "There are other ways to bend Arceus to our will, my friends. It is but a pokemon. Rainbow Rocket will find a way." He turned out, smiling at his recruits from across every corner of the multiverse. "We always do."
