Book II: Impending Twilight
Chapter 112: Snapped
Point of View Black
Two weeks after chapter 111
Ever since I was brought to the Genesis base I lost sight of time, the days felt longer than usual, but at the same time my life felt like it was moving too fast. Since my agreement with Rhys, life has become somewhat of a tedious chore as well. Wake up, fight to the death in my training, eat a meal, continue training till dinner, then go to bed and repeat the next day. Even with all the time I spent in these simulations I could never get used to the feeling of murdering the artificial beings. It felt awful, it did nothing but bring up painful memories I wanted to keep buried deep within. Not only that, ever since I began my training I felt different as a person, like an empty husk of the umbreon I once was.
I laid in my bed and listened to the sound of silence while staring at the alarm clock resting on the nearest counter to me. It read five o'clock, which would mean it would be ringing in the next hour at six. During the past two weeks sleep became a joke to me, something I sparsely got the pleasure of enjoying. The lack of sleep was taking its toll on me, making me very sluggish throughout my day, making life all the more difficult.
As I sat in the silence of my room I tried to fall asleep by forcing my eyes shut. But as my eyes remained closed all I could see were the memories of what I left behind for this life. There was no turning back at this point, my life belonged to Genesis, and to the day I died I'd be there toy.
Time continued to fly by as I recollected the life I once had firmly in my paws. It felt like ten minutes passed by the time my alarm sounded throughout the room. The bright lights within my room beamed on, and forced me to fully awake.
Like everyday, Lily came to get me and took me to the VR training room. I entered the virtual world and commenced my training for the day. This training didn't come to a stop till many hours later and I was panting in exhaustion with my muscles pulsing in pain. Lily then took me to get lunch and I had one hour to recover before I continued for the rest of my day. By around six PM I was finished with another day of hard work, and with whatever energy I had I could do what I wanted in my room. Lily offered to get me a TV or something to entertain myself with, but I declined all offers. The less I owed Genesis the better, besides I just didn't feel like doing much besides thinking. If Genesis really wanted to keep me happy they'd take me out of my solitary confinement and let me at least go outside or something.
Regardless of how I felt, it didn't matter. All that mattered is that I did what Genesis told me to do, and I'd happily play along to protect what little I have left.
Two months later
The day was early, but to my surprise today didn't start off as it usually did. Instead of starting right away with my training, Lily was taking me directly to Rhys's office.
"Go on in," Lily told me as I waited in front of the door to his office. I took my first step towards the door and it opened on its own. Inside the office I found that it was actually quite empty compared to the office of the kadabra I met two months back. Actually, as I continued to look around I noticed that there was only a desk in the room and not much else to it. I tried not to show a reaction, but the lack of decoration was a bit surprising, especially in contrast with Zero's office.
I walked towards Rhys desk and climbed up onto the chair sitting in front of his desk. Rhys patiently waited for me to get situated, and the two of us swapped stares.
"You look awful," the zorua commented. I just scoffed at the remark the zorua made. to the core of my soul, I resented this man with a passion. If I could kill him like I did to the pokemon in my training I'd be one happy umbreon.
"Well, I've been looking over the results of your training over the past two months. You're much slower than most of the pokemon who went through the same training. I'd say you're about halfway to where you need to actually be right now, which is quite disappointing to say the least. Then again, from where you came from, I'm not the least bit surprised by the results of your training. You weren't raised to be a fighter after all."
"What are you getting at?" I bluntly asked with spite towards the zorua.
"Well I'll get straight to the point. We're getting close to making a move, soon you'll be assigned to a team that will be hunting Mandus down. So, since you'll be starting the next phase of your training soon, I'd also like to give you more background on your mission and team."
"What I want to know is what you promised me," I sharply muttered.
"Yeah, I'm aware of what I promised" Rhys cleared his throat, "So today I will be telling you about your target, Mandus."
"You don't get it, do you?"
Rhys let out a hard sigh, "Get what?"
"I'm not emotionally invested in this mission like you think, I wanted answers on who I am. I don't care about Mandus, I care about my origin."
Rhys scoffed towards me in response, "Hmmf, perhaps you should mind your tongue Ryder, I brought you here to discuss things on my terms, don't make me regret my choice of sparing you. Now, be a good umbreon and be quiet." Rhys's words bit into me, stirring up my temper, but I sat quietly and bit down as hard as I could to help control myself from doing anything stupid.
"Now, you'll be teaming up with three other pokemon in total. First is Raiden, a skillful raichu, for a trained killer he's very kind and reasonable, a very rare trait for someone in his line of work. Next is Lily, I'm sure you two are acquainted enough for me not to explain who she is. The third and final member we still haven't retrieved yet, he seemed to have run off around the time you joined us. You can meet him in person when the time comes, I know you two share a small piece of history together, but the two of you will be working together, so I expect you to behave. Along with all of them you'll also have an intel team that'll guide you during your missions, you'll get acquainted with them when the time comes to actually get some work done."
"Wait, if this pokemon you spoke of is someone I knew, then why hide it from me? I don't want any bullshit Rhys."
"I believe it's best for the both of you to discuss these matters face to face. When the time does comes I'll expect you to be on your best behavior, so deal with it. Now, changing to the subject of Mandus."
"What about him?" I asked as I rolled my eyes in response of Rhys complete control of this conversation.
"Well, why don't we start with telling me what you know about him, then I'll fill in what you don't know."
I let out a scowl, "He's a lucario that fucked up my life multiple times, that's all I know."
"And that's all you know? Rhys asked and I gave a single nod. "I figured as much. Mandus has done a good job at hiding who he is. Mandus has a long history that goes back to when he was just a young child. He was born in a foreign region from here, in a large mountainous forest that was cut off from the modern world we know. He wasn't even aware of what a human was, and when he did see humans he saw the worst of them. One day, war broke out, and caught in the middle were the pokemon in Mandus's homeland. The pokemon that inhabited his home were captured and forced to fight in this war for reasons they didn't understand. Eventually the pokemon that were tormented by the humans had enough, they fought against both human sides to take back their homeland. Mandus was just a child in that resistance, or maybe he could have also been worded as a child soldier in Hell. It didn't take long for all hope to be crushed for the resistance. The pokemon never stood a chance against the modern world. During that year Mandus lost everything, his family, his friends, his homeland, his culture, even his pride as a pokemon. All that did remain was his wrath, which created the pokemon he is to this very day. He loathes the human race with all of his being, he'd do anything to exterminate the human race for revenge. Truthfully, it's sad seeing the remnants of someone who went through that Hell."
"What does this matter if I'm just going to kill him?"
"Truthfully it doesn't, but it's wise to know your enemy. Mandus and you aren't that different when you really look at it. Both you and him lost everything you ever knew, and to this very day you're both tormented by your pasts. The main difference would be that Mandus wants revenge against the world for taking his homeland. He believes that if he achieves his goals he'll be able to bring out a true era of peace, but to do that he needs two more things . Yveltal, a powerful Legendary known for its destructive powers, Xerneas a pokemon with eternal life, and lastly, you." Rhys pointed his paw at me.
"And what exactly does Mandus want with me, if I'm so important then why put me on the front lines?"
"Simple, we can use you to lure him out if we choose to. You're pivotal in his final plan, and also useless to him if he can't acquire the last piece, Yveltal and xerneas."
"You still haven't answered why Mandus wants me though?" I asked impatiently as I stared the zorua down with a menacing stare.
"That's a story for another day Ryder. But, there is one more reason I brought you here, I'm sending you out on a mission to see if you truly can apply what you've learned through your training."
"Wha-a mission?"
Rhys nodded, "Yes, that's why I brought you here to talk about your team. You're going to be working with them to capture your fourth team member. Don't worry, you won't be killing anybody for this mission, but there are some strict rules you will follow," Rhys emphasized the end of his words. "You'll be wearing a harness on you throughout this mission. It'll monitor wherever you go and it'll also allow us to contact you at any time. Should you disobey us we will also put you down on the spot after a fair warning. You'll also listen to Lily and Raiden, they're your superiors in this mission and at all times. Should they have anything bad to say you'll be hearing straight from me, which is not a good thing. Any questions?"
"No," I answered with dread.
"Good, you'll be deploying in an hour to begin your mission. Lily will be briefing you on everything you need to know. Run along now Ryder." Rhys waved for me to go, and I left the room as he instructed without looking back. Lily greeted me outside of Rhys's office in the halls of the Genesis base.
"Alright come on Ryder, we got some things to do in the next hour before we'll be leaving. Don't even think of stalling."
"Tff, yes ma'am," I snorted as I followed behind the sylveon. We walked through the facility and traveled up some floors before we entered into a large room that had equipment filling every corner. To my surprise there were guns lined up on racks, pokeballs of all kinds filling crates to the brim, and anything you'd really need to pass as a heavy duty mass killer. Leaning against an empty spot on the wall was a raichu that nearly caused my heart to stop beating momentarily. I let out a low growl as the electric rodent opened his eyes and beamed me a friendly smile, one that was all to friendly since he tried to murder me and my friends.
"Of all the umbreon's, I never thought we'd be working together," Raiden laughed.
I didn't reply kindly to the raichu and held my ground as my growls grew louder and I showed my fangs, "I knew that name sounded familiar, just what the hell is this?" I snapped at him.
"Ease up kid, I'm not here to fight you. Back in Cyllage, that was just business, I harbor no ill feelings towards you or any of your friends, even if I did get a nice scar on my leg." the raichu stuck his left leg out, revealing the burned up limb.
"You tried to kill us!"
"Yeah, I'm a mercenary. I do lots of messed up things because it's my job. You can resent me all you want, it doesn't change the fact that you're working with me. We don't have to be friends, but that doesn't mean we have to be at each other's throats all the time," Raiden extended his paw out towards me.
I eyed his hand for a good minute before I responded, "Fine, I knew I'd be putting up with people like you when I took this job, but I refuse to shake hands with you." I turned from the raichu and towards Lily, "Okay, what do we need to do? I want to get all of this out of the way."
"Well, we mostly need to get your harness so Genesis can keep track of you. Other then that we just need to go get our ride," Lily answered before she turned to Raiden. "Raiden, help Black with a harness, neither of us have hands so you'll have to assist him."
"Sure thing," the raichu nodded as he went to the back of the room and opened a steel wired door, revealing the harnesses they talked of. Raiden grabbed one that was black with a few details of red on it and walked towards me. "This looks like your size, just let me help you get this on."
Despite my better judgement, I allowed Raiden to help me get into the harness. The raichu used these belt like things to tighten the chest piece of the harness, to the part of the harness that went along my upper back. The fit was a bit snug and felt very unnecessary.
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it, promise," Raiden spoke as he gave me a strong pat on the back, triggering me to snap my teeth towards him with a snarl. Raiden just let out a nervous laugh as he avoided my fangs.
"Is this thing really necessary, I feel flat out ridiculous with this on," I grimaced as I looked into a mirror on the wall.
Lily let out a sigh, "You look fine Ryder, besides no one is going to be judging you. I mean it's either the harness vest or nano implants. And once nano implants are in they're in, so I would just be happy with the vest."
"I'm Surprised I even have a say between the two then," I muttered as Raiden and Lily lead me towards the door.
"C'mon, let's get moving," Lily ordered.
I followed the two pokemon to one of the higher floors of the facility, which is actually the highest I've ever been in the Genesis facility. The next room we entered in the facility was actually a wide open room, and contained a helicopter in the center.
Waiting on the left side of the room on a small platform were three pidgeots. Lily and Raiden led me to the platform that we had to take a ramp up to. Raiden waved a hand at the three birds.
"We're ready to head out. You know the destination, right?" Raiden asked.
"Of course," the middle avian spoke. "We're ready to depart at a moment's notice."
"Ryder, have you ever rode on the back of a flying pokemon before?"
"Ummm, I can't say I have" I gulped as I imagined the image of me falling from the sky in mid flight...
"Well this'll be an experience then. Just hop onto a pidgeot and hang on tight. Just try not to look down or use your claws for grip, they'll make sure you won't fall off. Okay?"
"I'm not sure I feel comfortable doing this," I admitted as I could already feel the air sickness.
"Relax, it's going to be fine. Who knows, you might even enjoy the view."
"I'm not getting on that thing," I lowered my tone as I glared at Raiden.
"Come on, it's not that bad, I promise."
"I'm not falling off that thin-" In mid sentence Raiden extended his hand out and tapped me on the forehead with his finger.
"Shh, it's going to be alright," He spoke in a hushed voice as I felt a surge of electricity travel into my body. Just as I began to fall towards the ground Raiden caught me and began dragging me towards one of the birds that was crouched down. I tried to move my muscles to resist, but my body wouldn't respond.
'Shit, paralysis!' I yelled in my head as I tried to regain control of my numb muscles. 'I'll kill you when this wears off, I swear!'
"Be extra careful that he doesn't fall off," Raiden said as he stationed me on the avians back.
"Understood."
Both Raiden and Lily got onto the back of their own pidgeots and the birds began to flap their wings before they lifted off the ground. As I barely managed to look up I could see a giant hatch on the ceiling opening up enough for us to leave, and with quick speed the pidgeots flew outside of the Genesis base. I hung limply on the pideot's back as I wanted to scream my head off from how high and fast we were moving. Within seconds we were hundreds of feet off the ground, and soon I got a bird's eye view of the world below me.
My heart was racing and I felt the urge to cry as I felt so helpless and like I was going to fall off at any second. As the bird soared through the sky, my eyes drifted downward and scanned the ground below. The whole area we were in now was like some rocky barren wasteland, almost like a desert. While I continued to stare down towards the ground, I felt my breakfast rising up from my stomach, but it never did come up and I was stuck feeling like I was going to throw up.
It took around twenty minutes for my paralysis to wear off enough for me to move again, and when it did I held onto the pidgeot as tightly as I could, and that included using my claws for grip. The bird constantly kept yelling at me to stop using my claws, but I felt no reason to comply. Our trip went on for many hours, and for a matter of fact by the time we were nearing our destination the sun was setting on the horizon. Over the course of our long flight we flew over many forests, rivers, towns, and just about anything you'd expect to see on the way. My uneasiness only slightly went down, but I felt sick most of the journey.
I looked out towards the horizon, and I could see that the sun was setting over a massive city with a giant tower at the heart of the civilization. The memories of the city came running back to me as I remembered my time in Lumiose city. Soon we were flying over the city, and I could see everyone going about their days since we were flying just a bit above the buildings.
"We're landing," the pidgeot I was on said as he dove towards the ground. I clenched my eyes as I felt our speed increase, and within seconds the bird smoothly landed on the ground as he straightened himself out.
"Arceus umbreon, I swear you left some deep marking on me from all that clinging."
Without a second of hesitation I jumped to the ground. To my surprise my legs felt very wobbly like jello and I collapsed to the ground. Lily and Raiden landed on the ground with their own pideots and dismounted them.
"Man, I hate long flights, my back is always stiff from them," Lily complained as she stretched out and popped the joints in her back. Raiden joined us on the ground and collapsed down to his rear on the hard building top.
"That… that was just horrible," I muttered as I stayed on the ground, never wanting to leave its presence again.
"You'll be fine," Lily stated
I was about to make a snide remark about not being fine, but instead I had something else on my mind, "So, what exactly are we doing in Lumiose city?"
"Well, if you paid attention to Rhys you'd know we're here to capture the fourth member of our team," Lily harshly answered.
"I did… but who exactly is this pokemon, Rhys said I knew him, unless he was talking about Raiden?"
"No," Raiden joined in, "You actually do know this pokemon, as do I." Raiden turned his back from me, "Or supposedly it's who I think it is, I honestly just have to see it for myself."
"You're losing me, what're you talking about?"
"Ehhh, nevermind," Raiden sighed, "I'll explain it after all of this is done and over with. Anyways, one of us needs to go check in with our source on the location of our fourth member. Till then you two can do whatever, just leave it to me."
"You sure about that, Raiden?" Lily asked.
"Sure, I got nothing better to do," Raiden shrugged. "So, I'll get started with that now, you two just be ready to meet up somewhere when the time comes."
"Alright, I'll be on standby then," Lily nodded. Raiden gave her a thumbs up, and the raichu headed towards the ledge of the building.
"Hey," Raiden waved to one of the pidgeot, "Mind giving me a lift down to the ground?"
"Sure thing," the bird smiled as he flew over to Raiden and the rodent grabbed onto the avian's leg and was carried down.
"Well," Lily broke the silence, "We'll have a couple hours to kill, give or take."
"You guys can contact me through this harness thingy, right?" I asked.
"Yeah, there is a small microphone and speaker so we can communicate."
"Well, since you guys can get ahold of me, am I allowed to look around the city…? I used to live here and it just kinda brings back memories before a lot of things in my life changed and all," I nervously asked the sylveon, knowing that she'd shoot me down for asking.
Lily gave me an untrusting stare before she answered, "Just don't wander off to far. I'm technically supposed to have you in my sight at all time, but I understand how you feel. Go."
"Thanks, I really appreciate it," I smiled towards her.
"Get going, you won't have long, Ryder."
The sun set from over Lumiose and the street lights all around Lumiose lit up, along with the rings on my body. I walked down the empty streets of an older condo complex in silence as I held my head low. Most of the homes were a bit worn down, but still managed to stay in use. The rings on my body emitted a blue light, lighting the ground near my feet. As I reached the end of the complex I stopped and looked up towards a condo that was familiar to me. I watched it from across the street with a gaping hole growing where my heart once rested.
Only a few lights inside the condo remained on, but on the most part it was dead. I continued to watch in silence as I wondered what everyone was doing. I wondered if they were even home, or if it was just Alex's father occupying the condo.
"I miss all of you so much," I whispered below my breath as I continued to watch.
Point of View Ebony
The night was just beginning and I was already feeling exhausted. I rested on a window sill in a dark empty room. Everyone else in our home was watching TV in the back room, except Flare who was already asleep for the night, or he at least pretends to be asleep at this hour. It was painful watching Flare these past two months, it was obvious he was hurting on the inside. While there has been small steps of improvement, over all he was still very broken over Kana. I too missed Kana. I never did talk a much to anyone, but I still felt that kana was someone who'd listen to me if I needed someone too, she seemed very accepting and thoughtful. I wish I would have been more social with her while she was around, I really wanted to know her, I just felt so shy and like I'd be bothering her. Deep down I knew it wasn't true, but I just still couldn't help but convince myself that I would have annoyed her in some way.
I let out a sigh as I sat up on the window sill and looked outside and towards the sky, until I caught sight of something fading into the darkness, a pokemon emitting a blue light. My eyes grew wide as I watched the pokemon leaving my view from the window, but their was no doubt that it was indeed a shiny umbreon.
"B-Black?" I whispered to myself as I tried to see him, but the window was obstructing me from seeing him down the street. "It can't be… no, it has to be him," I excitedly said as I jumped from the window sill and headed towards the front door. Using some psychic tricks I trained very hard to learn, I managed to twist the knob of the front door open as the gem on my head radiated with light. When the door clicked open I heaved heavily from the strain I caused on my brain. Being a psychic may have had its perks, but for a novice like me it caused a lot of strain and often led to serious migraines if I pushed myself.
Using my paw, I slowly pulled the front door open and escaped without anyone noticing me. I just barely closed the door so I could easily push it open again when I needed to sneak back in. Once I was outside and ready, I ran off in the direction after the umbreon that had to be Black. I knew it was naive to assume any shiny umbreon could be Black, but their was always that small chance that it really was him. And if it really was true then I had to convince him to come home with us.
Point of View Black
"That was a lot faster than you said it would be!" I yelled out towards the harness on my body.
The voice of Raiden responded from the other end with the sound of static mixed in, "Well it turns out that I was able to get a precise location of where our target is. Just meet me at the location I mentioned, we'll be meeting you there asap."
"Alright," I grumbled back towards the rodent as I kept up my running pace towards the location he mentioned. When I did reach the street Raiden told me to go to I found them waiting in front of the entrance to a subway system.
"Come on, we'll miss them," Raiden waved for me to move faster.
"They're in a subway?" I asked as we all moved down the stairs into the metro train system.
"Usually we could track him with the nanotechnology in him, but since he's been staying in certain areas we couldn't get a signal on him till recently. We couldn't track him even though he was here, he must be sticking to areas with bad reception. Our source said he spotted our target waiting down here for a train. Apparently he's waiting till a night train so he won't be spotted as easily. And the train he's taking is estimated to be here any second," Raiden urgently answered as we reached the bottom of the steps. The three of us ran below the feet of the few humans in the metro, and snuck right past the area we were supposed to pay for our entry to the subway.
"There he is," Lily growled as she caught a glimpse of our target entering the train, but I just missed what she was looking at. "After him!" Lily yelled as she took off sprinting towards the train. Raiden and I both followed behind the ambitious sylveon and entered in the train cart behind the one our target went into.
Upon entry of the subway cart the two humans inside stared at us with a confused gaze. "We'll wait for the train to start up, we'll get him when he's trapped in here with us," Lily began, "And Ryder, our target is a white umbreon, should be easy not to confuse him with anyone else. Just be careful, this guy can be dangerous."
"Wait! White umbreon!?" I exclaimed in disbelief. I knew Rhys said I knew this pokemon, but I didn't expect it to be this guy out of all pokemon. This is just what I needed though, I still owed him for what he put me and Ebony through.
Point of View Ebony
I fell far behind Black. I managed to stay on his trail, only managing to catch glimpses of him at a time, mostly due to the fact he was a bit faster than me. Luckily it was night, so the streets were a lot less crowded which made it easy to sight him as I chased after him. My chase eventually led me down into a subway system, I just barely managed to catch sight of him departing with two other pokemon on a train. I ran down the stairs of the subway system and towards the bottom where humans paid for entry to the subway. Ignoring the fact I had no money, I ran past it and into the area everybody waited for the trains to arrive.
"Black… I couldn't have lost you," I whispered below my breath as I felt my eyes growing heavier. "No, I can't give up here, I know it was him, it had to be," I said with confidence as I looked around for a pokemon, until I spotted a fletchling sitting on its owner's shoulder. I walked up towards the human with the fletchling.
"E-Excuse me, where did the next train leave to?" I asked.
The avian turned its glance towards me, "I think the next stop is to Elm street avenue."
"You wouldn't have happened to see a shiny umbreon, would you? It's important, please," I nearly begged the fletchling for an answer.
"No I didn't. Is everything alright, did you get separated from your parent or sibling?" The fletchling asked with concern.
"He's my friend, and how far to the next stop?"
"I think it may just be a five minute ride by train, but I'm not exactly sure" the fletchling answered.
My head lowered a bit from the answer he gave me, "That's a bit of a walk…" I whispered before my head rose back up towards the fletchling, "Thank you so much for your help!" I yelled as I ran towards the tracks and jumped down onto them.
"Hey, what're you doing?!" The fletchling yelled as a few humans yelled at me as well to get off the tracks.
'I know this is so stupid, but I can't let him get away. If I keep going maybe I can find some kind of clue at the next station.'
As I ran down the tracks my pace quickened and my muscles began to burn deeply, but I refused to stop when I was this close. And luckily there was enough space between the track and wall to allow a human to squeeze by, so I didn't have to worry about getting ran over if another train did come by.
Point of View Black
The three of us waited for about a minute in the train before Lily spoke up. "It's time, just remember not to kill or cause permanent damage. It's important that we can use him after this." Raiden and I both nodded, and Lily was the one to lead our group. The sylveon used the weird fleshy ribbons on her body to force the door to the next cart open, and on the outside was a very short bridge leading to the next cart. Lily opened the next cart and stormed in as Raiden and I followed behind.
"End of the line, traitor!" Lily rose her voice, catching the attention of a white umbreon lying under the train bench in the shadows.
"It really is you," I growled as the umbreon pulled himself out from the shadows, revealing another pokemon that was resting by his side, one I did not expect to see as she popped her head out of the shadows in utter shock.
"B-Black, R-Raiden?!" Naomi rose her voice as she quickly pulled herself out. "What are you two doing here?"
"You two know her?" Lily shot us a sharp glance, but I didn't worry about her question.
I almost couldn't believe what I was seeing here, Naomi laying right next to our target, practically in each other's personal space. "Naomi, what are you doing here, why are you with him?"
"I guess we both owe each other an explanation, but this is Stark and he's my boyfriend I guess you could say…"
The words 'boyfriend' instantly plucked at my heart strings, and I just stood in complete silence as the world around suddenly felt like it was growing smaller by the second. "Wh-What do you mean boyfriend?!" I yelled out as fury began to pulse through my veins and I wanted to murder that albino demon on the spot.
Raiden was the next one to have an outburst, "Everybody just shut the fuck up for one second!" The raichu lost his cool as his fists tightened to the point that his hands were shaking, "Stark, Naomi, how are either of you two alive, you both died, I know you two died! What is this crap!"
The white umbreon replied to Raiden's question, "Naomi and I were saved by Genesis, and now they want to manipulate us."
"I had to see it to believe it," Raiden spoke with insanity as he grasped his skull with his right hand. "I thought this was all some kind of ruse when I accepted the job, but I went along with it because I was stupid, but you're really alive," Raiden smiled towards Stark and Naomi. "I'm happy, don't get me wrong, this is just a lot to take in all at once."
"That still doesn't answer what I want to know," I growled towards Naomi and Stark. "Just why in the Hell are you with him of all pokemon?!" My voice rose at Naomi as I stomped my paw onto the steel floor.
Naomi froze as she stared at me, unable to form a single word.
"Answer me dammit?! he's a murdering scum that deserves to burn in Hell!"
"Black," Naomi began, but she was still half frozen from my reaction to them. "Stark and I share a lot together, I always mentioned to you that I always had that somebody I loved but never told. Well, Stark was that person this whole time. I thought he was dead this whole time until recently," Naomi quickly spoke in an attempt to defend herself.
"I can't believe you… I… I actually just can't believe you'd see something in him of all pokemon."
"You sound just like my brother," Naomi quietly spoke as her head lowered towards the ground, but she still kept watch over us.
"What do you see in him?" I asked again.
"Black, I don't have to justify myself to you!" Naomi screamed.
"Yes you do!" I yelled back at her, my voice silencing the train cart. "I… I actually cared about you Naomi for a long time. I'm not good at expressing these kind of emotions, but I really do care about you as something more than a friend. So when I see you with a monster like him, it just makes me feel so lost and confused."
Naomi's head lowered along with her ears, "Black. I really don't know how to respond to that, I… I-"
"Okay that's enough romance drama for today!" Lily cut Naomi off. "Okay listen carefully Stark, our boss ordered us to bring you back to Genesis. So, either you come with us peacefully, or we take you and your women by force."
"I refuse to take him back alive," I muttered below my breath.
"Excuse me Ryder, that's not the mission here. So-
I took my first step towards Stark has I beamed a hateful stare towards him. "I refuse to have anything to do with a child killer. I swore I'd avenge Ebony's sister, and nothing is going to stop me!" As I finished saying what had to be said, I charged straight towards Stark with dark matter forming around my right paw.
"Black no!" Naomi yelled as Stark lunged towards me as well with dark matter forming around his right paw. Both of our paws collided and created sparks of dark matters. Just as the two of us flew past each other in mid air I felt Stark's teeth sink into my side and the umbreon took me straight to the ground with him landing on top of me. I let out a loud cry as blood squirted from my wound as his teeth penetrated my flesh.
"That's enough you two!" Lily shouted as the fleshy ribbons on her body got ready to yank us apart.
Using the little moving room I had, I Sank my teeth into the meaty part of Stark's leg. The umbreon's teeth loosened off my side as he grunted in pain and I was able to free myself. Both of us quickly got to our feet.
"Stop this now!" The albino demanded, "I don't want to fight, I already planned on-"
Before he could even finish I shot a shadow ball towards him. Stark dodged out of the way and my shadow ball exploded against the train walls, tearing the wall right open and creating a strong draft. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Lily's ribbons heading straight at me, so I jumped up on the bench and ran along it towards my target.
Once I was near the other side of the train I lept off the bench towards Stark, but before I could reach him someone tackled into me and we both tousled along the ground. The two of us rolled until we slammed into the bench. On top of me was Naomi, who was staring at me with a pitiful stare that was on the brink of tears.
"Naomi…"
"Just please stop this," She pleaded, but before she could say more I forced myself free by pushing her off me.
"Just get off me!" I got up from the ground, but right as I did I felt something wrapping around my body. The ribbons on Lily's body wrapped around me on different locations to restrain me from moving. The slyveon then lifted me off the ground as I tried to break free.
"Hold still Ryder," Lily said as her head moved in towards my face. The events that followed next shocked me as her lips locked with my own in a kiss that I did not see coming from a mile away. As her lips locked against my own I suddenly began feeling very tired, my body became numb and I couldn't move, almost like paralysis. Lily's ribbons released me and I fell onto the ground, to weak to move an inch, and the closest thing to talking that I could manage was a confused grunt.
Lily spat saliva out of her mouth, "Gross, I never did like how men tasted," Lily commented. "And before any of you ask, it's draining kiss, allows me to suck the energy straight from others." Lily turned towards Stark and Naomi, "Now, I'll ask once more, are you two-'
"I'm… I'm not finished with him," I mumbled out as I tried to overcome my weakness.
"Ryder, you're already in enough trouble as it is, so just shut up for one minute." Lily scolded.
Using what little energy I had left, I pushed myself off the ground, but a bump from the train caused me to fall back down when I was halfway. I tried to get up again, and this time I managed to stand, but with great struggle as my muscles shook and I struggled not to fall forward.
"Ryder, now's not the time for this," Raiden said as he crossed his arms.
"You're all okay with this? You're all okay with a psychotic child killer?"
"I don't really care what he is, just stop being difficult," Lily responded.
"Black, please," Naomi begged, "I don't want anyone to get hurt further."
I looked towards Naomi and saw the desperation in her eyes, I hated seeing her stressed like this in any way, but then my eyes drifted towards the white umbreon. The darkest of my thoughts surfaced in my mind as I contemplated murdering him here, if I did there would be no going back, but I've already traveled down this road once. Murder left a very bitter mark on my life, but would it be considered murder if I was killing someone out of vengeance?
My ears lowered back as the hair on my neck stood and my head lowered towards the ground as I let out a loud snarl that grew louder and louder with each passing second. Everyone backed away from me as a dark force began to grow from my body, dissolving the steel ground near my feet and sputtering into the air around me as the energy let out a hissing noise.
"Ryder, calm down, don't make us hurt you," Lily nervously spoke as my snarls grew louder, and soon became the only noise in the train cart.
"Ryder… just cool off a second, okay?" Raiden tried to reason, but the darkness around me only grew in size.
"This is bad," Stark stated, "He's being completely influenced by the negative energy of his dark matter. Right now his reason is clouded and he's not going to be rational."
"Okay, so we need to take him out?" Lily asked.
"You don't have to kill him, but it may be difficult to stop him without killing him in his current mental state. Honestly, I've never seen an umbreon with this much dark matter, or go this far down."
"Lovely, just lovely," Lily complained as she took a step back from me.
Everything was growing blurry, and moving so fast through my eyes. I felt like everything was caving in on me all at once, and I couldn't take the feeling for another second, it was too overwhelming. I wanted this to all end, everyone around me is just causing me pain in one way or another. If it's not flat out playing me on and throwing me away, it's fuckin using me as a puppet for their own gain. I couldn't take another second of this world's abuse.
"I'm… I'm done with all of you, get out of my way or I'll paint the walls in your blood," I spoke in a whisper as I looked up towards the white umbreon, ready to take his life no matter what the cost was.
Chapter End