Time slowed down. I couldn't feel or hear anything. The world refused to move forward. I could only see Nora lying in my arms. Her blank stare pointed towards the setting sun, the orange color of her fur slowly draining out of her body. She still had a soft expression on her face.
I looked up and saw Katrina looming over me with her dark crimson stare stab into me. There was nothing familiar in her gaze. I only saw a fire blazing deep within her new crimson eyes. It was only brighter because there was no white left in her eyes. Black darkness was left, just like that dark prison Lord Ferris trapped me in before I-
"Katrina!"
I looked past Katrina and saw Sir Lance stumble to his feet. He was panting, the pain was too visible to try and hide. He slowly pointed at Katrina who barely took her gaze off me toward Sir lance.
"I know you are still in there. You know who you are. You are not the handicap that others call you." He spoke to her, but he wasn't looking at her as he spoke. He stared directly at me.
Katrina turned and marched back to Sir Lance. He didn't take a defensive stance; he could barely keep himself up as she approached. He never broke his gaze on me.
"Are you going to prove to everyone that you are the monster in the guild? That you really were a mistake?" Sir Lance continued. Katrina quickened her pace and stopped only a few inches away from Sir Lance.
Sir Lance stared fiercely at me, and his aura poured out to me. His worry and concern flooded the training area. His aura rushed to my own, bulldozing my senses. I could feel him focusing his aura no me and my mind could only receive the emotions he was sending.
"You don't get to speak about me anymore," Katrina spoke. Her voice had a hint of a second voice echoing everything she spoke.
I began to hear whispers in my head. Sir Lance's voice kept saying the same thing on repeat. "Get to the river and escape. Get to the river and escape."
I looked at the river and saw Zeina near the edge of the stream with Carter in her arms. His blood streak spanned from the water to where they had been laying before. She fell into the river and let the current take them out of the training area. I looked back at him and felt my aura shoot worry through my aura to which he responded with a nod of his own. I knew what he was doing. My heart began to tear further apart from what little was left of it.
Sir Lance was not in any state to stop Katrina. I tried to stand, but my body was shaking too much to listen to my commands. I began wobbling to the edge of the water. Nora's weight makes it difficult to get in the water. I felt my arms lock around her. My heart couldn't let her go. I can't leave her.
"If you plan to take her Koro. I hope you bury her right or I will make Lance's death and yours slow and full of your screams." Katrina said to me as she held Sir Lance by the throat. He struggled in her grip as she turned to face me. I felt the cold water against my weak arms beckon for me to flee, but I froze and stared at Katrina's cold expression and gaze.
"Oh, and one more thing Koro. When I see you again Koro, I will kill you without a blink of remorse or mercy. You will finally receive the justice that all those that are lost deserve, including Nora. I will be so happy for your return." Katrina said and that was what freed me from my paralysis, and I floated down the river.
The river slowly pushed me down the stream. She only watched me float downstream. Her fire and anger were like a tsunami flooding and destroying any other remnant of emotion was drowned out by her dark red aura.
I felt a shiver run down my spine, but it wasn't because of the cold water that I was in. My heart was in too much turmoil to figure out what to say to anything. I let the water take me away.
The water sped up to a rushing river. I bumped against a few rocks, but it quickly died down. I landed on a soft shore where I saw Zeina cleaning Carter's fur of his dried blood and wrapping him with the bandages. I crawled onto the shore next to her and saw her paws shake as she continued taking care of Carter.
"What-what do we do?" Zeina asked.
That was the big question.
The one that I couldn't answer.
The screams coming from inside the guild were probably from the rest of the guild members being attacked by other fallen pokemon. I wonder if some of the fallen attacking the guild were also regular pokemon thrown into that dark prison that Lord Ferris had thrown me into as well.
I tried. I really did try Nora. I almost made it out before the-. I couldn't stop the beast. I looked over at Nora's lifeless body and saw her smiling at me. Blood still stained her shoulder. The taste of copper flashing in my mouth only brought a bigger sting of guilt to my heart.
I slowly sat up and looked at where we had landed. It was a clearing with an array of flowers that with the small breeze in the air it looked like rainbows dancing around. I stopped in the center of the dancing rainbows and began clawing at the dirt. Digging away at the chunks to clear a hole.
The dirt reached a point where my claws weren't able to break through the dirt, but I didn't stop clawing at the rock-like dirt. I felt tears fall and land on my aching paws.
"Koro. Please. We need to figure out a plan. Please." Zeina said from outside of the small hole.
I stopped and sat there with my body shaking from my crying. I sniffled and tried to calm down the hiccups I was having. I stared at the dirt and didn't know what to do.
"Koro-"
"I don't what we should do. You shouldn't be asking me what we should do! I am just a curse meant to hurt anyone who is near me!" I yelled while cowering down in the hole I dug and letting more of the tears flow from my eyes.
I felt a paw slowly touch my back and stood, "Don't touch me! I am no savior! Get away from me!"
Zeina cowered away and looked at me with such fear that reminded me of the people of Grandon Village. She got out of my way, and I began walking back to Nora's body and picked her up.
"I am going to do at least one thing right," I said to Zeina as I brought Nora's body to the hole.
Zeina's expression changed as I slowly covered Nora's body with the dirt. She gathered a beautiful boutique of flowers. I finished placing all of the dirt and turned to accept all of the flowers and begin placing them on the grave. I wanted to make the place just as beautiful as the soul that was inside her.
I sat in front of the grave and stared at the grave with tears still flowing from my eyes. Zeina sat next to me and began watching the grave as well.
"She never thought of anyone bad. She always saw the better parts of us. She opened my heart to the guild. She saw you as a blessing. With her gone, this world will have a deep wound that will take a while to heal." Zeina said.
"Aqua ring is healing through water. I can heal a lot, but sometimes there will be scars. Those will scar. May they be a reminder to your dedication that you showed me."
Something rang in my head.
"You shouldn't trust me so quickly, Nora. I have done terrible things." I said moving my paws out of her grasp.
The memories began to rush back to me.
I stared at them and remembered the blood that had covered the dark blue color. Turning it to a devilish purple color. It haunted my mind.
Do you regret what you have done?" She asked me abruptly.
I do," I said, still staring at my paws.
Do you wish to do whatever you did wrong again?
No, I don't. I hope it never happens again. I don't want to feel the way I did.
Will you do anything to keep it from happening?
Yes. I will do what I must
I thought about what she had told me before.
"She taught me that those that we lose. We receive scars both physical and mental. We use these scars to help us remember the lessons we learned. To better ourselves and those around us." I said.
We both sat there for a while and then Zeina moved first to turn toward me, but she didn't say anything.
"This world has been given a large scar, but what I- we should do with that is not let her sacrifice go to waste," I said. I could feel the surprise come from Zeina.
I slowly stood and turned to Zeina, "We need to find Latios and Latias. They know where we need to go to. The guild will have to wait."
"Huh, all right then. Glad you got something straight in that head of yours." Zeina said while standing