Welcome to the beginning of Book II in the Black Dawn Trilogy. First things first, I would like to give everyone a warning and say that Book II: Impending Twilight will be much more darker than the first book. Expect much more violent scenes and very dark themes. Just be warned, the first two chapters will show that. But anyways, enjoy the tale.
Book II: Impending Twilight
Chapter 76: origin
Point of View Anonymous, long before the events of The Black Dawn
"Come on, we need to keep moving, we need to get to safety before sundown," I warned my younger jolteon brother, as I held his ear in my mouth and forcefully dragged him against his will.
"Let me go, now," the jolteon yelled back to me, as I continued to forcefully guide him through the forest.
"Then stop trying to run, you'll get yourself killed, and no one wants to see that," I replied with a mouthful of the jolteon's ear.
"Fine, I'll go, just stop you're starting to hurt me," my brother whimpered as he clenched his eyes shut.
Realizing that I was actually hurting him, I quickly released my grip on his ear, and the jolteon quickly stepped back from me. His eyes opened up, and revealed his unnaturally crimson red eyes, that you would usually find on an umbreon.
"We need to go," I warned my brother, as he just sat down and awkwardly rubbed his paw over his ear that I was pulling on.
"That hurt you know," the electric type pouted.
"Now," I said in a stern voice.
My stubborn brother let out a frustrated sigh as he faced me, and gave me an unfriendly stare, "Why should we run? Those pokemon back their needed our help, and we're just going to leave them?"
"No, Ryder. We need to worry about our survival. Arceus only knows what happens to those pokemon once they're captured," I responded, "Plus… you're not exactly normal, and I can't let them do anything to you."
"Just stop! I'm going back with or without you, so come with me or go crawl in a hole and die like the coward flareon you are," Ryder snapped at me as he turned away from me to leave. Right as he extended his paw forward to run away, I opened my mouth and shot an ember right in front of his path, which blew the jolteon over.
"I'm not losing the last family member I have," I snapped at him.
Ryder quickly rolled onto his belly, and looked me in the eyes, "Don't you even start, don't you even dare start this crap!" Ryder shouted at me as he leapt up and growled at me. "If you would've been there to help, and not running like a coward, then maybe everyone would still be alive, this is all your-" Ryder began to say before I tackled him to the ground and pinned him down with my paw.
"I couldn't help that day, we would've died if we stayed there!" I yelled in his ear as I pinned him to the ground.
"Lucy, Mom, and Dad, it's all your fault because you ran away that night," the jolteon snapped at me, and I just released my paw off him as I turned my head away from him, not wanting to reveal my devastate state.
"I know… I… I wish I did things differently that day, every time I remember it, I think of what I should have done, but all I see is me running," I said with a lone tear running down my face.
"Zack… I'm sorry, I know you're just looking out for me, but we can't make decisions like this," Ryder said from behind me.
"Can we please just go? I need somewhere to think, and they may catch up to us if we stay here," I said to Ryder as I looked at him out of the corner of my eye.
A grunt escaped the red eyed jolteon's mouth. "Fine, but next time, I'm not cowering away with you. Next time I'm fighting to the end," Ryder said with a glimmer of confidence in his eyes.
"Alright, next time we'll help," I said and there was a pause between the two of us before we began to walk through the forest.
Our walk was filled with an awkward silence, and I would have tried to break this silence, but nothing I could think of would restore our pitiful state. So, I just left things as they were, and hoped that we could have some peace before sundown.
Thoughts ran through my mind as we continued walking through the forest. Who were these human things invading our land, and why were pokemon willingly being enslaved to these humans? For the duration of my life, my family and I lived on a small island far off the shores of the land known as Kalos, and this island we lived on was mostly a pokemon sanctuary… or it was a sanctuary until the humans came, and began abducting us one by one.
After walking for a little while, Ryder and I both came upon some elevated rocky land, and fortunately for us, a hole that looked like it would house the two of us for the night. Ryder and I swapped a quick glance as I went to check out the miniature cave in the side of the elevated land. When I looked inside, I found that it was vacant of life, and it appeared to be dry, so it made perfect shelter for us to stay the night.
"It's clear, " I said to Ryder, as the jolteon faced the opposite direction of the nook.
"What's wrong?" I asked my brother, as I walked up next to him, and noticed a familiar facial expression on my brother, "It's bothering you again, isn't it?" I asked Ryder.
"Yeah… I just don't understand anything about myself, or why I'm so…" Ryder began to say, but couldn't finish his words.
"Ryder, don't let it cloud your head, we're going to get to safety, and I know we can find someone to give you answers," I attempted to reassure him, but the jolteon's ears just lowered along with his head.
"You don't know that," he responded with melancholy. I just responded with silence, he was right, I didn't know if anyone had an answer on why he was so… different.
"Hey, why don't we just try and get some sleep, in the morning we'll be rejuvenated, and less stressed out," I suggested to Ryder.
"I guess," Ryder hesitantly responded as he turned back to me. The two of us crawled into the empty compact cave, and we both lied next to each other to help stay warm over the frigid night.
After a very long night of sleeping in the frigid cold, the sun rose, and I crawled out of the nook before Ryder was even awake. My eyes widened as I noticed the fresh layer of snow that now covered the ground.
"Wonderful, every Flareon's worst nightmare…" I said stressfully as I blew a small flame out my mouth to help warm myself up.
"Wait, it snowed last night?" Ryder's voice said in surprise from behind me. I turned back to face the jolteon, and I quickly noticed the smile on his face. That very thing I thought the two of us had been deprived of for the rest of our lives. Ryder didn't waste a second, and the jolteon excitedly dove into the snow, and slid down the sloped ground we were on. Once the jolteon stopped sliding, he sprang up to his feet and shook all the snow covering his body off. I on the other paw kept blowing small flames from my mouth in an attempt to keep me warm, cold weather was my natural enemy.
"Ryder, I know you're having fun, but we should-" I began to say before the jolteon kicked a bunch of snow onto me. I instantly responded by shaking the fur off, as I felt my fur become soaked in the freezing substance.
"You little shit," I said in annoyance, but I looked at the playful toothy grin on Ryder's face, and I just sighed, "You're such a kid," I said, before I kicked some snow onto him. The jolteon didn't appear as bothered as I was, and he simply shook it off with a playful smile.
Okay, so to make a long story short, I ended up getting sucked into my childish brother's games, and it ended with us killing quite a bit of time. Once the two of us finished, we both sat down and shivered from the bitter weather. Getting snow thrown at you multiple times tends to have that effect. Although, freezing my ass off was worth seeing Ryder happy. Ever since the humans came, neither of us really had much to smile about, and this was an unexpected breath of fresh air for us.
"Think you're ready to head out? We really shouldn't stay here much longer."
"Alright, fine, let's go," Ryder said with a stubborn attitude, but I didn't care as long as he just followed me.
The two of us walked through the forest as snow gently fell from the sky. Everything had that awkward winter silence, where the smallest things could be heard. Our travels went on till about noon, before the two of us stopped, due to Ryder's stomach growling in hunger.
"I guess it's about time we find food, it's been almost two days," I said bitterly as I sat on a piece of ground that managed to stay dry.
"Eat what? Winter is a hard time of year for survival?" Ryder complained.
"We'll survive somehow, just keep calm," I said to Ryder as I began thinking of food options.
A moment of silence passed by, but then someone stepped on a twig from behind us, and the two of us shot our glances back to see a human standing behind us. The female human wore a heavy winter jacket on her, with fur around the hood. The lady wore the hood up, and it masked most of her defining features, but I could make out her long brown hair.
"Looky here, I found the red eyed jolteon everyone was talking about, this'll get me a raise for sure," the women said as she pulled out two of those strange red and white balls that the humans always contained pokemon in.
"Ryder, get back," I shouted as I jumped between Ryder and the human.
The human threw the two balls, and a bright light blinded the two of us momentarily. Two pokemon now stood in front of us, a marowak and a weavile. The two pokemon both looked at us with a bitter glare, as the marowak lightly tapped the club against his other hand in an intimidating manner.
"Marowak, go for the red eyed jolteon, do not kill him though. Weavile, do as you please with the flareon, just make sure the jolteon lives," the human said as she leaned against a tree and gave out a yawn.
"You furless bastard," I snarled at her, but before I could do anything more, the weavile lunged towards me and swiped his claws towards my face. I flinched back, but not quickly enough. The three claws swiped across my face, but I was far enough away that only one made contact with my snout. Regardless of one or three, I still yelled in pain as I fell to the ground, with blood gushing down the giant gash it made.
"Is that all you got?" the weavile asked me as he scraped his two blades together, creating an unpleasant scraping noise. I looked over to the right, and I saw Ryder struggling with his opponent. Ryder was now on the ground, being beaten half to death by the marowak's club.
"Ryder…" I said as I forced myself up and ran towards him, ignoring the sneasel, "Get the fuck off him!" I shouted as I shot an ember towards the marowak. Suddenly my ember exploded, and my eye widened as I saw a bone club flying towards me, and it whacked me in between my eyes. I fell to the ground as I barely clung to consciousness, while my skull felt as if it was split open.
The weavile then walked up next to me, and picked up the club, and threw it back to the marowak. "End of the roa…-" the weavile began to say before he began to look at something awkwardly.
"Who the hell are you?" the weavile asked, and I turned my head, and I made out another bipedal figure, but this one wasn't human. As my vision stabilized, I realized that it was a lucario. The lucario just stared at us with a blank expression, and I had no idea what to expect from this.
"Piss off, or do you want some of this as well?" the marowak added in as he got off my brother, and began walking towards the lucario. The fighting type just stood in place, and said nothing.
"You'll regret your silence," the marowak said as he threw his club at the lucario. The club spun in circles as it flew towards the lucario, and as it closed in on him, he extended his paw out and caught the bone without any effort.
"That's never happened before," the marowak said in surprise as he stepped back from the lucario. The lucario began walking towards the two and he dropped the club on the snowy ground. The human on the other hand, moved away from the lucario, as a bead of sweat dripped down her face.
"Weavile, Marowak, just kill this thing," the human commanded.
"I'm on it!" the weavile shouted as he sprinted towards the lucario. The lucario remained calm, as he walked towards the two foes.
Once the weavile was close enough, he jabbed his claw at the lucario, but the lucario caught him by the wrist. The weavile then attempted to attack with his other claw, but the lucario grabbed the weavile by the head and used his leg to trip the weavile, and he smashed the weavile's head into the ground before his claw reached him.
The weavile moaned in a dazed state, as the lucario raised his free hand, and it began to glow with a blue aura. The weavile snapped out of his daze just in time to scream in fear as the lucario smashed his fist into the weavile's face. Blood splashed into the air, and covered the snow around the body. The lucario pulled his bloody hand out of the hole in the weavile's head, and then looked at the marowak. I just remained silent, as I trembled in disbelief. I had never seen someone kill someone so violently, and not show a single emotion.
The marowak took a step back as the lucario slowly walked towards him, with blood dripping off his hand. The maraowak quickly turned to run, but the lucario moved in a flash and ended up in front of the marowak. The marowak shrieked before the lucario picked the marowak up by the neck, and lifted him off the ground. The marowak kicked his legs back and forth as he made a gurgling noise, but he was instantly silenced as a snapping noise filled the air. The marowak was dropped onto the ground, and became another lifeless corpse in this land of death. Death was a sight I was used to. I had watched a lot of close people to me die, and it was sad to say that I was growing used to it.
The lucario now faced the human. She stood there petrified as the lucario stared at her with that same emotionless expression.
"Stay away from me," she said as she took a step back, but her legs gave out and she fell on her butt. The lucario dashed forwards and stood over her. The human trembled in fear as tears began to stream down her eyes. "Please," the human sobbed as the lucario slowly extended his paw towards her.
"Please!" she screamed before a flash of blue aura surrounded his paw, and after that blood splatter everywhere as she fell to the ground.
I stared at the lucario for a moment in shock, but once I regained my train of thought, I looked at Ryder quickly, and I ran to him. I stood over him, and looked at the multiple bruises that covered his body. The jolteon remained unconscious with his mouth agape, revealing a few shattered teeth in his mouth, with blood covering them.
"Ryder…" I said in disbelief as a tear began to form in my eye. "Dammit!" I yelled at myself as I continued to look at how horrible he was beaten. After a moment, I looked back to see our savior, the lucario was now checking the clothing the human wore.
"What're you looking for?" I questioned the lucario, "Actually never mind, that's not my business, I guess," I admitted. The lucario just glanced at me for a moment, before he went back to searching her corpse.
"Who are these humans, and why are they here all of a sudden?" I asked the lucario, hoping that he would have an answer. "Hey, can you just say something!" I shouted at him.
"Silence," the lucario spoke to me in a deep dull voice. I just sighed in annoyance as I watched him raid the body, until the lucario pulled out a folded up piece of paper. The lucario quickly opened up the paper, and started looking at a strange drawing on the paper. As I curiously looked at it, I noticed that it looked like a drawing of the layout of this island.
"What's that," I questioned the lucario, but he ignored me once again. "Hey!" I yelled at him, and the lucario looked at me.
"Why are these humans here, you look like you know something about all of this?" I questioned the lucario.
"This island is a land where only pokemon live, and now you're all falling victim to people who seek to capture you, and perform experiments," the lucario answered.
"What do you mean experiments, and who are these people?" I desperately asked him. But instead of an answer, the lucario stood up and began walking away.
"Hey, stop ignoring me," I shouted at him, as I chased after him.
"Go back to your friend, flareon, he could use your help," the lucario said to me. As I followed from behind the lucario, I noticed something odd on his back. I noticed three of those number things humans always use.
"Hey, those markings on your back, are you with those humans?" I asked the lucario. The lucario immediately took his left hand, and covered the three symbols on the left side of his back.
"We're done talking, leave," the fighting type said to me, as he picked up his pace, while still covering his back.
"So you're with them?" I said in surprise. The lucario spun around and faced me, and for the first time he was showing an emotion, which was anger.
"Do you wish to join the others I just killed?" the lucario asked me.
"Listen, I just need answers. My brother and I have been on the run for so long, and I need answers for once."
"Find a way off this island, that's your key to survival," the lucario answered.
"And how do we get off this island?" I questioned the lucario.
"Find a flying pokemon that can carry you, or find a water type that will take you," he answered.
A sigh escaped my mouth as I realized that he wasn't going to be of any real help, "Fine, but since you saved us, what is your name?"
The lucario stood there silent for a moment, until he exhaled a strong breath, "Names don't matter, I've casted all my past names aside. They only served as mementos to what I wish to forget," he responded as he turned back around and began to walk away. This time, I allowed him to leave me, there was nothing left to say, if he was going to be cryptic and tight lipped.
After I made that decision, I quickly sprinted back to Ryder. Over the short time I left him, nothing had changed about him; he was still in horrible shape. Seeing that there was no choice, I got Ryder onto my back so I could carry him to safety. If that silent lucario was right about one thing, it was that we needed to get off this island.
As soon as Ryder's unconscious body was balanced, I began moving as fast as I could with his body on top of me. Luckily Ryder was pretty light since he was still young and wasn't fully grown yet.. As I moved through the snowy ground, I remembered the slash across my face. To this moment the wound still had a stinging feeling. I could only imagine the scar it would leave.
After a while, my endurance failed me, and I had to stop. I gently got Ryder off my back as I began to rest. Suddenly Ryder began to groan, and his eyes sprang open. The jolteon just lied on the ground moaning in pain, tears beginning to form in his eyes.
"Ryder, how are you feeling?" I asked the jolteon, even though the answer was more than obvious. In response the jolteon just groaned in pain, as tears streamed down his face.
"Everything is fine now, someone saved us earlier, but he's gone," I told Ryder, even though he didn't ask me. Ryder's lack of a proper response began to worry me, that marowak went way overboard if he was trying to take him alive. All I could do now is watch my brother sit there in pain, and pray that he would pull through this.
"There's the pokemon that killed Jill," a voice called out from behind me, I quickly turned to see a human and a mini horde of pokemon standing behind us. The horde varied from many different types. There was a charmander, a bayleef, a sceptile, a dewott, and a turtwig. Standing behind the entire horde was another human, who had multiple red and white balls attached to his waste. The man was middle aged, wore a cap on his head, and was dressed in heavy winter gear just like the last human we encountered.
"I knew we'd find you, not very hard when you left a trail of paw prints," the human said. "Alright, all of you, capture them alive, so I can actually get paid today."
Without warning, a series of elemental attacks flew towards me from all of the pokemon. I quickly jumped in front of Ryder and shielded him from any harm. Every single attack collided against me, and sent me flying into a tree. I let out a moan of pain as I felt multiple different forms of pain, from burns, to grass type attacks.
"Looks like the jolteon is already finished, just take care of the flareon," the human ordered his minions. I tried to stand back up, but before I could the dewott placed its foot on me, and pinned me to the ground. It raised its fist up, and pounded it on my left temple, and everything went black.
My eyes slowly cracked open as I came back to life after that ambush. I groaned as I rolled over onto my stomach, but I felt too weak to stand up just yet. I grew confused as I noticed my surrounding, I had never seen something like this before. I was in some very large hard and shiny box, with very little light. Before I could observe the it too much, my ears twitched upon noticing someone talking.
"So to think one of you really existed. When I first heard of such a thing, I laughed," a voice said. I turned around to see a series of bars behind me making up a wall of the room, and parallel to my room was an identical room with Ryder lying on the ground, barely conscious, and standing outside his cell, was a zorua.
"We have great need for someone like you, but we're mostly interested in your DNA," the zorua said, as he stared at Ryder through the cell bars. "To think a jolteon like yourself is worth thousands, no, millions actually."
"What do you want from me?" Ryder asked in a weak voice.
"Just your DNA, and then we'll alter your body to be stronger. But of course, not before we wipe your mind clean, and claim it for our own," the zorua said, and a chill ran through my spine, as I pictured the sick twisted look on his face.
"Leave my brother alone," I snarled at the zorua. The zorua turned towards me, and looked at me with a bored expression. The zorua then walked up to my cage and put his face next to the bars and peered into my cell.
"Don't worry, I'm not that cruel. I'll be sure to keep you two together once you're both ours," the zorua said.
"Stop talking like we're your damn property," I snapped as I lunged forwards, and tried clawing him through the bars, but he managed to move back in time.
"Stuff like that will get you put in the experiments I view as more cruel. The harrowing experiments that will make you yearn for death," the zorua warned me.
"Who the Hell are you, why are you betraying us pokemon for humans, and just what the hell do you have planned?!" I yelled at him.
"My name is confidential, and you most certainly will not have info on our plans," the zorua answered, "But… if you must know, our fine organization does go by a certain name, and that name is Team Genesis."
"Genesis?" I said in confusion.
"Anyways, enough chit-chat, I have quite the busy schedule, and i'm a busy fox. So, I have places to be, so I'll see you once your minds are rewritten… well that's if I care at that point," the zorua said as he turned away from me and walked away yawning.
"Hey! Get back here, and let us go!" I shouted as the zorua walked down the hall of multiple cells, and eventually left my sight. Soon after he left, the lights to the cell block turned off, and left us in complete darkness.
Chapter End
Author Note: well, there is the beginning of the story. I am aware that certain aspects of this chaper are a bit confusing, but it'll all make sense later on. Anyways, I hope this first chapter is good, because it's a little different from previous flashbacks.
Also, it would mean a lot to me if you guys would check out my new story 'The Last Guardian.'
Anyways fun fact time. I originally forgot to post a request by LuckyWhisker, so i'm going to do that now, sorry I forgot :(
Fun Fact: The request is to know a little more about Naomi. Naomi is a character I actually added last minute. She was never in the original plot, but I had an idea to make Stark seem more alive, and I realized that a character like her adds so much more, and fills in some blanks in the story. Most people love her so far, and she is probably one of my favorite characters.
Fun Fact 2: part 2 to the request by LuckyWhisker. I won't say why he changed it so much since that will be gone over a bit more, and already has been gone over at the same time, but I'll get more in deaph later. But the reason I choose the name Ryder is because I loved it a lot. I would have done Grayson originally, but it didn't sound like a good name for an umbreon. The name Kaz is from my favorite video game 'Metal Gear Solid' so basically the name just stuck in my head. And the final name Black is just something simple I came up with. It seemed like all the good names were taken, but then I just went with that, and I like it. Anyways, I hope these answer your requests.
Also, if y'all have fun fact ideas, feel free to PM me or leave it in a review. I'll do any that don't spoil the story.
Anyways, sorry for the long note, i just have a lot to cover, i'll keep future notes much shorter.
Thank you genericgamer207 for editing this chapter.