Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. I do however own these characterizations of two members of the Darkrai species.

Chapter Seventeen:
Demons

-o-O~OOO~O-o-

Darkrai took a deep breath and approached Tobias, who was setting up for the evening with Alex. The two had grown a bit closer over the past four days of traveling, and now shared many of the chores that came with setting up and tearing down camp in the mornings and evenings. Darkrai had wondered if they would start sharing sleeping arrangements, as it had seen the other Pokémon do on occasion, but thankfully, the tent remained a place exclusively for the legendary and its trainer.

Darkrai still wasn't quite sure what to make of the more powerful dark type that traveled with Tobias, but it had respected its fellow's wishes for five solid days and four nights, and Darkrai was frankly getting tired of all the hints Alex kept dropping when she should have been falling asleep next to it. So, Darkrai felt that it was high time to clear this mystery up.

Tobias nodded in compliance, releasing his own Darkrai, and turned away to give the two privacy.

"I take that this means you're ready to talk?" The more experienced legendary folded its arms and cocked its head as it formed.

"As much as I ever will be," Darkrai replied, still on guard around the Pokémon that could cut its fellow in half with a sneeze.

Even though Darkrai couldn't see the other's mouth, it knew it was frowning. "I'm not going to hurt you—I've said that before, and I still mean it."

Darkrai returned the invisible frown. "Many have said that before, almost none have truly meant it."

Something almost akin to guilt flashed in the other's eye as it glanced away. "I have something to ask you, youngling, but I know you will not understand unless I first tell you a story."

The other settled on the ground, putting itself at a disadvantage in open invitation to its fellow. Darkrai settled a few feet away, though it remained on alert in case of a ruse. "Speak then, and I will listen as well as I am able."

With a nod, the other began its tale. "Twenty two years ago, I came across a young woman crying in the woods. She was saddened that her parents would not let her wed her lover, and swore to flee with him if they would not change their minds. I listened as she outpoured her heart to the shadows—though I doubt she knew I was there, I felt that she hoped someone would hear her. While her tears ran out and dried upon her cheeks, I revealed myself to her. Though she started then, I soon put her enough at ease so that she confessed to me, in utter earnesty, her combined hopes and fears of her situation and future. So moved was I by her anguish, I pledged that, no matter where life led her, I would protect her. I would stand by her side through all her trials, silently, from the shadows, supporting her as she befriended me. Though I bonded with her then, heart-to-heart, mind-to-mind, soul-to-soul, it was a promise I failed to keep.

"For though she eventually wed her sweetheart—under a full moon, I may add—all was not pleasant. Soon the romance darkened, waned as if pushed with the tides. I had tried to uphold my vow to her, to protect her from the man she loved, for even as she had been with child, he began to aggress upon her, and I retaliated, filling his dreams with visions of terror, of what may happen to him if he continued with his rage. It shocked me greatly that, once she had learned of my interference, my bonded begged me to cease. And, as old and weathered as I may be, I had little knowledge of the affairs of the human heart, and I deferred to her wisdom in such matters, leaving the matter for her to solve.

"She did not solve it." The other paused briefly, staring into the distance. "Eleven and a half years ago, I had to break from my watch of her to retreat in solitude to my island for the duration of the new moon. Upon my return, I learned she had passed. Though her once-prince-charming took no blame in the laws of man, I knew the truth of the matter, and I swore a new oath. This one, revenge."

The other paused again, still staring off into nothing, but with its talons clinched into fists at its side. "And I delivered vengeance upon the man as only one of our kind can. Night after night, I plagued him with terror, scenes of what he had done, pulled straight from his own unfelt guilt. The first few nights, only his belated wife appeared, though soon, another demon swam from the depths of his consciousness to torment him. The child that they had had. The child that, until his primary target had gone beyond his reach, had been safe from his ire."

The other glanced at Tobias. "I made another oath then, to protect this child as I had, for a long time, protected his mother. Sadly, as with his mother, this oath I broke, too. For of the three oaths I made that night, I was only able to keep one."

Darkrai, who had been following along silently while trying to decode the other's archaic way of speaking, cocked its head in confusion, wondering if it had missed something. "Three oaths?"

The other turned back to its fellow and continued as if it hadn't heard. "I remember the details of that night vividly. Both the man and the child had fallen asleep for the night, though both knew of the nightmares that awaited them, neither could resist the pull of slumber. I had not intended the child to suffer as well, but I took the event as opportunity rather than discouragement, and after I had aided the man's demons in destroying the shattered remnants of his soul, I went to help the boy against his own tormentors.

"Unfortunately, I was intercepted by a trainer wishing passage on one of the family's boats. He stumbled upon the man and the child in the throws of their nightmares, and rushed the boy to the Center—for he sensed that this ailment was no ordinary night terror, and suspected a Pokémon to be the cause.

"I followed the boy to the Center, whereupon they 'cured' his state with a feather from the Dream-Bringer, Cresselia. Opportunity lost, I hurried back to the man to ensure that his own, far more just, demons would not suffer the same fate. I needn't have feared. For by the time I had returned, a most curious thing had happened."

The other hummed thoughtfully, interrupting its tale to muse, "I suppose I should have suspected that such an event may occur—for what other way could we have come about?" It shook its head, returning to its narration. "You see, as I had helped the man's demons to win their fight against his corrupted soul, they retained the energy necessary to consume his tattered life force, bolstering their own so that they, unified into one entity, took on conscious thought… and a physical form." The other locked eyes with Darkrai. "You see, the third oath I made that night was to you. I had not expected you to come along, but I knew as soon as I saw you, hovering above the man's lifeless body, blinking in wonder at the world around you, that you were my responsibility—my oath to keep; your safety—and that possibly, with me at your side, your life would not be filled with such terrors and disappointments as mine."

Darkrai stared in silent shock at the one claiming to have given it life, unable to muster a single word as the other continued morosely, looking away. "It was not to be, however, as by the time I had gathered myself enough to greet you, the trainer arrived with the accursed feather, hoping to do the same unto the man as he had the boy. To keep you from being discovered and harmed, I moved to interpose myself between the trainer and his target, drawing him into a battle and shouting for you to flee.

"By the time I was able to disengage from the fight, you had fled far—too far for me to follow in my weakened state." The other shook its head in regret. "I tried to find the boy then, but he too had left, taken beyond my reach to an unknown place. He had been 'cleansed' of my essence by the feather, so I could not track him that way. Within the span of a single month, I had broken three of the most important promises in my life, yet kept the most petty."

Though the other fell silent again, Darkrai still could not find words to put to the turbulent swirl of emotions raging inside its head, not even as the elder Darkrai turned to it beseechingly. "I spent the next eight years searching for you, always circling back to my island in hopes that you had found your way back to me. Nearly three years ago, I felt the presence of another Darkrai coming from the city where this all started. It was a lie." The other glared at the ground in vindictive rage. "Two humans and a Pokémon created a machine that could mimic the aura of a Darkrai, giving the entire town nightmares so that they could peddle false feathers of the Lunar-Dancer, not sparing a thought for the perversion of nature they brought about with their scheme.

"Though the machine was destroyed soon after, I could not bring myself to leave behind the only trace, no matter how false it may have been, I'd had of you for nearly a decade. The humans were not… pleased by my continued presence in the town, and summoned Cresselia herself to force me to flee. So I left. Yet… I could not search for you any longer. It was too painful."

The other stared into Darkrai's eyes, as if looking for an answer to a question it had yet to ask. Still, Darkrai said nothing while the other looked away again, back toward Tobias. "This was the state the boy I had failed to protect found me in. He had returned to his home after eight years of journeying, and brought with him a powerful team. I admit, I did not recognize him after so long apart—for he was no longer the boy I knew, but a man in his own right—and I attacked him directly upon hearing his wish to catch me." The other glanced down to its talons. "He still bears the scares of my rage upon his back."

This prompted Darkrai to finally break its silence, gazing between its own claws and Alex, who was sitting by the fire, talking to Tobias. "I… hurt Alex too. When we first met."

The other's mouth twitched up in an invisible smile. "To rephrase something Tobias once told me; 'We impact the lives of those around us in a very literal manner.' "

Darkrai looked back to its fellow. "So, Tobias caught you…"

The other nodded. "Yes. He only needed to use one single Poké Ball. As soon as I felt him, I knew who he was, and I fought no longer. A few months after I helped him win a major competition, Tobias heard tale of another Darkrai making its home on my old island. And though I wished with all my heart to see you again, I did not want to draw attention to you by asking Tobias, who by then was quite famous, to visit his home town once more. I had thought that my old home would serve you well as sanctuary, and by the time I knew I was mistaken, I also knew it was too late.

"I knew that if you sensed a being so much more powerful than yourself intruding upon your territory, you would be far more inclined to flee than listen to an old demon tell you a story of how you came to be. Tobias learned of my interest in the Darkrai of New Moon Island, and promised me that he would keep an eye on the situation, and track down any trainer that managed to catch you so that we could finally talk."

Darkrai blinked. "And here we are."

"And here we are," the other echoed.

The younger legendary considered its elder for a moment before speaking again. "You wanted to ask me something?"

"Yes…" the other said hesitantly, "What I ask of you now, I know I have no right to even consider that I deserve. But, perhaps you could find it within your soul to give it anyway." The other took a deep breath. "I ask only for your forgiveness, and the opportunity to be for you now what I failed to become so many years ago… But, I will amend the request I have held on my tongue for over a decade, as I see now that you already have a very capable guardian." It nodded to Alex. "I request to be your teacher, to inform and instruct you on the ways and legends of our kind, so that you may be more capable in whatever ventures the future may hold for you."

Darkrai, stunned by the display of humility from the far more powerful being, took a moment to reflect on the tale that had just been told. If the story was indeed true, and Darkrai really didn't have any reason to doubt it, than the young legendary's hellish life had been the product of several unfortunate incidents—only a few of which were actually any fault of the other at all. And to say that the other had caused harm to those closest to it would be akin to accusing it of having black fur; Darkrai only needed to search its own memories to realize that their similarities went beyond what one might consider standard for their species. And besides, Darkrai had more questions for the other than stars it could count in a single night.

"If you had asked me that a few weeks ago," Darkrai began, "I would have denied your request with as much passion as I could muster. But now…" The younger legendary looked over to Alex, trying to form words that could accurately describe the bond it had made with its trainer.

The other followed the younger's gaze. "Ah, yes. Humans. They are a curious breed, are they not? Many of them will make your life a living hell, but there are a select few that will make you praise whatever force keeps our kind tied to this plane, for no heaven we could ever earn would possibly be as sweet as the place we find at their sides."

"Yes…" Darkrai let its eyes travel over Alex's form, feeling once more the instinctual urge to be physically closer to her. It turned back to its fellow, pushing the down the little voice in the back of its head that demanded the legendary go to its trainer. "I forgive you for not being able to be a presence in my life until now, and I openly welcome your tutelage. And," Darkrai continued as the other's expression morphed from anxiety to disbelief, "I thank you for bringing me into this life—no matter the trials I've faced, no matter the horrors I've endured, it's all been worth it to be here, now, with everyone I've ever come to care about," the young legendary paused, amending in its head, save one.

The other caught Darkrai's melancholy and sent it an understanding look, but said nothing on the matter. "Your grace humbles me… my youngling," the other tested the term with a hopeful glance.

Darkrai nodded, accepting the endearment. "Do I call you 'Father' then?" 'Mother' just didn't seem to fit.

The other flinched. "I would… rather you not." It explained swiftly as Darkrai's fur, which had been picking up in the etheric winds in excitement, slowed with disappointment. "After helping Tobias overcome his demons, and after witnessing what made them come about in the first place, that term has meant nothing good to me. If you wish to call me something, I would not be… discontented with 'Sire'."

"I shall call you Sire, then," Darkrai stated a bit more confidently than it felt.

The other's fur picked up to match Darkrai's. "If that is what you wish, my youngling."

The two legendaries soaked in the moment for a few minutes while Darkrai contemplated what it wanted to know first. "I have a lot of questions, Sire—about our kind, about your past, about myself…"

The other nodded. "And I shall endeavor to answer every single one of them to the utmost of my ability."

Darkrai cocked its head, thinking. "Then can you tell me why I feel the need to remain near Alex when she sleeps?"

The other nodded again. "You are bonding with her."

"You've used that term before," Darkrai pointed out.

"Yes," the other stated. "This is the first time this has happened to you?"

Darkrai confirmed. "I have no idea what's going on."

The other chuckled. "The first time is always confusing. I remember mine—I was terrified at what I was doing to my friend." The older legendary hummed as Darkrai's expression shifted to trepidation. "In fact, that part should begin tonight." Darkrai stared at the other, horrified, prompting it to explain. "What you are essentially doing is drenching your human in your own essence, preparing her for a process that is unique to our species, though a similar thing can come about with other Pokémon—powerful ghosts and psychics, mostly—and serves two purposes." It held up one claw. "First and foremost, this process is used to test the character of the soul we are bonding to. Arceus made our kind for that reason—to pass judgment upon the souls of the human race.

"If the human in question fails this test, than the second purpose comes into play—for this is how we make more of our kind. If they succeed, however, the human and the Darkrai in question will form an incredible bond that I have found to be… nearly unbreakable."

"Nearly?" Darkrai couldn't help but ask.

The other shifted. "It is… not something I like to talk about… but I feel that a… condensed history of my bond with Tobias's mother may be educational to you. If you would hear it," it put in.

Darkrai nodded. "If you're okay with talking about it."

"If you're sure." The two legendaries stared at each other awkwardly for a few seconds before the other cleared its throat. "When I first met her, she was innocent. The only nightmares she seemed capable of having had to do more with her current frustrations with her parents than any truly troubling issues, and we were able to get past them with minimal distress. You see, as long as your bonded is untroubled, they will not have nightmares come the new moon.

"As I said earlier, once she wed her lover, he showed his true colors and began abusing her. She had nightmares after that—but unlike the first time, these demons she refused to face. To spare her further torment at night than what she already had to endure during the day, I fled from her each month as the moon waned."

"So our ability is influenced by the moon," Darkrai pondered out loud.

"There are three reasons we give others nightmares, two are influenced by the moon," the other corrected, "The reason I have already given you—to test the souls of humans—and another—to feed—both spawn nightmares of growing intensity as the moon news. The last reason, if you are wondering, has to do with defending territory, and often reflects your mental state more than anything else. You can, also, purposely give others nightmares simply by forcing your essence and ire upon them as they sleep."

Darkrai cocked its head. "Feeding?" It hadn't been aware of that particular aspect.

"We draw most of our energy from moon light," the other said, "When the moon is full, we simply do not need to eat. As the moon wanes, however, we draw lunar energy in the form of dreams from those around us, leaving them with a sort of nightmare that can't be remembered—for they don't actually experience any visions as they sleep, but instead simply feel the pure emotion that comes from having a nightmare."

Darkrai frowned. "I haven't given anyone nightmares since I've been caught."

"The ability tends to be lessened after capture, to the point where a lack of lunar energy may be fully supplemented by physical nutrition—such as berries and Pokémon food."

"But we still cause the other kinds of nightmares." Darkrai looked over to Alex, who yawned, and once more felt the insatiable pull to go to her.

The other followed its gaze. "Yes. Don't worry about the bonding process, there's a technique you can use to help your trainer with her demons. It takes years to learn on one's own, but can be taught within a few minutes by one who already knows it. I will teach it to you tomorrow night."

Darkrai looked back to the other with a frown.

The other sighed. "I doubt you will be able to concentrate on it right now. Go to your trainer—there will be plenty of time later for our lesson."

Still feeling a bit off balance from the revelations that night, Darkrai wobbled into the air and fixed the other with a cautiously optimistic gaze. "Goodnight, Sire."

The other nodded, smiling invisibly. "Sleep well, my youngling."

-o-O~OOO~O-o-

End chapter.

…I'd like to apologize if anyone got lost in the prose there—I just can't seem to get Tobias's Darkrai to rephrase its dialog into anything less confusing. Ugh.

Not sure how I feel about this chapter—I had originally planned to keep you guys in the dark until nearer to the end about what was actually going on with all that weirdness between Darkrai and Alex, but I couldn't figure out how to do this encounter (which needed to happen now) without Darkrai interrogating its elder about it.

If anyone has any questions, please, leave a review! While this convoluted plot makes absolute sense to me, I will freely admit that I'm a bit weird and tend to see things in a different way than most people, so even with my beta (who understands my weirdness quite well) proof-reading, I know some people will still get lost in the exposition. Plus, any and all feedback you can give will make this a 'better' (easier to read) story.

Questions? Comments? …Concerns? Well, not even Darkrai can read your mind (either of them), so if there's something you want to say, make sure to post a review to let me know. I welcome constructive criticism. I will never yell at you for stating your opinion-but please include a reason if you're going to flame.

Next chapter: the smelly stuff hits the spinning thing, and no one is safe from the fallout.