Hello.

So here it is, chapter 7, It may be shorter than expected but I liked writing it. By the way I updated every other chapters that are already out, some errors are removed so it would be more pleasant for your eyes to read. I hope.

Anyway, enjoy this chapter!

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon


Chapter 7: Among the dead

He received a sudden hit on the head. The pain broke his concentration, he wasn't able to cling to the wall anymore. The Aerodactyle was still conscious and wanted to kill him. While falling, Gre turned towards his enemy. All of a sudden the Mega-Aerodactyle spread out his wings and slowed down drastically, rushing right into the greninja and opened his mouth. Gre immediately moved on the left as fast as he could. The flying type tried to bite him but missed and tried to scratch him, missing again. He turned against Gre and rushed again. The Greninja created a water shuriken and threw it towards the Aerodactyle. The flying type reacted immediately and did a barrel roll, dodging it. Gre threw several others, the Mega-Aerodactyle kept dodging all of them, getting closer to his prey. Gre knew if this continues, he's going to be killed. So he had to take a risk. He spread his legs and his arms to slow down. The Aerodactyle, upon seeing this, opened his mouth. He folded up his legs again and leant on his enemy's nose, avoiding to get bitten. He grabbed one of the rock horns of the beast and put his feet on his back. The Mega-Aerodactyle did a barrel roll, trying to get rid of the Greninja. Gre resisted and created another water shuriken and quickly planted it on the back of the beast. He screamed and approached the wall. He wanted to crush him against the wall. He released the horn and took flight. Suddenly the flying type turned against him and struck Gre on the leg with his claws so fast that Gre wasn't able to react. The water type screamed of pain, the injury was really deep. The Mega-Aerodactyle spread out his wings again and opened his mouth while roaring. Gre decided to rush into his enemy too. Pretty much water got out of his feet quickly, propulsating him right into the Mega-Aerodactyle. He managed to narrowly dodge the bite and hit the beast's chest with all his strenght. The Aerodactyle spit out some blood at the impact and was pushed into the wall. He scrapped the wall, damaging his skin. His scream was strident. Gre noticed the bottom of the hole, with water. He created a water shuriken and planted in the nearest wall. It scratched the wall for a little moment before stopping completely. The Aerodactyle, who seemed uncouscious, fell in the water, doing a big splash. The beast wasn't visible anymore. That watering place seemed deep. When Gre was about to release the shuriken, the Mega-Aerodactyl got out of the water, barely crowling on the land and passed out. Maybe he was too much injured or tired. Gre waited a moment to see if he was really uncouscious. Then he finally released the water shuriken and plunged into the water. When he got out of it. He felt a sudden pain in the leg and kneeled. His injured leg was bloody. He had to stop the bleeding, he already lost too much blood, but he had nothing on him. No bandages, nothing. He had to find help, immediately. He started to walk slowly towards a cavity. After a moment his head started to spin. Was he able to find help? No that's impossible, there are only wild pokemons here. Was he really going to die here? All alone?

"No, I... did a promise to Lurio, I told him I won't die. But..." He thought

He started to lose his balance. It was impossible. He was going to die here. He fell over. He barely crawled, his eyes were becoming heavy. He was feeling a hot liquid touching his legs. That was probably his blood. He wasn't able to keep his eyes open. Suddenly he started to believe to hear footsteps. He wasn't able to know if it an hallucination. Then his eyes closed.

"I'm sorry... Lurio..." he thought out loud.

He collapsed.

Gre began to hear rain. He heard what seemed to be some glassware being moved. It sounded real.

"Wait..." He thought.

He opened his eyes surprisingly easily. They weren't heavy anymore. He saw an actual artificial floor. He got up and saw what seemed to be a bedroom with several beds and tables which one had apparently potion bottles on it. And there was a Dusclops next to it. They turned to against him and noticed that Gre was awake.

"Oh You're awake." The Dusclops said, with a male voice.

"Where am I?" Gre asked, completely confused.

"Don't worry, it's safe here. I'm actually suprised you're awake after losing so much blood."

Gre looked around and noticed there was a big window, with the size of a wall. He stood up to see what was outisde.

"Go easy, the injury isn't healed yet. But if you really want to know where we are..."

Gre was in front of the window what he saw was surprisingly wonderful. There were many buildings with a sophisticated architecture he never saw before. The windows were pretty big rectangles. There was ignited lamps wich were protected against the rain. And the ground was completely different from other cities, everything was so ordered. There were several other Pokemons who were ghost types. He looked at the top which was completely dark, it's impossible to see if there was really a sky with clouds.

"...Welcome to the Dead city."

Gre thought he didn't hear well. He turned against the Dusclops:

"Excuse me but can you repeat?"

"The Dead city."

Gre looked across the window again."

"I didn't know it really exists, and it's really... a wonderful place."

"Isn't it? This place is completely unknown to most alive Pokemons."

This sentence scared Gre:

"So... only dead pokemons are supposed to know where this city is?" the Greninja asked.

"Yes. But you're the first alive Pokemon who came here." the dusclops answered.

Gre got reassured. He didn't die. So it was possible for him to rejoin Lurio and the others. But how would he do that?

"Is there a way to go back to the surface?" Gre asked to the Dusclops.

The Dusclops stayed silent for a moment, then he finally replied:

"Yes there is."

"What is it?"

"It's..." The ghost type seemed to hesitate to say it. "It's a portal which leads all the way back up to the lake up there."

"All right. Where is it?"

"It will be difficult for you to get there. Most people won't mind you. But some would say you aren't supposed to be here."

"I'm going to do this anyway."

"You're sure of it?"

"Yes."

"Alright then, follow me. If you see someone wearing an armband, don't let them see you. But we shouldn't see any around here."

"Okay." Gre agreed. But despite his desire to join his friends, he was curious about the city. "By the way what is this place supposed to be?"

"Oh. It's where all the dead go after death. It's where some of us rest. We can go outside but just for a little while. Just a few days."

The Dusclops opened a door that leaded to a corridor. There were several other doors leading to what were probably other bedrooms. The building clearly seemed to be a big inn. When they went down by the stairs, a trevenant was at the bar, cleaning a glass. Then he noticed the greninja, Gre wasn't able to know his facial expression.

"He feels better now?" the plant type asked.

"Yeah, I'm going to uh... show him the city." the Dusclops answered.

"...you know the risks right?"

"Yeah I'll be careful. Later."

The Trevenant saluated with his arm and they went out. They only just got outside when they got wet. It was raining much more than he thought. The water that fell on his blue and white parts of his skin and on his face made himself feel way better. He closed the eyes, enjoying this moment which was pretty rare these days. Rain definitely made water type pokemons heal faster and made them stronger. He really liked the drops of rain leaking all the way down on his skin. He felt becoming stronger and had the impression that he never lost blood. He stayed there for a moment. He opened his eyes again and noticed the Dusclops looking at him.

"You definitely feel better, am I right?" he said, amused.

"Haha, yes I really do." he answered.

They continued walking in the streets. The buildings were pretty high, he wondered how such buildings have been built in a cave. And how was it raining? Then he thought about the lake situated upper. The several dead Pokémons who were walking in the streets were not causing any trouble to them. They were staring at them, looking rather surprised to see an alive Pokémon in the city. Some were talking about him but he didn't care. He was warned that some may not like his presence in this place, but he didn't know where he was led to.

"Where are we going?" he asked to the Dusclops.

"To a friend's house. He knows more than me about how to get to the portal. He's a nice guy, I know him since I got here."

"Since when?"

"I don't know."

"...what?" the Greninja was completely confused by what he believed to hear.

"We don't have the notion of time here. Time goes faster in the Dead city. But I maybe died... a few years ago. But one hour here is something like one minute in the alive world."

"...how? Aren't we supposed to be in the same world?"

"That moment when you arrived at the bottom of the hole, you actually came across another dimension. Our dimension."

"How is that possible?"

"I don't know. Maybe it's the..."

All of a sudden they heard several bells ringing from far away. Many Pokémons now looked at the "sky". Gre didn't understand what was happening and did the same to see what they were looking at. The Dusclops pushed him to a dark alley.

"What are you...!?" he shouted.

The Dusclops interrupted the Greninja: "Quiet! Hide behind me."

Gre kept quiet and stayed behind the ghost type. It suddenly became darker. Gre was still able able to look above him. There was giant black smoke flying over the place. Some smoke got separated of it. As they got closer, Gre understood what they really were. They were Gastlys. An entire hord of Gastlys. They seemed to inspect the whole city. Gre supposed if they found him, this would be bad for him. One approached his position, the Dusclops hid him enough to allow him to not be seen. The Gastly went away and rejoined the others. The smoke finally went away.

"It's safe now. You can show yourself." the Dusclops said.

He did so. He noticed that the ghost types around them were staring at him. A Chandelure talked to the Dusclops:

"Are you really going to protect this guy?"

"I'm going to. He just wants to get out of here."

"You're going to get banned from this place if you both get spotted by the Hord and the Governor. Are you crazy?!" a Sableye said.

"I prefer leaving this place than staying here holding someone here against his will." The Dusclops replied.

"Still. The Palace is pretty far away from here. How are you going to get there without getting spotted by any guards patrolling the whole city? And you're lucky that there isn't any guard patrolling here for now."

"Maybe. But don't you remember? That kid from long ago?"

"Yes. But he got..."

"But this one is stronger by far. He can make it."

"How the hell can you tell Lary?" an unknown voice said.

It came from their right. It was from a Cofagrigus.

"Franck." Lary replied.

Franck approached Lary. They clearly knew each other.

"We don't even know that Greninja. Did you see him fight at least?" the Cofagrigus asked.

"I saw him survive despite the big amount of blood he lost. This shows he's rather a tough one right?"

The Cofagrigus stayed silent. He stared at the Greninja, thinking. Then he finally answered:

"Follow me. Quick."

Lary and Gre followed Franck, probably going to his home.

When they entered in what seemed to be the living room, The Cofagrigus told them wait while he went into a storage room, looking for something. Gre wanted to ask something to the Dusclops:

"Can I ask you something uhh... Lary?"

"Of course. And you can call me "Lary"." The ghost type replied.

"What is this place exactly?"

"It's a place where the people who regretted to die come. They can return outside but just for a few days. Then they have to wait a certain time before being able to return."

"Oh. But why are you here?"

The Dusclops took a moment to answer: "An old friend told me to take care of his child before he died. But I was dead before being able to find him. Every time I go outside I'm looking for him. But for now, I found nothing."

Gre thought it was sad to hear. Lary might be condemned to search an unfindable kid.

"Sorry for this question but... why are you in these caves?" the Dusclops asked suddenly.

"Oh uhh... I was in an expedition with my teammates, then a strange Aerodactyle surprised us. I was able to save my friend Lurio from him."

"Mmh. That's brave of you. You must be close."

Gre giggled: "Yeah... I consider him as my brother. We've grown up together, fought together. I wasn't able to let him fall with me."

"He must be imprudent."

He is. For a Lucario he really is."

"A Lucario?"

"Yes. Lurio is really special. He doesn't think so but he's actually pretty tough. He managed to climb down a mountain as a newborn."

The Dusclops turned his head to the Greninja: "...Really? What mountain?"

"The Giant snow peak."

Lary stayed silent for a rather long while. Then he replied: "That's... impressive."

"By the way what is this story about this kid they told about from earlier?"

"Oh uhh... It's a long story."

Lary took a sit. The way he sat made him appear old. But he clearly wasn't. Or at least he didn't die old.

"It was clearly a long time ago. I was sort of new at that time but I started knowing the people out there. I was walking around in the city with Franck, talking about this and that. Then I noticed a kid who was rather far in the street. At first I thought he was just a Litwick. Then I noticed she was actually a Roggenrola. I and Franck approached he to know what she was doing down here. She was completely scared and wanted help. We brought her to the inn we were earlier, hoping we could something to eat or drink. But the Roggenrola wasn't hungry at all, all she wanted was to go back home. So we simply put her in a bag we would get her to the palace so she would go into the portal. Franck called Daniel, a Dusknoir, to help us. Actually the people were aware of what we were doing but at that time they wanted to help too. So they kept quiet. But..."

"But everything went wrong."

The Cofagrigus reapeared again, holding a folded paper with one of his four black hands. Franck continued:

"The guards wanted to check our bags so we decided to get the Roggenrola out of the bag and put her in the mouth of Dumort and tell her how to go to the portal by herself and insisted about why she has to not get seen. We told the guards we forgot something but they came later to us and ordered us to come with them. They caught the two and brought us to see the Governor. He warned us about how dangerous alive Pokémon can be dangerous to this place and that this place must stay unknown to the people above. He gave a threatening warning to all the inhabitants that it if happens again, he'll ban all the people who helped us. The fate of the Roggenrola is completely unknown. Now you understand why I and the others were scared at the idea and why you should NOT be here."

He paused and gazed at the paper, he seemed hesitant.

"I'm probably selfish and a coward, but if ANYONE sees you, everyone here will get in danger. And no one wants to quit this place because of an ignorant."

"But why would I be dangerous?" the Greninja asked, astonished.

"I don't know. Ask this to the Governor himself."

"So you prefer letting someone stuck here forever?" the Dusclops asked.

The Cofagrigus took a mooment to reply: "...I just don't want to see dozens of people banned from their refuges because of my fault! Because I do care about the people of this place!"

"So we don't care about him?!" Lary pointed at Gre who was watching.

The Cofagrigus gritted his teeth, ignored the question and unfolded the paper, showing now a map of what seemed to be the city. It was huge and dense, how would they be able to locate themselves in this mess?

"So we're here." Franck pointed a finger on what seemed to be their position. Gre was a bit surprised of the speed of the Cofagrigus. "And that big building is the palace. At the North of our position. The shortest and safest way to get there is to pass thrpugh that crossroads and these alleys."

The "shortest and safest way" to get to the palace seemed rather long.

"You'll come with us?" Lary asked to the Cofagrigus.

"No. Not this time." Franck answered without any hesitation.

"That's alright." Lary answered, softly.

As Gre and Lary were about to quit the room, the Cofagrigus wished good luck. After the Dusclops thanked him they went out of the apartment.

"He's too scared to come. And he's ashamed of it." The ghost type thought out loud.

"What about the Dusknoir?" Gre asked.

"...Same. And I don't know where he is."

Was Lary the only one to have enough courage to help him and be against this... tyranny? In any case, Lary was admirable for this. Gre wondered who the Dusclops before. Certainly a good person. But something was intriguing him:

"He said you can be kicked from here. But where are you going then?"

"Nowhere." Lary answered in a dark tone. "In the Dead world. It's a place where you find nothing. Imagine the alive world but without any vegetation, no water, no sky. This is where you find the "Banished"."

"Who?"

"The Banished. They were thought to not deserve rest because of their acts."

As they were about to go out, the door opened and revealed a Mismagius. Upon seeing the Greninja she screamed:

"Holy shit!"

And she ran away. She was going to alert the guards. Gre sprinted at the door and observed carefully outside. The ghost type went into the alley to his left at the other side of the street. Nobody were nearby. So he ran into the alley and noticed the Mismagius getting far. But he would easily catch her. Then he sprinted at full speed, coming closer to the ghost type. Suddenly she turned around and threw a shadow ball at the dark type. Gre reacted just in time, went down and slided under the shadow projectile, barely dodging it. The rain made him slide easier. The Mismagius was close enough, so he leapt on her and catched the ghost type.

"GAH! Get off! Get off!" she kept shouting.

"Can you just calm down?! I won't hurt any of you!" Gre said while trying to control the Mismagius, which wasn't easy since she's a ghost.

"You're a danger for this place whatever are your intentions!"

She was getting more violent and noisier. Gre had to make her quiet, as soon as possible. Then he got an idea.

"Ghost types can't die right?" he asked.

"WHY ARE YOU ASKING THAT YOU FREAK?! OF COURSE WE DON... Wait..."

Gre received the answer he wanted. His hand was wrapped with dark energy and he knocked out the Mismagius. The screaming was instantly replaced for the rain. Lary joined him and noticed the unconscious Mismagius.

"Aren't you a bit hard?" he asked. But he seemed to know it was necessary

"She was getting too noisy. People would hear her."

The Dusclops stayed silent and opened the map, trying to protect it from the rain.

"Let's just continue this way. For the discretion you can go on the roofs. But if you see a black smoke, hide immediately."

Gre nodded and stepped backwards to gather speed. Then he sprinted towards a wall and jumped. Then he was just running on the wall until he reached the top. When he was on the roof he heard the Dusclops talking to him:

"Always nice to see a Greninja in action! Anyway follow me!"

And he jumped on the other building, following the ghost type, as a shadow.

He didn't know how long he was following the Dusclops from above. And even less how long in the alive world. Maybe an hour? As long as he was getting closer of the Palace, he realized how huge the structure was. Probably the biggest one he ever saw so far. The structure was separated in three buildings. Each one had a dome at the top. The main building was the biggest, its dome seemed to reach the roof of the giant cave. The ensemble was really impressive. But there were also more guards in the street, and the palace was still pretty far away. Gre observed Lary in the streets. He was walking calmly. Then the ghost type stopped and went to an alley, at the opposite side of the buildings where Gre was standing on. This was problematic since many pokémon were walking nearby. The Greninja decided to just see what the Dusclops was doing. Suddenly Lary reappeared with a Dusknoir behind him and joined the Greninja's side. When they were out of view, Gre jumped and landed next to the two ghost types. The Dusknoir jumped with surprise upon seeing the dark type but they stayed calm though.

"There he is." the Dusclops said collectedly.

The Dusknoir stared at Gre for a little while.

"Don't tell me we're going to do this again."

The Dusclops looked rather surprised of what the Dusknoir said. Gre guessed he was Daniel.

"You aren't going to help us then?" the Dusclops asked, scared of the answer.

"You two are alone here. I cannot..."

"You are the one who knows the Palace better than anyone else. Don't..."

"I said I cannot. Last time I don't know what I did to remain here. Do you even know how the Governor talked to me? He threatened me while staring at me with his blue eye and beat me up as a sentence because I was the captain of the guard at that time. Now I'm here, I'm made fun of who were supposed to be my soldiers. You can't know how it feels."

Lary stayed silent for a moment. Then he finally answered: "You're wrong. I do know how it does feel. I know this feeling very well."

The Dusclops paused. He was clenching his fists. Gre stared at the Dusknoir. He was indignant by the violence of that Governor. He clenched his fist as well, retaining his anger towards him. He knew that many Pokémons tortured their people to force them to accept an ideology, to improve their work or something else. He could name at least ten of them. But he never heard a testimony directly. And he couldn't stay there doing nothing. All of this was absurd.

"Why such a punishment?" Gre asked.

"To show the example obviously." Daniel asnwered. "The Governor knew that everyone wasn't scared since it's peaceful here, so they needed something to be scared of so they would obey. Since the incident, the security got improved. The Governor really doesn't want anyone alive here. Anyway I'm already happy to not have joined the Dead world."

"But do you deserve a constant humiliation?"

Daniel didn't answer.

"I guess it's a "no", so do you want to change things here and prove that this law is absurd?"

Gre was able to see that the Dusknoir was tempted to help him. He didn't have Lurio's ability to read people's thoughts and feelings, but Daniel let a little smile when the Greninja asked.

"Alright." Daniel finally accepted.

The Dusknoir "walked" out of the alley and signaled to the others to follow him. Gre nodded and went on the roofs once more. Then the water type realized that the ghost type signaled them to come in the military way, by raising his forearm waving it to his direction. Gre learned the military signals so he understood. Daniel was probably a soldier before. Lary was still sort of mysterious to the Greninja.

The Palace was more huge than he thought. How was this place built underground? He probably would never know. But the zone was crawling with Pokémons, and they were wearing armbands or something similar. The guards were watching the entrance. Gre was hidden whereas Dumort was in front of every guards. Lary didn't come because seeing the two would be suspicious. They were really making fun of him, seeing him as a traitor. The Gre paied attention to the entrance and was again impressed. The door was more than three times his size, splendid statues of Doublades were hooked to the wall. A statue of an Aegislash was hooked to the wall at the top of the door. Three giant banners were placed in the same way. There was what seemed to be the city's seal, which seemed to be a flame with a circle at its bottom. The Dusknoir was approaching the entrance. Obviously two Haunters who were stationned in front of the door. Gre was able to hear their conversation sonce evry guards kept quiet to listen to it.

"So traitor, why are you here?" a Haunter asked in a scornful tone.

"I need to go outside, I have some business to do out there. And I have no reasons to tell something to both of you."

A Haunter pointed at him: "Hey hey that's not the way how we talk to an officer... citizen."

The Dusknoir clenched his fists: "Let me pass, I have my rights."

"Ha! You still think you have rights you dumbass? You want to bring some alive freaks down here don't ya? Did you forget how the Governor kicked your ass so har..."

The guard didn't finish his sentence that Daniel punched him in the face with an ice punch really violently. The Haunter collided with the wall behind him and seemed stunned. The other Haunter looked angry:

"The hell are you doing?! Stop him!"

The Dusknoir was surrounded by seven guards, ready to "get him under control". A Golurk tried to attack him from behind with a shadow punch but Daniel dodged it by going backwards. A Gengar spit out a shadow ball towards the Dusknoir but it barely missed. The remaining Haunter threw another shadow ball at him. Daniel bent down to avoid it. The shadow ball narrowly missed the Golurk, he shouted at his mate for this error. Gre had to act. Dumort could not handle all of them, not alone. Gre observed the scene to see who was the nearest enemy to him. A Chandelure who was waiting to get a clear shot didn't seem to expect a Greninja to attack from above.

The perfect target.

Gre leapt from the roof he was standing on and was about to land on the Chandelure. His two hands were wrapped with dark energy and he dealt the Chandelure a night slash. The Chandelure didn't even scream and got unconscious. Gre observed the scene again and saw Daniel doing what seemed to be a shadow sneak to the Haunter who wasn't able to elude it. His terrifying shadow wrapped the Haunter and then returned to the Dusknoir, leaving an unconscious Haunter. Gre focused again and saw an Aegislash in his blade form who was about to rush into the Dusknoir. The Greninja sprinted and jumped to strike the steel type a night slash. But suddenly the Aegislash noticed the dark type and got the perfect time reaction to get in his shield form. His shield was now glowing. Gre stroke the shield and jumped backwards to avoid getting hit by any incoming attack from the ghost type. Oddly, he felt weaker, Gre didn't understand. The Aegislash went back to blade form and sneered. She did something to him. That must be the shield. The Aegislash called a Shedinja, who was simply staring at him with an impassible face. That was really problematic. The Shedinjas were vulnerable only to super effective attacks.
And he didn't have any against him.
The Aegislash spinned round and round really fast and rushed the Greninja. The water type jumped high enough to dodge the gyro ball but the Shedinja was behind was the steel type and his claws extended and were ready to slash. The dark type propulsated himself with a waterfall attack, avoiding the X-scissor. He realized that the face of the Shedinja was actually terrifying in a fight. Suddenly he heard something coming from behind him. He quickly stepped aside but he felt a sudden huge pain in his arm. He moaned. He looked behind and saw another Gengar who actually shot a focus blast at him.

"Seems like we were right about that traitor, he wanted to sneek you into the palace!" the Gengar said with his big smile one his face.

They were now three against the Greninja. Gre wondered how he would handle all of them with an injured arm. Suddenly the Shedinja got wrapped in a shadow. It disappeared and the Shedinja was one the ground, fainted., apparently. Everyone looked at Dumort, who managed to faint both his opponents. Gre wasn't able to hide his suprise, he was impressed by the Dusknoir who won against two foes.

"You need some help?" Dumort said.

This was ironic since Gre was the one who wanted to help. But he appreciated it. The Aegislash rushed Gre while doing a gyro ball. Gre rolled aside despite the painful arm. Then he threw a water suriken at the steel type. The Aegislash was once again quick enough to get changed into shield form and protect himself. The shuriken hit the shield. When the ghost type was about to drop his guard, the dark type immediately leapt on her and stroke her with a night slash next to the eye. This time, she wasn't fast enough. She went backwards because of the impact, still able to fight. Suddenly he heard something coming towards him and noticed glowing projectiles targeting him. The Greninja did a backflip to dodge the dazzling geam. He looked where did the geams come from and saw the Haunter who got punched, he looked angry. Gre focused again and the Aegislash spinned round and round again charged the Greninja. He rolled aside and threw a water shuriken to the steel type. It stroke her eye, making her stop the attack. Dumort took advantage of it to finish her with a strong enough ice punch. While doing it, the Gengar shot a shadow ball towards him.

"Watch out!" Gre shouted.

The Dusknoir moved aside but got hit in the arm. He seemed to resist, surprisingly. While the Gengar wasn't paying intention, Gre jumped on him and slashed him with night slash. The ghost type collapsed, still beaming. Upon seeing that, the Haunter tried to retreat but was catched by Daniel's shadow. He was left unconscious. He was the last one.

"Let's go, the noise must have attracted other persons." Daniel said in a hurry.

"You're okay?" Gre asked, looking at the injured arm.

"It's alright."

How could it be alright? That was a Gengar's shadow ball, it can not be weak, but Gre decided to not insist. They entered in the palace by the giant doors. They entered in large hall. A chandelier was at the center of the ceiling, illuminating the whole room. Two stairs went each other to their opposite side, even if they overlook to the same corridor. Nobody was here.

"Follow me, we have to be careful. Since the palace is pretty big, the guards are very spread out. It doesn't seem so but there are actually a lot of them." Daniel said quietly.

Gre nodded. They went up the stairs and observed both sides of the corridor. Nobody was around. All of a sudden Gre heard footsteps from a door next to them. They hid in the door's side. They were light, so the person wasn't big. The door opened and a Sableye wearing an armband showed up. The ghost type didn't even see them when Gre stroke his head with a night slash, he was knocked out without a single scream. But now they had to hide the Sableye. But there wasn't any hiding place.

"Put them below the stairs, we can't do better." the Dusknoir said hurriedly.

He was right. He went down the stairs with the body and released it. He rejoined Daniel.

"You know the way?" Gre asked.

"Sure." the Dusknoir answered with certainty.

"Daniel?"

"Yeah?"

"Who is the Governor?"

"To be honest, I don't know."

This answer quite surprised Gre.

"I mean, I did see him in person, I kinda know his mentality. But except that, I don't know who he was, why he is here. No one does. I don't even know what Pokémon he is."

"What?"

"I never saw someone from the same species than him."

That was absurd. Was the Governor a unique Pokémon? That was impossible. The only Pokémons who were unique were the legendary ones. And nobody saw them. Gre ruled out this possiblity, the Governor was probably just a rare Pokémon that Daniel never saw or heard about before. Gre started to become worried about all of this, but he focused again.

Gre and Daniel continued to progress in the palace for a while, then they reached a large corridor, with a big door at its end. Nobody was here, which was weird.

"This is it. The portal room is just after this room. The Governor's office." The Dusknoir said.

And there were no guards? Nothing? Gre doubted there was something else. It can not be that easy. Especially that there was less guards in the palace than he expected. Something was wrong, so he walked prudently. When they were close to the door, he stopped and turned around. Nobody was behind them. That was it? Gre found this more and more stranger.
Suddenly four smiling purple faces appeared simultaneously around him from nowhere. Their eyes glowed, he wasn't able to move anymore. He was still able to talk.

"Daniel I need help!" the Greninja shouted to the Dusknoir.

Daniel turned around, but he seemed to already know what was happening. All of a sudden he laughed:

"Hahaha! Nice work you four!"

"No problem." the four faces replied at the same time.

These were Spiritombs, Gre remembered the name of their rare species. But something was way more important. What was Daniel doing?

"Daniel where is the sense in all of this?" he asked, but he was scared of the answer.

"The sense? Well... I just led you into what they may call... a trap."

"Why?!"

"Because this place is not where you belong. Ahh it reminds me old memories."

"What?! Does it mean..."

"Oho! Seems like you aren't that stupid after all. Yes, what I'm doing to you right now, this is what I did to the Roggenrola long ago. The four brothers who are here used their disable attacks at her like they did to you. I wasn't able to see if she had an eye but I was easily able to see her fear and despair."

If Gre wasn't paralysed, he would have already leapt on Daniel to make him quiet. But it was incoherent with the battle earlier.

"But why did the guards attack earlier?"

"They simply didn't know that I became the alive Pokémons hunter. We told the guards that I helped that Roggenrola to escape and that I was dismissed, so my job would be way easier. Look you didn't even doubt a moment that I was fooling you this whole time."

He was right. Gre was fooled, as Lary who wouldn't believe that one of his friends would betray them.

"So everything you told us was a lie?!" Gre asked.

"Not exactly. I really don't know who the Governor is, he's a pure mystery to us. But there's something I'm sure about. Even if you avoided the trap and passed the doors, he would have kicked your ass without a problem."

Right after the Dusknoir finished his sentence, Gre felt a sudden new presence, but he couldn't turn his head to see if it was behind him. It didn't seem to though.

Daniel resumed: "And if you want to know what actually happened to the Roggenrola, I don't know neither. Only the Governor does. You can ask him right now if you want, because he's actually among us at this moment."

"What?" Gre replied, worried. He wasn't able to move at all, he was completely vulnerable.

Suddenly, someone appeared right next to the Dusknoir from nowhere. Their body was really thin, except at the bottom, and dark. Their shoulders were widened, looking like epaulettes, and were distorted. His arms were thin as well but they didn't have legs. They had a sort of red scraf aroud their tall, pointed white head, distorted as well. It let appear only his left eye.
Gre never saw this Pokémon before.

"Nice capture, Daniel. A Greninja. Surprising." the Pokémon talked with a male voice.

"All my pleasure, sir. What are we going to do now?" the Dusknoir asked.

"Bring him to my office."

The doors opened and they entered in a rather big room. On their right, the wall was just an enormous pane which allowed to have a view on a big part of the city. In front of it was placed a desk with papers and a plume next to a pot filled with ink. The dark Pokémon approached the pane and watched the city.

"You can go, Daniel." he suddenly said.

"But I thought..."

"Take the Spiritombs with you, come back when I tell you to."

And he quit the room with the four Spiritombs. Gre wasn't able to move yet. The Governor then came closer to the Greninja and stared at him with a dark look.

"First, I'd like to have a chat with you..."

End of chapter 7


I'd like to thank the "Reviewer" for... reviewing the chapters and being respectful. I hope that the chapters are more pleasant to read since his review. And about that Pokémon at the end, it's Darkrai. I know he isn't a ghost type but I'll explain why he is here in the next chapter. Anyway I hope you liked it and see you.