Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.I do however own Alex, and this characterization of a member of the Darkrai species.
AN up here this time.
One reviewer asked where Tobias was from—his first appearance in the anime was in episode DP183; 'League Unleashed!' But where he really features (and consequently curb-stomps Ash) is in episode DP189; 'The Semi-Final Frontier!' It's an awesome one to watch if you like Darkrai.
…Also, all references to other fanfictions are purely coincidental. Just to be clear. If there's two very similar things in two different fics, it usually means that there's a basis in cannon.
Oh, here's something interesting; I based Darkrai's behavior in part off of the mythology of the night hag, which is also what Darkrai itself is partly based off of—night hags are (supposedly) horrid creatures that lie on top of you as you sleep and steal your life force. They are known to cause nightmares and sleep paralysis in their victims—the sleep paralysis, in turn, feels a lot like being held down by an unmovable force on your chest.
And with that lovely thought in mind…
Chapter Nineteen:
Bad Dreams
-o-O~OOO~O-o-
Alex glanced up from where she was playing with Zigzagoon. All around the muddy pair were glowering faces with sharp teeth and glaring yellow and red eyes. One of the Mightyena, the largest one in the pack, took a step forward and assessed her, piercing gaze boring into her soul as it stared down its snout at her.
"Weak," it sneered.
Alex heard a yelp from behind her and held back a gasp as she turned to find Zigzagoon being torn apart by the ravenous pack. Alex backed away from the carnage while Darkrai hovered nearby, looking on with mild interest. She stopped as her back hit a wall of grey fur, and looked up.
"Worthless."
A pair of jaws descended on her—
-o-O~OOO~O-o-
Alex woke with a start, nearly bolting upright but was held in place by a weight on her chest. For a second she thought the paralysis from yesterday had come back, but realized the truth as her gaze locked onto a pair of wide blue eyes set about an inch from her face. For whatever reason, Darkrai had decided to sleep on top of her and was pinning her down with its (not inconsiderable) mass.
"Umm," Alex began, eyeing the narrowing white pupils filling her vision, "Good morning?"
"Krai?" Darkrai's breath tickled her nose as the Pokémon blinked in confusion.
The trainer fought the urge to sneeze. "Do you think you could let me up?"
The legendary blinked again before jerking back suddenly, yelping in pain and nearly pulled its fur out—all of it being tangled into a mat behind its trainer's back. Which, now that she was able to look around a bit, might not have been too bad of a thing—otherwise she would have been sleeping on the cold hard ground. Because she was most certainly not in the tent.
Alex tried to piece together enough of last night to tell her why she was sleeping in the middle of a tiny clearing with a Darkrai on her chest (which, given the shape of the dark type's body, was not as painful as she might have suspected) instead of in her padded tent next to said Darkrai.
The legendary had carried her stiff body away from the battle and well into the night, whereupon she had simply drifted off. She guessed Darkrai must have kept flying while she slept and eventually had to stop to rest. She would have thought though, that the Pokémon would have at least set up the tent for them.
Alex felt a pang as she recalled the reason they had fled so quickly. After all that talk of how much he loved battling, she honestly didn't think that Tobias would—could—lose to that Hearsay person, but that parting look he had given her made her feel a sort of guilty relief that Darkrai hadn't wasted time making them comfortable. If Tobias was defeated, he'd be completely defenseless to whatever Albert had planned for him—the Hearsay man had already shown that he wasn't above using his Pokémon to attack other people—and Alex didn't think she'd put up nearly as much of a fight as the legendary trainer had once Hearsay caught up.
Darkrai brought Alex back to the present with a pained huff. While she had been pondering their situation, the Pokémon had been doing its best to detangle them. Unfortunately, the dark type's arms were caught in an awkward position near her sides, tangled in such a way so that it couldn't get them free unless Alex shifted, and Alex couldn't shift while Darkrai had her pinned.
Alex raised an eyebrow at the pleading look her Pokémon was giving her. "What do you expect me to do about this? I don't even know how we got into this position."
The legendary's gaze turned apologetic as it shuffled its arms further under her back. Alex realized what Darkrai was going to do about half a second before it did it, and let out an embarrassing squeak as the dark type threw itself to the side and rolled them over, placing itself at the bottom with its trainer on top. Arms freed, Darkrai worked quickly to slice its own fur off and release Alex.
Once freed, the trainer swung her leg from over Darkrai's middle to kneel at its side. The Pokémon simply continued to lay on its back on the ground, staring up at her with a troubled look in its eye.
"Are you okay?" Alex asked, growing concerned.
Darkrai sighed, but didn't verbalize an answer.
The trainer's stomach growled, but she pushed aside the gnawing feeling in favor of comforting her troubled Pokémon. "Is it something Tobias's Darkrai told you?" she guessed, reaching her hand down to carefully stroke at the soft furrow between the legendary's head and collar.
Darkrai nodded, eyes closing as it rubbed its cheek against her palm, but in a far more subdued manner than Alex was accustomed to.
"Is it about nightmares?"
The dark type's eyes opened and it stared up at her, giving a slight nod. "Rai krai?"
How did you know? Alex smiled. "Tobias told me—and don't worry, we have a contingency in place in case things get too severe." She thought of the ball lock and winced internally even as Darkrai seemed to cheer up. "Come on, let's get some breakfast."
-o-O~OOO~O-o-
In the end, Alex decided against letting the rest of the team out until they got to Alamos—while in their Poké Balls, a Pokémon's biological systems were put on pause, meaning that they didn't need to eat or drink, and their wounds wouldn't get any worse or better until they were let out—she wanted to travel as fast as they could on a daily basis to get as far from Hearsay as possible. Tobias was a well prepared trainer with a Pokémon that (he claimed, at least) could fly faster than a jet. If he won, he'd catch up to them no matter how much ground they covered that day.
Darkrai had gone back to eating food again, for whatever reason, and almost seemed to get a sugar rush from the amount of Peacha berries it consumed. It had nearly succeeded in scooping her up and flying off with her again before she managed to stop it. During breakfast, Alex had replayed what Tobias had told her about Darkrai, reflected on how Hearsay seemed to know where they were headed, and come up with the theory that they somehow had a way of tracking Darkrai's essence. Her Pokémon hadn't been too thrilled at the idea, (correctly) assuming that Alex's next step would be to put it away and travel on alone—to which it protested vehemently, aghast at the thought of her being defenseless in case her theory was wrong, and they found her anyway. It had pointed out (through an admittedly entertaining game of charades) that if Albert caught up to them, he might use his Raichu to paralyze her again before she could pull out a single ball.
Alex and Darkrai had eventually come to their current compromise, trading speed for stealth as the trainer peddled her bike with her Pokémon floating along side, hoping that the legendary wasn't putting off enough essence for anyone to track (Tobias had said something about stress and excursion causing Darkrai to output more essence) while it saved its strength for any future confrontations.
Alex sighed, mind going numb as she entered the fourth consecutive hour of biking with Darkrai remaining ominously quiet by her side, shadowing her like a phantom in the fading late-noon light. They would have to stop to make camp soon—though Alex assumed that 'camp' in this case was going to consist only of her tent—and the trainer would once more have to face a nightmare under the baleful light of the crescent moon.
-o-O~OOO~O-o-
Alex awoke the next morning in her tent with Darkrai nowhere to be found. She'd had a (suspiciously) restful sleep after traveling all day yesterday, and she suspected that today would bring more of the same. Alex unzipped her tent and stepped out, intent on locating her lost legendary.
Suddenly, a flash of red light manifested in front of her, fading into the familiar form of Purugly. Alex blinked as the fat cat shook her head and looked around, yellow eyes landing on her trainer's startled face.
"Were you planning on letting us out today?" Purugly asked, tone surly, "Or were we just gonna sit in our balls again?"
"I, I," Alex stammered, "I needed to travel faster—"
"—and you didn't want us to slow you down, yeah," Purugly snorted, "we get it."
Alex glanced away, noting Darkrai floating near the tree line in the back of her mind. "That's not what I—"
"—meant?" Alex jumped as another red flash turned into one of her Pokémon, Ponyta this time. "Isn't it? To be fair, you did outpace me last time we raced. 'Course, I would have been able to keep up if I had evolved."
Alex winced at the transparent accusation. "I'm sorry, I—"
Flash. "—am not good enough?" Kricketune finished for her. "We know. That egg would have hatched by now, I think, if it had sensed a capable trainer nearby."
"But—"
"—you're not my trainer," Murkrow appeared next, "You and I and everyone else knows why I hatched." The little bird flew away to perch on Darkrai's shoulder.
"True strength comes from battling," Tobias said behind her, causing her to whirl around, "and Pokémon need a trainer that will help them get stronger." He reached a hand up to scratch at Garchomp's chin, who was standing proud beside him. "How can you call yourself a trainer if you don't battle your Pokémon?"
Purugly, Ponyta, and Kricketune went to stand beside Tobias, who then held his arm out for Murkrow to perch on. The trainer smiled as the little bird swooped in and landed on his wrist, dropping his other hand from Garchomp to stroke her feathers. "See? Pokémon respect strength above all else. If you're not strong, they won't follow you. And nor should they."
Murkrow cooed at the attention. "Can you help me become strong?"
Tobias grinned. "Of course, little one."
Ponyta bounced on his hooves. "I wanna evolve!"
The trainer laughed at the fire colt's enthusiasm. "Give me a week."
Alex watched as the man turned and walked off, a trail of Pokémon chattering excitedly at his feet. She turned away as the party vanished into the distance, catching Darkrai's eye. The Pitch Black Pokémon made no comment, watching impassively as she slowly sank to her knees and cried.
-o-O~OOO~O-o-
Alex woke up shaking, immediately flinching away from Darkrai, who was once more (though it really had no idea how it got there) perched on her chest. The legendary pulled back as far as it could without hurting itself.
"Alex?" Darkrai gazed down at her, concerned.
She struggled to get free for a few seconds before giving up, panting. "I… I need… a moment."
Darkrai retreated into itself while Alex caught her breath. It was hurting her again, and it couldn't even remember how. Last night, and the night previous, as soon as Alex had fallen asleep, Darkrai had felt a yank on its essence and an overwhelming urge to do… something to its trainer. It had resisted the first night, wanting to continue fleeing from the battle grounds until morning, but had found itself drifting closer to the ground anyway. Feeling that they might be far enough from the battle at this point, Darkrai let its instincts guide them down into a clearing, whereupon it had tried to set Alex down to set up her tent, and had blacked out.
It had then woken up in the same position it was currently in—tangled up to its tail with its trainer. Which was very strange, as the dark type normally kept that part of its body well away from Alex when they slept together, not wanting it to get crushed in case someone moved.
The next night, last night, Darkrai hadn't resisted the pull of its instincts, and was able to watch the process by which it had ensnared its trainer. First, it had lifted her up and snaked its shoulder fur underneath her back while its tail wound around her legs and its white fur curled under her head and neck. Then the Pokémon had pinned her arms to her sides with its elbows and grasped her head with its talons. Its shoulder fur had wrapped around them again and pulled taut, and Darkrai had felt a surge of energy flowing through it. Then it blacked out.
Darkrai's mild annoyance with the gaps in its memory was washed away by a much stronger trepidation as it realized that the position it kept taking with its trainer rendered her completely immobile to keep her from thrashing in her sleep.
Alex shuddered beneath it, drawing the legendary back to the present. "Okay, I'm good," she nodded, eyes closed.
Darkrai took a moment before rolling them over to assess its trainer. She was still breathing heavily with her eyes screwed shut, looking as if she were bracing herself for an impact… or trying to recover from one. With no small amount of apprehension, the legendary gently swapped places with its trainer, freeing its claws and unbinding them both. There had to be a better way of doing this—if Darkrai could, purely on instinct, wrap its trainer up in its fur, shouldn't it be able to unwrap her, too? Darkrai would have to test that… next month. Because, as the Pokémon watched Alex sit up and bury her face in her hands, it sure as hell wasn't going to let her go through this again tonight.
-o-O~OOO~O-o-
All that morning, Darkrai caught Alex glancing down at the collection of Poké Balls on her belt as they traveled, as if she were contemplating on letting the team out despite what she'd told it yesterday about needing to travel fast. Now, as they stopped to make camp once more in the dark, she unhooked one of the little red and white spheres and held it in her hand.
"Alex?" Darkrai paused in its chores and floated over to its trainer. "Are you okay?"
The trainer continued to stare at the ball, frowning. Finally, she hooked it back onto her belt and turned to the legendary. "Yeah, I'm fine."
No, I'm not, Darkrai translated in its head, sighing outwardly. "You can tell me anything, Alex. I won't laugh at you."
She gave it a hollow smile. "It's just a dream."
The dark type considered her for a minute. "I think you should put me away tonight, Alex."
She blinked. "What?"
Darkrai reached down and tapped on the blue and black ball it knew to be its own. "Put me away."
Alex placed a hand over the Moon Ball. "Are you sure?"
The legendary nodded. "I don't want to hurt you any more."
The trainer lifted the ball, cradling it in her palms. "I'd have to lock you in—it wouldn't be pleasant, from what Tobias told me."
"Do it."
"If Hearsay attacks tonight…"
"We'd be vulnerable anyway."
"I'm not weak," Alex said faintly, staring at the ball.
"I know. Alex," Darkrai spoke softly, locking eyes with her as she looked up, "You are stronger right now than I could ever hope to become." Alex blinked again. "Please."
The trainer let her gaze drop back down and nodded numbly. "Okay."
Darkrai hovered back a few feet as Alex clicked the button on the ball.
Nothing happened.
Frowning, Alex tried again.
Still nothing.
Darkrai could feel its fur begin to slow as dread crept into its form.
Alex took out a different ball on her belt, and tried to open it without success. Her eyes widened with realization. "Oh."
"Alex?" Darkrai asked, unable to keep the growing hysteria out of its voice.
The trainer slowly put the balls back onto her belt and looked up at it. "Remember when that Raichu paralyzed me?"
"No," the dark type denied weakly, recalling the event in pristine slow motion perfection.
Alex nodded, her own mask of calmness starting to slip. "It must have messed up the electronics in the Poké Balls. It looks like we'll just have to push through. At least the stuff in my bag seems to work."
Darkrai shook its head, backing away. "No, Alex—there must be something you can do—I don't want to… I can't hurt you again!"
Alex sighed. "I'm sorry." Her lips quirked up into a smile that didn't reach her eyes. "Hey, if we can get up early enough, we could get to Alamos by tomorrow night."
Horrified by its trainer's acceptance of the situation, Darkrai did the only thing left it could think of: it turned and fled into the night.
"Darkrai!" Alex's distraught call grew faint as the nightmare king dropped into the shadows and raced away as fast as it was able, trying desperately to spare its trainer from the unwilling punishment it was sure to dole out that night to her helpless mind.
Guided only by the dim light of stars and its own natural night vision, Darkrai bolted through the gloom, trees around it blurring into a shadowy smudge, devoid of any color in the blackness of the night. Suddenly, pain stabbed at its mind, and the legendary was forced to halt, coming to a complete stop as it emerged from the shadows and clutched its head in agony.
"Krai!" the dark type ground out, forcing its eyes open to glare at the moon directly overhead. Gathering its will, Darkrai pushed itself on, inching further and further away from its beloved that in mind, the pain began to subside, and the legendary picked up speed once more, determination filling its soul as it sped onwards, sinking back into the darkness.
Darkrai didn't want to completely abandon Alex, though—and soon felt that it was far enough away from her to avoid terrorizing her sleep. The dark type slowed and followed a small foot path off the main road to a clearing.
And felt its heart drop as a familiar faded orange tent came into view.
"Darkrai!" A frantic Alex ran up to the Pokémon as it rose from the shadows numbly. "Why—what—Why?"
When had it…? Darkrai blinked. Of course—the headache… It had closed its eyes for a moment. That must have been when it… Darkrai shook its head. It would have to try again. It began to turn away.
"Stop this!" Alex grabbed its arms, forcing the legendary back into reality. "Please! Don't…"
Darkrai stared in alarm as tears began to form in its trainer's eyes.
"I can't…" she whispered, bowing her head and gritting her teeth, "I can't do this alone… Please, Darkrai, don't leave me." She looked back up at it, desperation in her eyes driving a spear through the nightmare king's heart. "I need you, don't abandon me… Please…"
"Alex…" Darkrai gently tugged its arms from her grasp, wrapping them around the crying trainer to hold her close. "You know it's me that's hurting you."
"They're just dreams, Darkrai—they're not real." She buried her face in its fur. "But you are."
"You know they're more than that," Darkrai said softly, knowing its words would be lost in the sentiment.
"Don't go…" Alex began to trail off, grip around her Pokémon's upper half weakening.
"Please don't ask me to stay, Alex," Darkrai murmured into her hair as it felt the pull of its instincts strengthen.
"Please… Stay…"
Darkrai looked down at the trainer in its arms, watching her breathing even out as sleep claimed her.
"I'll stay."
-o-O~OOO~O-o-
End chapter.