Book II: Impending Twilight

Chapter 82: Chasing shadows

Third person point of view

The day was now nearing its end, and soon night would follow. Three pokemon lurked through the shadows of Cyllage city, a houndour, greninja, and a quilava. The trio kept to themselves, and made sure that no one in the city knew of their existence. These three pokemon were in search of a particular someone, but this particular someone happens to not be Ryder. The trio came to a halt behind a building that was vacant of both pokemon and humans.

"I am going to get a birds eye view of the city, wait here," the greninja known as Scarlet stated as she ran towards the wall of a building and ran up the wall until her momentum slowed down, and she then she began climbing the building until she reached the top of the two story building. Scarlet didn't stop there, she sprinted in a speed that made her movements a blur, and she soon climbed atop another building that was much higher and gave her the view she desired. Scarlet stood on the ledge of the building as she peered over Cyllage city. A few moments passed as she scanned the area before she jumped off the ledge of the building and withdrew her sword. The metallic blade rung for a moment, before she impaled the blade into the side of the building, and her speed slowed down enough for her to grab the ledge right before she splattered onto the ground. Scarlet hopped onto the ground next to her teammates, and she shook her head slowly as she walked pass them.

"Nothing eh?" the houndour known as Flynn stated as he followed Scarlets lead, along with a quilava that lazily followed behind.

"Keep searching for… it," Scarlet said, not really sure on how to refer to their target.

"I say we just shake Ryder up a bit, that outa lure it out," The quilava known as Merrick suggested.

"We can't get involved with him, he is not to know we're here," Flynn responded to Merrick.

"What difference does it make, the outcome will be the same no matter what, I mean come on?" Merrick complained as the flames on his back intensified.

"It does matter, none of this can be wasted, and right now that thing is meddling with our plan," Flynn retorted.

"You two, stop bickering. We're not interfering with Ryder, Mandus has other plans for him," Scarlet said to the two of them.

"Well how else will we find this thing, it'll take forever to search Cyllage, and that's just assuming it's in Cyllage right now!" Merrick responded in anger as his back flames arose to a higher level. Out of nowhere Merrick was splashed by a random hydropump of water.

"Calm down, don't be such a hot head," Scarlet responded to Merrick in her usual monotone voice.

"Oh har har!" Merrick yelled as the flames on his body regained their usual size, and dried him off. "Ugly bitch," Merrick muttered below his breath as Scarlet turned her back towards him. Despite the fact that Scarlet heard the insult, she chose to ignore it, since she knew it was best to not fuel the flames of Merrick's anger problem.

"Looking for somebody?" a voice called behind the group. All three of them quickly turned back, each in their unique fight stances.

Standing a few meters away from them in the shadows was a canine like pokemon, the only feature that was visible to any of them was the razor sharp teeth that formed an ominous smile, and red eyes that peered through the darkness.

Point of View Stark

My vision gazed up into the sky as I observed all of the stars that were scattered throughout the sky, along with the moon that would be full in a few days. I sat comfortably atop of a hill as I gazed up into the night sky. There were two things in this world that made me feel at peace. One would be the moon, the other was Naomi. She is no longer alive though, so I guess only one thing left in this world actually made me feel at peace. Such a pathetic existence I live. For as long as I can remember I was always a tool to those around me, first Jack, and now Genesis. Perhaps this is what I deserve? After all, I am a killing machine.

The one thing I wanted most now was to kill everyone that is with Genesis. Them manipulating me like this is unforgivable, even if it's the last thing I do, they'll pay. Being brought back just to live a few months was cruel, and here I thought I had a chance to change my ways and start anew.

Do I really want a new life though? Or should I say, do I want a life without Naomi? I really wanted to run away with her, and let her trick me into thinking I'm not some soulless monster. It could have been just the two of us in a whole new region; we could have found a territory of our own and settled down. While I couldn't say I wanted to start a family of our own, I did want to spend more time with her. She was smart, cute, and she always knew how to crawl under my fur and bring out the humane side of me. When I'm with her, I feel like I have a heart, I don't feel like I'm living a hollow existence with a single purpose.

"Are you just going to hide from everyone until your time is up?" A voice called out, and I turned my head back and saw Vincent walking towards me.

"What do you need?" I bluntly asked him.

"I came to talk to you about a few things," Vincent answered as he kept a small distance between us.

"Then make it quick," I told him as I looked back up into the sky.

"I know you're still taking in the bad news. I'm not even going to pretend I can relate to you," Vince said, but I didn't bother replying to him. Of course he didn't understand how I felt, I had very little time to live, and my only hope was a lie.

"Listen, I've told Mandus about your condition. We talked it over along with a few other members and we all came to an agreement," Vincent said, and I peered at him from the corner of my eye. "We don't know if any medications or anything will prolong your life, and-"

"Did you just come here to remind me?" I snapped at him.

"I wanted to tell you that I think you shouldn't spend the rest of your life fighting," Vince finished.

I completely turned around and I gave my full attention to Vince, "You want me to quit?"

"I'd like to say retire," Vincent added, "But you've been fighting your whole life. I think it's time you stop this and spend the time you have left being happy and living your life for yourself," Vincent said.

"And what would I do for the three short months I have left? Go find a hole and die alone, sit there and think about my regrets, or maybe I'll just-"

"That's enough Stark!" Vincent yelled over me. "Stop loathing around and feeling bad for yourself. Neither one of us has the right to feel bad for ourselves after what we've done," Vincent stated with irritation.

"I know," I truthfully admitted, despite me wanting to say otherwise. "I just don't know what to do… It seems like no matter what I do, I end up miserable."

"Well, you just have to decide on how you want to spend your time left," Vincent responded, "There is a war to be fought. One that won't be easy, if you continue to fight with us, I highly doubt you'll make it to the end. But, a decision will have to be made very soon; we are starting a mission soon. Mandus says he'd like your help if you stay, but you are allowed to retire if you wish to."

Could I even retire honestly? Vincent thought he was giving me a choice, but in reality I had no choice. Either I stayed and did Genesis's dirty work, or I was dead. This whole decision was rigged from the start, he only thought that I got a say in it.

"For now I plan on staying, I really don't have much else to live for, so maybe I'll find something along the way," I answered, slightly lying.

"And you are sure this is what you want?" Vincent double checked. I responded with a nod. "Alright, just know that we can't go easy on you, even if you are this way."

Point of View Naomi

'So… how am I going to present myself to Black…' I thought to myself as I continued to follow the river that would lead me to my destination. Excluding the few breaks I had earlier, I haven't stopped once. I would probably be back in Cyllage by morning if I didn't stop.

'I'm dead in their eyes… I don't even know how they'll respond to me coming back to life magically. What do I tell them, a creepy pokemon impersonating my dead crush stopped me from killing myself. No-no-no, they don't need to know that about me, they can think it was just his idea.'

I let out a muffled frustrated scowl with the sack in my maw as I tried to not think about how I'm going to present myself. Instead, I just focused on navigating. The only light I had was myself and the moon. Although umbreons had almost perfect vision in the dark, we never really needed it since our kind are lunar glow sticks, as some racially remark.

Far off in the distance a giant wall of rocks began to become visible. This massive incline in the ground was the mountains that were near Cyllage. I am so close, yet I still had no idea on how I was going to do this.

Suddenly my ears flickered as I heard a twig snap behind me. I quickly spun around, but no one was behind me. I cautiously scanned the area, until my vision was directed towards a tree, which was the only possible hiding spot. Dark matter surrounded my right paw as I dropped the sack I was carrying and slowly walked towards the tree.

Once I was directly in front of the tree, I ran towards the other side and aimlessly swung my paw. Another paw quickly swiped my paw, and caused me to miss my target. A frown formed on my face the moment I noticed who was stalking me...

"Why… Why the hell are you following me!" I screamed at my leafeon brother, who cringed at the sight of my fury.

"You forgot to say bye…" he nervously replied, but he held his ground.

"You gotta be fucking kidding me…"

"Nope," Dante responded ruefully.

"Seriously, why are you following me, did I not make myself clear that you couldn't come with me?!" I snapped at Dante.

"Oh you made yourself clear alright, but apparently I didn't make myself clear when I said you aren't shutting me out of your life like that again," Dante retorted.

"You need to leave, I don't have time for this," I told Dante. The leafeon just frowned at me.

"I'm not leaving until I get my answers," Dante said with determination, "I want to know why you have changed so much, why you're so distant."

"No, I don't have time for this, you need to go back home, I don't have time for this!" I screamed at him.

"Naomi, that's enough," Dante sternly stated. "You apparently don't understand how much you mean to me. And I refuse to go home, that place means nothing to me anymore, for years I only stayed in that place just because I wanted to see you again, so that you wouldn't come home one day thinking we were gone or dead" Dante stated. "In all honesty, if you're going to shit on me like this, then don't bother coming home, I won't be waiting for you, nor will I be searching for you," Dante bitterly stated.

"I knew I shouldn't have visited," I said as I turned around and started heading down the river.

"Hey, stop ignoring me!" Dante shouted as he follow behind me.

"Dante, please understand that you can't come with me," I tried to reason.

"Listen I put a lot of work into tracking you down, I'm not just turning back with my tail between my legs," Dante said to me.

"There is nothing to talk about," I replied.

"Regardless, I'm still following you."

"Stop being immature!" I shouted at him as I picked up my pace.

"No, you're immature for acting this way," Dante retorted.

Arceus, we sound like a bunch of cubs arguing… Why can't he just let me go? As much as I wanted him to come with, I couldn't risk his safety. Dante was the last thing I held dear, so if I stayed away from him it would be more likely that he'd live longer. But this all came at the risk of making Dante resent me, if he didn't already. I want him to come with me so badly, but there is no way to tell what will happen, for all I know Sam could come back for revenge, and Dante could end up a victim to his psychotic rage.

"Naomi, can we just stop and talk about this, you don't have to keep hiding from me," Dante said in a much more tranquil voice than a few seconds ago.

Doing as he said, I stopped in place, but I didn't face back towards him.

"What do you want to talk about," I asked Dante as I kept my back faced towards him.

"You made it very clear at one point that their was something you wished not to speak of. Well, I can't help but feel that this thing you don't want to speak of is tearing you asunder. Why can't you just speak to me, I'm your brother for Arceus's sake, I'm not going to judge you, You'll still be my sister, and I'll still be on your side, its always been this way."

I slowly turned back to face Dante, and I saw the honest look on his face, the face of the brother that always loved me, the brother that was always by my side, the brother that never judged or gave up on me. It hurt so much to block Dante out like this, I wanted to tell him, but I couldn't bare the thought of him getting hurt in all of this. Plus If I told him of Jack and Sam he'd probably want to kill them, and I doubt Dante would have an idea what he would be getting into.

"Dante, you're absolutely right, what I'm not telling you is the source of my pain."

"Then speak to me, don't bottle up your emotions Naomi, it'll cause more harm than good."

I exhaled a deep breath, I could not believe I was about to tell someone about my past few years. So, for the next thirty minutes or so I gave Dante a watered down version of my story. I told him how I was captured by Jack, how I was abused, how I was forced to kill a few pokemon against my will, and how I unexpectedly grew a crush for Stark, who later died because I had to stop him from killing Jack.

"So, that's everything that has happened the past few years," I said as I exhaled a depressed sigh that was followed by a sniffle. I wanted to cry at this point, but I was just so worn, it has been such a long day, and I was honestly too tired to cry. Dante just stared at me for a few minutes, before I moved closer to me.

"I had no idea you want through things like that, I knew you were bothered by something, but not something that extreme," Dante said in a shocked tone.

"Well… Now you know," I replied in a hollow voice.

"Well, do you feel better now?" Dante asked me, as he moved in close to me and pulled me into a hug. His hugs usually felt… comforting, but right now all I felt was a sense of disgust in myself. Now Dante would always know that I was a killer, he would know all the horrible things I've done, I don't see how him knowing that would make me feel better, I wanted everyone to be ignorant about my background.

"I don't know," I bitterly answered as I leaned towards him for support, but I didn't hug him.

"So, what exactly are you doing now, why are you in such a hurry?" Dante asked.

I remained quiet for a moment before answering, I was just so tired of talking about this, but I came this far, didn't I? "I recently met a pokemon who is… unique," I oddly answered, "This pokemon for some reason is taking an interest in a… acquaintance of mine," I said awkwardly. Were Black and I friends? "Anyways, this pokemon said in exchange for me teaching this umbreon friend of mine darkmatter attacks, he'll do a favor for me, which is killing Jack."

"And you're sure you want to get revenge?" Dante questioned me.

"It's all I can think about, he's destroyed so many lives, I just want some form of redemption, I want closure," I told dante as I closed my eyes and tried to imagine a world with Jack dead.

"Listen, you don't have to do this, if anyone comes near you I will protect you, I'm good at warding off unwanted people and pokemon," Dante offered. "Just let me help."

"It's not that simple Dante, if we run into them we will most likely die, Sam is psychotic, he'd probably enjoy torturing you in front of me," I stated, and the thought sent a tremor down my spine.

"I can handle myself, and I can protect you as well," Dante replied.

'That's what Stark thought as well.'

Point of View Third Person

"Who are you?" Scarlet asked the pokemon that was hidden in the shadows.

The pokemon in the shadow's stepped out in a form that was very familiar to each of them.

"S-Stark?" Flynn piped up in surprise as Stark's red eyes peered into them. "How did you get he-"

"That's not Stark," Scarlet interrupted, "Stark has blue eyes now, not red," Scarlet stated, as her eyes deadpanned on the white umbreon with the intent to kill.

"Now," Scarlet began to say as she began to unsheathe her sword, "I'll ask you one last time, who are you."

"Who I am doesn't matter," the imposter responded, "But what I'd like to ask is why you three are seeking me out. I'm actually a little impressed Crimson noticed me, I was meticulous enough to only show myself when necessary," the fake umbreon spoke.

"Why we're looking for you doesn't matter," Merrick mimicked in a childish voice that was full of sarcasm.

"So then, I suppose you didn't track me down to talk," the fake umbreon stated.

"That depends, why are you stalking Ryder, why go out of your way to help him, what is he to you?" Scarlet questioned the imposter.

"Ryder himself means very little to me, I would even say that his persona makes me sick to my stomach, such a whiny child. I could tell you all about what I want with him, but I don't see much point in telling three pokemon that'll be dead soon."

"Excuse me bub? There's three of us, and one of you. So, don't act like you have the upperhand," Merrick stated as he gnashed his teeth together.

"Answer my question shapeshift, who are you, and what do you want with Ryder, I am not asking again," Scarlet fiercely stated as she tightened the grip on her sword.

"If you must have a name, you may call me SkullFace, and I seek to use Ryder for a greater purpose, one that will help perfect this world."

"If you seek to make this world a better place then maybe we can talk, perhaps we seek the same," Scarlet suggested.

"If I had to choose between being Mandus's dog and the other evils, I would rather not choose at all," Skullface stated.

"Other evils?" Flynn repeated.

"Those the world looks up to in ignorance, those that will condemn this world soon," Skullface stated.

"The Legendaries?" Scarlet stated in confusion. Skullface gave a small nod.

"Wait!" Flynn piped up, "I know the Legendaries watch over us and do nothing, but that doesn't exactly make them 'evil'. We only use our methods because they don't do anything."

"Such ignorance from the ones that are hunting some of the Legendaries, of course how could you know what's really happening in this world," Skullface said ah he shook his head in disappointment..

"Then enlighten us, all knowing imposter," Merrick spat out snidely.

"I could enlighten you on the conspiracies that are taking place, but I don't think any of you serve as useful pawns on my chessboard. So, in order to win a game of chess, sometimes you have to kill the pawns to move your better pieces forward," Skull face began to say, and Scarlet darted towards him in a flash and with a clean cut, shut slashed his jugular open.

The imposter umbreon let out a loud gurgle as he fell to the ground with blood pouring out of his neck. Scarlet looked down at the fake umbreon that was writhing in pain.

"For someone who talks a lot, you dropped fast," Scarlet stated as she stabbed her blade into the side of Skullface's head, instantly killing him. Scarlet withdrew her blade out of the dead umbreon, and she flicked her blade to get the unwanted blood off of it.

"You're quicker than I imagined," Skullface spoke as he got up without struggle, and his wounds were no longer present. Scarlet quickly jumped back to a safe distance as Skullface began to walk towards the trio.

"Uhhh Scarlet, I think your blade is getting dull or something," Merrick stated as Skullface continued to walk towards them.

"Did you really think you could kill me?" Skullface questioned in an offended tone.

"No, but this will!" Merrick shouted before he inhaled a deep breath, and blew a flamethrower that blinded everyone. After a moment Merrick stopped, and the smoke cleared out shortly. Nothing remained in the spot Skullface stood in, only a burnt spot on the ground.

"Burnt out of existe-," Merrick chimed before blood came up from his mouth.

Scarlet and Flynn both turned to see Skullface standing over Merrick with one of his paws going through his back, and coming out of his stomach. Merrick just stood there frozen in place. His mouth agape, and he tried to speak something, but no words formed. Skull face placed his other paw on Merrick's back, and he used it to assist him in violently pulling it out of his body. Merrick let out a cry of pain before he fell over.

"How mind-numbing," Skullface stated as Scarlet swung her sword at him in complete fury. A series of slashes came towards Skullface, but he just stood in place as each swing phased through his body as if he wasn't a physical object.

Blood splattered into the air as Scarlets arm fell to the ground, and Skullface landed a few feet away from her, with dark matter surrounding his body.

Scarlet gripped her wound as she jumped back towards Flynn who was now spraying embers towards Skullface as suppressive fire. Skullface just began licking the blood off his paws as Flynn continued to assault him. After this kept up for a half a minute, Flynn stopped as he began panting.

"I told you three from the start that you were going to die," Skullface began to speak as Flynn charged towards him with his teeth bared ready. Right as Flynn lunged towards Skullface his body stopped in midair, almost as if time paused.

"I'd expect this kind of attack from a child," Skullface stated as he jumped into the air, and slashed Flynn's throat with his claws, and the houndour fell to the ground and blood splattered everywhere.

Skullface began walking towards Scarlet as the greninja kept her view deadpanned on the monster that was pursuing her.

"What are you?" She questioned him in a weak voice as she tried to stop the bleeding from her lost arm.

"I am many things, but I think most would perceive me as a monster," Skullface said as he bared his teeth ready and lunged at the greninja. The three members of Crimson now laid on the ground, each of them lying in a bloodbath of each others blood.

"Naive puppets, you don't understand what's really going on. Ryder is mine, I own him. Mew only thinks she has control over me, but they'll all soon see who they should really be afraid of."

Chapter End

Author Note: Thanks to everyone that has been reviewing lately, it is really inspiring to see that so many people are interested in my story. I try not to make reviews my fuel for writing, but everyone's thoughtfulness has really inspired me a lot. So thanks to each and every person that has taken the time to review and support this story.

Question: What is your opinion/theories on Skull Face?

Fun Fact: Both gym battles took place on the 6th chapter (Of their own books). Also it took me +70 chapter to get to the second gym... I never anticipated myself to get so in depth with the story, hopefully it's not annoying anyone.