Hey here is chapter 71. Anyways I'd like to note that I was very surprised by the responses I got last chapter. I didn't expect anyone to really be "happy" about what I choose, but it is necessary for the story. Anyways, the beginning should be a good change of pace from what's been going on in the main story.

Anyways thanks to genericgamer207 for editing another chapter. You can tell it's special because I underlined his name, not everyone gets that privilege you know?

Chapter 71: Chasing myths

Point of view Stark

For days now I have been traveling with hardly any breaks besides sleep, and eating. This was something I have grown used to over the years of traveling with Jack, but I could still do without it. Currently we were navigating through a swampy forest around route fourteen. Oddly, this forest had a never ending fog that gave this place an eerie atmosphere. The vegetation on the trees on had this dull orange-brown color to them, it almost looked like it was Fall.

The thing I despised the most about this place was the swamp like environment. Muddy water covered most of the area, and I could not stand the feeling of getting my pure white fur filthy. To make things better, sometimes the water would get deep enough to hinder movement, and it would make it difficult to keep up with the group.

As I trudged through the muddy water, I looked to my left towards Vincent, he seemed to be struggling just as I was. I guess we were almost the same size, the only difference was that my body could take more of the abuse from the terrain than him, but he seemed to be managing. In front of Vincent and I was the greninja known as Scarlet who carried a sword on her back, and a houndour known as Flynn, who had a giant scar where his eye should have been. The two mostly kept to themselves. Taking the lead of our five man team was Mandus, who took the front and led us towards the mythical legendary we were hunting. Of course I highly doubted it existence, but I'll play along with these lunatics.

We'll stop here to rest," Mandus said as we came upon a small clearing with solid land. I walked onto the patch of land, and the instant I looked down at my paws I cringed in disgust; covering my paws was a thick layer of slimy mud. Trust me, mud does not mix well with white.

Everyone else sat down, and began to repose from their long journey. I layed down away from the group and allowed my weak limbs to recover. Back before I was reanimated my body was in perfect shape, and most of this would have been the equivalent of a simple walk in the park, but this artificial body Genesis made me was weak, and very out of shape.

'How much longer was I going to have to keep up this game?' I resented Genesis for this, and the first chance I got I planned to make them pay. The problem was I couldn't do it if Zero could shock me to death at will with those receptors in my body.

"Just so you know, we'll be leaving in five minutes. Afterwards we will be entering Zygarde's Domain, so be ready to battle," Vincent said to me as he walked by me. I replied with a nod as I got up and stretched out my body. I made sure to stretch every muscle I could, as silly as it sounds, this would make a huge difference in a battle.

After a small recovery Mandus called us, and we departed from our patch of land. Once again we walked through the muddy water. I looked up towards the sky and noticed that the tree branches above us were growing more thick, and were blocking the sun. Soon all sunlight was cut off, and everything became as dark as night. At times like this, I wished I could actually produce light with the black rings on my body, but sadly things didn't work like that.

Suddenly the houndour opened his mouth and a small flaming orb flew out. The fiery orb levitated around the houndour, and provided light that illuminated the area just enough for us to make out our surroundings.

"This is where Zygarde is located?" I asked Vincent, who was walking alongside me.

"In this general area, yes. It's perfect for a creature that would want to be isolated from the world," Vincent replied.

For hours upon hours we walked through the dark environment with very little light. This entire area was dead silent and set off this vibe I didn't like. The kind of vibe that said we weren't supposed to be here. After a while Mandus stopped walking and looked ahead.

"We're here," the lucario spoke as he looked into a giant hole in the ground, which all the water was draining into. The hole in the ground was pitch black inside, and the idea of going into such a dark unknown place was… unsettling. From what I could make out, no one in the group looked worried, so I did the same and wore a face that showed no fear.

"Remember what the mission is. You are not to kill Zygarde, only immobilize Zygarde," Mandus spoke up as he stood on the edge of the hole. Without another word the lucario jumped into the hole. The next to follow was the greninja Scarlet, and then the houndour, who had our only source of light.

"Are you coming?" Vincent said as he approached the hole and jumped down.

"This is a joke?" I said as I looked down into the hole, and jumped down. I fell for a split second until I hit the ground with a loud 'thud'. Despite the feeling of having broken legs, I recovered to my feet and looked around. The light the houndour created illuminated the big circular room we were in. Three paths were on each side of the room, with water flowing down the tunnels.

Everyone observed the paths and tried to decide which one was the correct path. "Vincent, Stark, you two go together. Scarlet, Flynn, you two take your own path. I'll go alone," Mandus instructed. Without any room for negotiation, Mandus took his path, and left us four alone.

"Well, Mandus seems to have no problem aimlessly wandering through the dark," I said as I looked in the direction he left us from.

"Here, this should help for a while," the houndour said as he created a second burning orb. This one levitated around Vincent and I though. "It won't last as long as mine, but it should help you navigate for a bit."

"We should part ways then, good luck you two," Vincent said.

"Good hunting," Scarlet quietly said as she headed off down their path. The houndour followed and left Vincent and I to ourselves.

"We should do the same," Vincent recommended. In response, I headed down the only remaining tunnel. The flaming light Flynn created followed us and provided good lighting compared to how this would be without it.

"How does Zygarde live down here, it's too dark for most pokemon to survive," I asked Vincent as we walked down a long flood tunnel that turned left to right constantly.

"Zygarde is the guardian of the environment, it is theorized that he doesn't need to see, since he can sense the world around him," Vincent explained.

"I see," I replied.

After around ten minutes of walking the flame that Flynn created started to slowly grow dimmer and dimmer until it eventually disappeared. I sighed in annoyance as I squinted my eyes in an attempt to make out my surroundings. Although, the attempt was futile.

"I can't see a thing," I complained to Vincent.

"I know, just calm down and keep moving," Vincent responded in a stressed tone. Doing as he said, I kept moving. Every ten seconds or so, I would stub my paw on something and my temper began to spike up from all the frustration.

"Vince, we have no idea where we are going, and I can't see us winning a battle in the complete dark," I said. I waited for a reply, but Vincent said nothing.

"Vincent, hello?" I asked as I looked through the darkness. I continued to walk forward without a clue what was going on. I was honestly pretty paranoid since my colleague just randomly disappeared, and I had no idea how to get out of here.

Suddenly my front right paw hit a very steep slope and my whole body fell forward as I fell down an incline. I rolled and tousled down the incline as I hit a surplus of sharp rocks. Eventually I reached the bottom of the incline and I came to a stop. I groaned in pain as I stood up.

As I stood up my eyes focused on some weird rock that was producing a faint blue light. I looked even further down the only path I could take, and I spotted many more of these strange blue crystal like things sticking out of the walls and ceiling.

Seeing my glimpse of hope, I continued down the path towards the blue crystal like things. As I continued to walk, I couldn't help but wonder what happened to Vincent. He was literally right next to me a minute ago, and he just randomly disappeared.

Out of nowhere I heard footsteps behind me. I quickly turned around to spot something that was quadruped. Due to poor light I couldn't make out the creature, but I still kept my eyes on it. "Who's there?" I asked the mysterious pokemon. The pokemon stepped into the light of the blue crystal to and revealed itself. Standing before me was a small aron. It was a rather weak pokemon in my opinion, and didn't pose a threat in my eyes.

"Get out of here," I said in a cold voice to the aron who stared at me. Growing bored with the creature I turned back towards the path so I could find Zygarde. The instant I turned around my eyes grew wide as I spotted around ten aron that were now blocking my path.

"Get out of my way," I said in a stern voice, "I'm not asking again."

The Aron seemed to be mindless creatures, but all at once, they swarmed towards me. As they jumped at me, I hit them away with a shadow claw. Blood flew out of the steel type's wounds as they dropped one by one. After the third one failed all the aron grouped together and kept a safe distance.

"Get out of here, I don't have time for this," I snarled at them in an attempt to scare them off. As I growled at the aron, more of them began to crawl out of the walls. As their numbers increased, my growl slowly faded as more and more began to slowly surround me. They all formed a circle around me, and this is when I realized who should be worried right now.

I counted the aron's around me, and I counted around fifteen. I had confidence in my fighting ability, but fifteen of them swarming me at once would be rather annoying. So, for once in my life I went with plan B. I turned to face the direction I needed to go, and I charged up a shadow ball. The aron I faced got into a defensive position as I charged my attack. I launched the shadow ball, and the aron jumped to safety. Seeing a clearing in the circle around me, I bolted through the opening. As I ran down the barely lit tunnel, I could hear the feet of the aron clattering on the floor as they chased me.

As I continued to run, more aron exited the walls of the cave, and I realized that there wasn't a chance of me winning with this astronomical amount of enemies.. I could easily kill an aron one on one, but I could see those things being dangerous in a group. They're the type to ruthlessly attack you non-stop, they wouldn't even consider giving me a chance to breath in a fight.

As I sprinted down the tunnel, I kept looking back at the aron, and they slowly disappeared from my sight as I outran them. After I was sure I outran the horde, I stopped to catch my breath. I panted in exhaustion as I tried to collect my thoughts on my next move.

This tunnel was never ending. No matter how far I went it didn't show a sign of it. On top of that I was separated from all my comrades. This wasn't something I was enjoying, for a matter of fact, I wanted to kill whoevers idea it was for chasing a myth down here. The only problem was that I didn't know if I'd make it out of here alive. It would be rather difficult for me to get out of the hole we jumped through. Not impossible, just difficult.

I jumped up in shock as I heard a deep laughter through the cave. I looked down both directions of the cave, but I spotted nothing. My head then looked up towards the ceiling, but I still didn't see a single thing.

"Who's there?" I asked in a stern voice as dark matter began to surround my entire body in dark matter as a defensive shield.

"Perhaps it is more customary for the guest to introduce themselves when trespassing in someone else's domain," the deep voice echoed through the dim cave. My only response was silence, and I carefully continued scanning the area.

"Show yourself, I'm in no mood for games," I asked the anonymous voice.

The voice laughed, and the tunnel echoed, "Such a naïve umbreon, do you really believe I would waste my time on a creature as weak as you. The denizens of my sanctuary will consume you, unless you cease this attack at once," The voice said.

A chuckle escaped my mouth before I replied, "I really wish it was that simple, but sadly I'm coming for you, so just wait until I track you down," I said in a voice that showed my lack of empathy. This voice had me interested honestly, surely it really couldn't be Zygarde, after all he's just a hoax. Someone was here, and they were messing with me, and I was going to kill them for it.

"Your kind has always been a disappointment, I guess you really will be the last of your kind," the voice said.

"Last of my kind…? I'm not the last umbreon alive," I said in annoyance.

Before I could ponder that conversation too much, I heard the sound of clattering feet. All around me aron's began to crawl out of the holes in the wall. Seeing that I only had one choice, I went with my choice. Dark matter formed around my two paws, and I began sprinting down the tunnel. As I ran, aron's up ahead began crawling out of the holes in the wall, and blocking my way.

As I ran towards them, they ran towards me. Three of the aron's leaped towards me as I ran towards them. I quickly launched a shadow ball at the trio, and blew them back. Sadly for me, their armor was hard and kept them alive from the blow. As I ran past the group I knocked back, an aron jumped on my back. I tried to shake him off but it remained atop of me. Suddenly I grunted in pain as the aron bit down on my back. Acting out of reflex, my body lit up in dark matter and the aron flew off of me.

I continued to run as blood fluently dripped down my back. The pain was not comfortable in any way, but it was far from the worst I have felt. An aron obstructed my path far up ahead, and stood its ground. The aron then managed to balance itself on two legs, and it put its claws together and scraped each other together. High pitched rings suddenly pierced my ears, and I fell to the ground screaming in an attempt to block out the noise. My ears began to throb and throb until I thought they were going to burst. After ten seconds of enduring the pain, it stopped out of nowhere. It took me a second to gain the strength to look towards the aron, but instead of an aron, it was Vincent standing on top of the aron who used metal sound.

The white espeon ran to my side and bit down on my shoulder and forced me to my feet. I swayed around as my ears rung from the metal sound. I looked at Vincent as he said something to me, but I heard nothing but a muffle. Vincent then began to yell something, and after a few seconds the ringing went down.

"Come on, we need to go!" Vincent yelled as more aron began to catch up to us. Vincent and I both ran from the massive horde of aron.

"Where the Hell did you go earlier?" I yelled as we ran side by side.

"I don't know, you just disappeared within a moment," Vincent replied back. "This way!" Vincent yelled as he looked towards a small side tunnel that split off from the main path. Vincent and I both ran into the tunnel and hid behind a boulder. We both remained silent as we listened to the horde of aron run past us. After a minute of silence Vincent let out a breath of relief.

"That was a little nerve wracking, those things are practically immune to psychics," Vincent said as he tried to catch his breath.

"Seriously, where did you go earlier, I really find it hard to believe we got split up that easily," I said cynically.

Vincent remained silent as he collected his thoughts, "I did a small experiment after we got separated. Have you backtracked at all yet?" Vincent asked me.

"No, I've been too busy running from those aron."

"I backtracked, and I noticed something that may be a huge problem," Vincent said with a pause.

"And that is?"

"The tunnels were completely different, not even remotely similar. Which I'd bet that had to do with us getting separated," Vincent explained.

"This is wonderful," I snidely replied as I lied down to rest a bit. "What next?"

"I'm guessing it's Zygarde who is manipulating the environment of this area. No doubt he is trying to keep us away from him at all cost."

"So where in your context do you mention a plan?" I rudely commented.

"I honestly have no idea we're at his mercy right now. We just have to keep fighting and hope that he will become interested in us," Vincent answered.

"Was their seriously never a plan on how to beat a legendary, you just expected to go in and beat him?" I questioned in annoyance.

"We have trained a lot for this moment, truth is, we never knew what to expect."

"Well… shit…"

Point of View

My eyes slowly opened as I awoke from what felt like a long nap. I felt the bitter cold air along my fur, and I listened to the silent night breeze. I looked around from the ground, and I examined the forest I was in. A thick layer of fog masked the area around me, and only made the world darker. I let out a pained breath as I rolled over onto my belly and felt a pain in my side; my side had yet to fully recover. Once I got a grip on the minor pain, I forced myself up onto my four paws.

I continued to examine the forest, but even for me it was too dark with the thick fog added in. Then I looked up towards the sky and spotted the only light in the sky, the moon. The moon was hardly visible in its current spot in the lunar cycle. The golden rings on my body barely illuminated from the light, but it still gave me some form of hope. Before I could feel any better, a cloud slowly moved in front of the moon and cut off my only source of light. The rings on my body quickly went back to being non-illuminated and I was left in the dark once again.

A depressed sigh escaped my mouth as I remembered how pointless it was to even try. Being lost in the dark was no different than how I felt in life. Although, this wasn't the time to feel bad for myself, I was more curious on how I got here.

My ears flickered upon hearing a rustling noise off in the distance, I quickly turned towards the noise and braced myself for anything. The rustling continued for a second until something walked out. I got into a defensive position as the unknown creature walked towards me. As the creature got closer, the clouds moved away from the moon, and the light illuminated a white pokemon. My eyes widened as I recognized the white umbreon, and his red eyes.

"Stark?" I said in surprise as I took a step towards the white umbreon. As he got closer I became certain that it was Stark.

"I'm afraid not," the voice answered back.

"You," I said as I realized that Stark was still forever gone from my life. The fake Stark felt like a bitter slap in the face, almost as if he was reminding me that I lost someone I cared for. "What do you want from me," I snapped at him in confusion.

"You seem unhappy to see me," he said to me in dissatisfaction.

"Seeing you is never a good sign," I answered in a gloomy voice as I took a step away from the one known as Skull Face.

A chuckle escaped his mouth as he looked towards me, "Do you not remember what happened before you ended up here?"

That's when it snapped in my head, and I recalled everything back when I was in the hospital. I remembered my status with the police, and how screwed I was. I also recalled contemplating on ending it all. "I… I remember," I responded bitterly as I recalled. "But, how am I here then?"

"Two nights ago you were contemplating suicide, you were really close to going through with it, but I had other plans," Skull face answered. "To answer your question, I knocked you out, and snuck you out."

"So, I probably have people out looking to arrest me right now?"

"No," Skull face responded. I looked at him in confusion, and as I stared at him his form changed. His body became much skinnier, his fur turned black, and I would say he was around my size now. It now took the form of another female umbreon that looked similar to me, but not exact.

"This is the form of another umbreon that died years back, she was a nobody, but her appearance was similar to yours," Skull face said in a now feminine voice, "You were considering suicide, so I figured it would be logical to go with it, I teleported into your room, knocked you out, teleported you here where no one comes, and I took your role as a depressed suicidal umbreon," Skull Face said as dark particles began to peel off his neck and float into the air, and revealed a gash on his neck with blood flowing out of it.

"So… everyone thinks I'm dead?" I said, not knowing how to feel on that.

"Yes. Humans aren't the smartest at times. They didn't spend much time examining me while I was faking dead, but they didn't even notice the change in your appearance. Rather amusing if you ask me," Skull face said as his body switched back to Stark's form. "It's kind of sad how they planned on disposing of your body, oh well not really a problem anymore I guess."

My vision fell, and I stared at the ground. The world once again will think I am dead, but what will I do with my life now? I had nowhere to go, and I had no one close to me to keep me going. I honestly couldn't say I was thankful that he stopped me last night. Death just seemed so much simpler than continuing this pointless struggle, plus the world would be better off without me to drag everyone down with me.

"How long was I asleep," I asked as I continued to keep my head lowered with mixed emotions.

"I kept you asleep for two days; I had to make sure they thought you were completely off the grid before I could think of doing anything with you."

"Then what do you plan on doing with me, I doubt you saved me out of the kindness of your heart," I asked as I raised my head to lock eyes with the imposter who I believed would want to manipulate me.

The fake Stark let out a small chuckle, "Straight to the point, that's what I like about you. I'll just be straight with you in return. Black still hasn't mastered dark matter. He managed to use it in his fight against Sam, but only because he was consumed by negative emotions. You're one of the only umbreon's I trust to do this, after all you learned from Stark, who was one of the strongest umbreon's who could use dark matter in the Kalos region."

"But they all think I'm dead," I responded back dumbfounded on how this was overlooked so easily.

"I'm aware. The trainer Alex, I think he's somewhat seen you, but he never noticed you," Skull Face began to say. "So, once sometime passes by, the police will drop the subject and you can go back to Cyllage and regroup with him. Although, some members of Alex's party may not openly accept someone like you who is supposedly dead," Skull Face explained.

"And what if I refuse to help you? You automatically assume I will help you," I firmly stated back.

"I knew you'd say that. So here's the deal. You're looking for redemption, and don't try to hide it. Black is very important to me, so help me and I'll kill Jack, and Sam for you," Skull face said as he extended his paw out towards me. "What do you say Naomi, help me do something simple, and I'll help you atone for your sins."

I stared at the paw that was extended in front of me, everything in my body told me to except the deal and do the right thing. But every time I choose to do the right thing, I always ended miserable. But if he killed Jack, and Sam, everything would be fine, I may finally feel redeemed for what I have done.

I extended out my paw hesitantly, and we both simulated the handshake humans usually use to seal an agreement. Skull face smiled as we both stopped shaking paws. "Good, now I have an idea to make things run more smoothly, you know, so you don't get caught by the police," Skull Face said as he continued to smile.

"And what could you possibly have in store for me?" I said as my left eyebrow rose.

Chapter End

Author Note: So first I'd like to apologize to everyone that I replied to for review responses... I played along with the idea that she was dead so people wouldn't catch on. I'm surprised no one actually became a little suspicious, I mean I have pulled stuff like this before. Anyways, my beta-reader as a witness, I pre-planned all of this, so I'm not bringing her back as an act of mercy or because I regretted killing her. So, primarily I wanted a creative way to get her away from the police, and what better way than faking a suicide?

Important! Alright, before I forget (Which I have for about the past 5 chapters). I have decided to break The Black Dawn up into three parts, or as I like to say, three books. Now everything will be posted in the Black Dawn archive, so you can look in the same area, but I will probably put somewhere next to the chapter name that say's book 2. The reason I am doing this is simply because the story literally breaks up perfectly into three segments. Now onto my next piece of important info, the first book of Black Dawn ends on chapter 75 (Way to convenient lol). So once I finish book 1, I am taking a one month break from writing The Black Dawn. Also a third and final note. During my break, I will possibly be starting a new project, Black Dawn is still top priority, but I want something to work on here and there. Black Dawn will still be updated at least once a week, and it takes my top concern. So probably some time this Oct, to Nov you can expect a new story. Anyways, don't worry their is still four chapters to go. If you have any questions or concerns please PM me, or leave it in a review.

Question: How much do you hate me right now for messing with all of you? XD I mean this mostly as a joke.

Fun Fact: I have officially ran out of Fun facts that are worth talking about... So... feel free to make recommendations on questions.

Anyways thank you all so much for reading.