A.N. Sorry for the wait, last weekend was stupidly busy for me. thankfully, Tuesday evening has given me a window of free time, so I'm going to use it to write this chapter. But unfortunately, next week exams start (Yay), so unfortunately, this story will have to go on another hiatus. Sorry about that. But I can still post this chapter and hopefully one more next week, schedule permitting. But for now, enjoy. Hopefully this chapter was worth the wait.
CHAPTER 7
Mysteries and Solutions.
Rei was brought to the recovery area of the Galaxy Team headquarters. They considered keeping him in his house, but decided against it, in case Volo struck again. The biggest manhunt in Hisuian history was organised to finally find Volo, but somehow, he managed to slip through there grasp once again, which frustrated Kamado to no end.
Akari once again fretted over Rei as he recovered. She never left his side and made damn sure that she would be there when he awoke again. Rei's spasms occurred at least once a day. Each time, the black mark on his forehead grew in size. Laventon spent every waking moment of his time researching Darkrai, hoping to find out how to reverse it.
Adaman was getting all of this from Irida. Ever since she relayed what happened with Volo to him, he spent all of his time in his tent, looking back on old clan legends. His bandaged arms itched whenever he thought about the dark pokémon. He knew the stories of the mark alright, but he wasn't sure how to get rid of it.
Eventually, Rei had regained enough strength to fight the spasms and was able to regain consciousness. But he was still rather weak, and it gave Adaman more time to do just a little bit more digging. Eventually, he found enough information, just as Rei had enough strength that the spasms no longer did anything other than give him a headache.
Now that Kamado had everyone who was in-the-know of all the events since Rei's return in Jubilife, he summoned them all to his office to figure out what Volo was planning and just how deep the stew they were in was. As everyone sat down, Adaman saw Akari remain as close as possible to Rei, as though he'd be swallowed up by the mark at any moment.
Adaman also noticed Irida was present and felt a tinge of worry over how she'd react when she heard what he had to say. But before he could give her a warning of any kind, Kamado stood up and cleared his throat. "Now," he began, "I assume you already know why I called you here, so I'll spare the needless explanation. Laventon, have you discovered anything that would help us?"
Laventon looked nervous as he stood up and neatened the papers he brought. "Unfortunately not," he told them. "All that I've been able to gather is that the mark on Rei's head has unknown power emanating from it. but I don't know anything about Darkrai, other than the stuff I managed to find in the texts from the two clans." At this, all eyes turned towards Adaman, and he knew he couldn't avoid talking about it any longer. As he stood up, he looked towards Irida and hoped what he was about to say wouldn't have any effect on her. he cleared his throat and began his tale.
"Darkrai was considered by all to be the ultimate incarnation of evil for a long while, but in reality, it's nothing more than an intelligent predator. It feeds off of people's nightmares, sometimes planting them in a person's mind in order to get its food, which is where the misunderstanding comes from.
"But, for some reason, its hunger grew so insatiable, it tried to cover all of Hisui in its power in order to turn all dreams and thoughts into nightmares. At least, that's what some ancient texts say," he added quickly, seeing the scared look on everyone's faces. "But it was forced into a limbo area between here and a mirror dimension, where Giratina is from, by Arceus and members of the Diamond Clan.
"However, my great-uncle grew curious to learn more about Darkrai, so he tried to summon him back. But, in order for that to work, Darkrai needs a link to latch onto, a kind of waypoint. So, as the brother of the then Clan Leader, he decided to choose me as that link." Loud gasps filled the room at these words. "I got the same mark that Rei has, only his seems to be weaker, because it isn't causing him as much pain as it did for me, and it's lasting a lot longer." "But where is your mark?" Irida asked him. Adaman thought he heard a bit of worry in her voice but brushed it off. He didn't answer her question verbally, instead, he undid the bandages around his arms.
More gasps filled the room when he was finished. Irida looked distraught and sorry at the sight. Akari looked concerned for Rei, because if Adaman was correct, his head would end up looking similar. Laventon looked like he was either going to faint or throw up or do both simultaneously. Adaman's arms were charred black. They looked like you could break them as easily as snapping a stick. They had the appearance of being burned to a crisp. Adaman let them look for a minute, before wrapping his arms back up with some difficulty.
"This is what happens when Darkrai tries to make contact with our world," Adaman explained. "Thankfully, mighty Arceus intervened and spared the rest of my body from becoming like this, but the effort involved killed my great-uncle." There was a very melancholic silence after Adaman finished.
But it was interrupted when Rei asked, "How was Arceus able to intervene?" "When my grandfather saw what his brother had done, he brought the two of us up to Mt. Coronet immediately, "Adaman explained. "Arceus was able to stop Darkrai from coming through, through me, but Darkrai took my great-uncle, since it needed food and he was the one who summoned it."
"So, in order to stop Volo and save Rei," Kamado concluded, "we need to bring the two of them up to Coronet and hope that Arceus is able to undo what Volo has done?" Adaman nodded. "Ok then," said Kamado, clapping his hands together, "so, here's what we're going to do. Adaman is going to bring Rei up to Mt. Coronet and somehow draw Volo's attention. Once that's done, he'll send a message through the lighting system we recently installed and Irida and Akari will join them. Hopefully, if the two leaders wield Dialga and Palkia, Rei wields Arceus and Akari keeps Volo at bay, it should be enough to remove Darkrai from Rei, and send him and Volo into the Limbo."
All in all, it seemed like a good plan. So, with that settled, Adaman and Rei prepared to leave. But, before Adaman could head to the room he occupied whenever he was in Jubilife, Irida approached him. "What's the matter?" he asked her. she looked rather grim. "I just came to apologise for what you went through," she told him. "I used to make fun of you behind your back for wearing those bandages, but that's because I didn't know what happened to you and now, I feel dreadful."
Hey, hey," Adaman reassured her, enveloping her in a hug, "it's ok, you couldn't have known. That's not your fault. And besides, we were at war then, so of course you'd do something like that." He was never normally this reassuring, but something about Irida made him want to make sure she was never upset. It was nice, embracing her, feeling her body pressed against his, wondering what it would be like to-… "Ok, that's enough" he thought, letting her go. She smiled awkwardly up at him, which he returned, then they both went their separate ways.
So that chapter got darker than expected. I wanted to put a dark twist on Darkrai's pokédex entry, similar to what I did with Drowzee in my previous story. I also thought it would be cool to use Adaman's bandages as a plot point as well. but now, with exams in 6 days, I will be unable to update this until this day in two weeks. Sorry about that. But I hope you've enjoyed so far, and I'll see you whenever I'm free again.
