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Chapter 64

Here For You

"Annihilation mode activated."

With very little warning, Nyx grabbed Terron and Novus by their arms and swiftly yanked them up into the air before zipping toward the transport device they had used to arrive at the Zekrom monument they stood before. She pounced inside the glowing circle in the street and released her hold on the two Pokémon as the cocoon-like vehicle formed around them and sealed them within its safe confinements.

"Get us out of here."

Terron, who was still in a daze from suddenly being dragged away, looked at the Darkrai with a confused stare. He noted that while she was retaining her rationality for the most part, she was most certainly unhinged by something, as her hair seemed to become increasingly frayed with each second.

"What?" he asked her.

"Have this machine take us somewhere before whatever was out there comes for us."

Nyx grabbed the Cubone's hand, this time more gently, and pressed it down upon the console before them. And just as with last time, Terron's paw sank into its transparent depths, allowing the machine access to his mind.

"What's even going on?" Terron asked, shaking his head. "What's even coming for us? What was that thing outside?"

"I do not want to find out."

"User located and connected. Locating destination in user."

Terron once again felt that familiar, tingling feeling worm its way through his arm and infest his brain, shuffling through his network of neurons as quickly as it possibly could. As it forced its way through him, his mind finally broke itself out of its stupefied state and brought reality back down on the Cubone. Terron remembered the robotic voice that had called him and his friends spawn and the strange sounds it made whenever it presumably walked. But most of all, Terron remembered the conversation that occurred before the entity had announced its presence. The conversation between himself and Nyx after something had made Terron spout seemingly nonsense about guardians and spawn of Kuron.

The emotions that had been repressed thanks to the impromptus arrival of the being outside came back full force, prompting the Cubone to shoot the Darkrai a long scowl.

"You know what's outside there, don't you?" Terron asked her.

"I already told you that I do not."

"No, you said that you knew something but you didn't want to tell me what it was," Terron corrected dryly.

"I was not referring to whatever it out there. I was referring to something else."

"Cannot locate destination in user. Retrying in sixty seconds. Please concentrate all thoughts on destination to facilitate process."

"Cubone Dimitri, our conversation is distracting the machine. We need to stop this for a while."

"No, it's not finding anything because I'm not giving it anything to look for," Terron stated. "I don't want to go anywhere until you answer my question."

This time it was the Darkrai's turn to glare at the Cubone.

"There is something out there that wants to kill us. We are not staying here to talk about this when that is a problem."

"We're inside of an indestructible transport device," Terron replied sternly, feeling the memories coming back to him. "There's hardly anything that can break these things open. They're earthquake proof, fire proof, waterproof, and tsunami proof. We can be hit by just about anything and this thing won't go flying off its little track. It won't even get dented. So, we're safe. Nothing's going to hurt us, meaning you and I can talk all we want."

Terron watched the Darkrai, waiting for her to finally yield and explain the secrets she was hiding from him. He didn't know what sort of answers he wanted out of her, but he knew it had to be better than leaving him in the dark. There was nothing more torturous to Terron than having vague answers to keep him company when he knew that the real answers were right in front of him.

"What happened to me back there?" Terron asked, pressing as hard as he could. "What was that thing making me talk about?"

"Nothing you said back there made any sense to me. I am just as confused as you are. As for why you were saying those words in the first place, that is one of the secrets I have that will swallow you whole if you know about it. If I tell you what about it, you will be consumed by it and broken beyond repair. I am not letting that happen to you."

The Cubone felt a seething hatred burn inside of him. He couldn't believe what he was hearing from her. For a second, he almost didn't think what he was hearing was real. But after looking at her, noting her solemn yet stern gaze, he knew he had heard correctly.

With his rage growing even stronger within him, he shot the Darkrai a nasty look.

"So you know what's happening to me, but you're not going to tell me anything," he said in a low, simmering voice. "You're not going to tell me because supposedly, if I do find out whatever you're hiding, I'm going to be in pain."

"Yes. I know it is hard to believe, but-"

"As if you're actually saving me from any pain!" Terron harshly cut off, pointing a disgusted finger at her with his free hand. "Do you not know how painful it is not to know the truth? Do you even understand how much it hurts to know that you know whatever's wrong with me, but you won't talk about it? I've been through this way too much, Nyx. You probably already know who's done this to me and how much pain it brought not just me, but my friends as well. You know how we were stuck in the darkness for so long, feeling around for answers and finding nothing because the one who threw us into that darkness wouldn't give us any. You know how scared and helpless we felt as we looked around, and how we became depressed and lost our way. And you know the only way we ever got better was when we actually got our answers. Nothing else took away the pain; it was only the answers that saved us. But until we found those answers, we were in so much pain that all could have been avoided so easily. You are not going to do this to me and put me through that all over again. I've been in this vicious cycle way too much in the past, and I'm even in one with Novus right now."

"I already told you my reason for why I cannot explain my immortality," Novus stated lowly. "Do not drag me into your argument."

"But whatever's going on with him isn't that important, so I'm letting it slide," Terron went on, pretending he didn't hear the Quilava. "But obviously whatever's going on with me is important if it can take over me like that. So not only is your argument about how it's going to hurt me flimsy, but also if you don't tell me what's going on, it could cause us massive problems since who knows what else can happen to me. Sure it only just made me talk like that, but it could do something else too. We'll never know until it's too late. Or rather, Novus and I won't know and something will end up happening to me when he and I could have done something if we had known. So Nyx, I'm going to ask again. What's happening to me?"

The Darkrai glared at the Cubone, her stance on the situation seemingly not broken. Terron prepared himself, waiting for the moment that she would begin appearing as a hostile creature and fill the air with her oppressive aura. He knew that it had overpowered him before, but perhaps he could withstand its overwhelming power this time. Perhaps he would actually be able to get the answers he needed out of the Darkrai.

But Terron was never able to see what her reaction was, for the vehicle violently shook, toppling the three within onto the ground. Terron groaned as he pulled himself up, finding that his hand had been torn out of the console. Much to his relief it was still intact and unharmed, but that wasn't what troubled him the most.

"What was that?" Terron asked. "Nothing should be able to do that to these things."

Terron was quick to receive his answer, for two red lights appeared in the window before him. They seemed to stare at him, cold and empty as could be, completely unmoving. He couldn't see what the eyes belonged to, for their owner promptly withdrew itself away from Terron's sight. Terron was about to sigh, thinking that all was over, but was sadly mistaken, for what looked like three blades struck the window. They embedded themselves deep into the glass, sticking themselves halfway into the vehicle with the Pokémon, before turning in a circular fashion. It didn't take Terron long to realize that these blades were attached to what he thought resembled a paw of sorts. A very metallic, inorganic paw with tiny inscriptions upon it.

The Cubone suddenly had an overwhelming cowardice come over him. He imagined it was the same fear that had consumed Nyx when she had been fleeing from the creature. He slammed his hand back down into the console and immediately felt it reconnect to his mind.

"User located and connected. Locating destination in user."

"Terron, we need to get out of here," Novus said urgently. "That thing is going to break inside of here any minute now!"

"I'm getting us out of here!" Terron cried. "We're going to hurry out of here and outrun whatever that thing is! We don't want to step outside! I don't know why, but I get this really bad feeling about that idea…"

"Well where are we going then?"

"Somewhere!"

Terron frantically searched his mind, thinking of somewhere for them to go that would be out of harm's way. He hoped that his mind would conjure up ideas, but sadly nothing was appearing. He briefly considered the idea of asking the machine to take him to his human home, but quickly realized that was a terrible idea. He had no idea what was trying to get to him, but he couldn't bring it to his home. His parents were probably in there, and if this creature saw them, it might try to kill them. Then not only that, but they had to stay away from the humans. Maybe later they could visit, but not now with this killer entity on their tails.

Eventually, Terron realized that there was only one place for them to go. He didn't know if it truly was safe, but it was the only place he could think of. He closed his eyes and intensely focused on the destination in mind, praying that the machine would recognize the location.

"New destination located. Arrival at Sugilite Theme Park in approximately fifty-five minutes."

"Sugilite Theme Park?" Novus repeated. "What is that?"

"It's whatever that other place was that we saw back in the Unown dimension," Terron answered. "There was that city we were just at, and then was that other place. I've never been there before, but it's better than bringing back this monster to the city. People might come out hiding and try to stop it and it might just kill them."

The vehicle lurched forward, speeding down the luminescent road as quickly as its engines could muster. Terron watched as the being trying to cut its way into the window was blown away by the sudden wind, ripping its claws from the window. He waited a moment, and then soon enough, heard a loud clang as the creature presumably hit the road behind them and was left far into the dust.

Terron sighed in relief as he sat down upon a cushion, sinking deeply into its comforting depths.

"Problem solved," Terron said. "Now we can just relax for a little wh-"

There was a loud smashing sound as something very heavy broke through the window, littering jagged shards into the vehicle. A powerful gale swept through the inside of the vehicle, creating a vacuum that instantly snatched up Terron, Novus, and Nyx in its grasp and sucked them toward the outside of the vehicle. Each of them feebly grasped for something, but their efforts proved futile for there was nothing to grab except the cushions sitting upon the ground. They were ejected out of the vehicle and flew across the roof. They were about to be sent plummeting into the ground, but thankfully, Nyx was able to grab the Cubone and Quilava and stop them from skidding along the road. She remained in the air as she slowly oriented herself, seemingly still shook up from suddenly being blown out of the vehicle.

"Obviously that device is not as safe as you claim it is, Cubone Dimitri."

"But nothing's supposed to be able to break through those things!" Terron insisted. "They're supposed to be indestructible to anything!"

The Darkrai was quiet for a moment as she cautiously glanced around, tightening her grip on the two smaller Pokémon.

There was a glimmer of red, and then something sprang at her. Terron and Novus were abruptly ripped out of her grip as she became separated from them, tumbling to the ground. With painful groans, they quickly stumbled back to their feet and shot their gazes over to Nyx. They found her lying in the street, struggling against some unknown creature as it tried to snap what looked like its jaws down upon her. The two tried to make out more details of the creature, but found it was too far away from them to see anything concrete. All they knew was that it was quad-pedaled and vaguely resembled a Houndoom.

The creature lunged its head at Nyx once more, but the Darkrai was able to move out of the way just as she raised up a claw toward it. A few sparks of electricity coursed through her clawed hand, and then erupted out of her and into the entity.

However, absolutely nothing happened. Though the lightning was clearly coursing through the creature and possibly wreaking havoc on its insides, it showed no signs of damage. If anything, its eyes only seemed to glow brighter. It let out a mechanical growl as it opened its mouth once again.

"Nyx!" Terron screamed.

He and Novus rushed toward the pinned Darkrai, Terron ripping a bone club out of his coat pocket while Novus ignited his fur with orange flames. Nyx shot the two a horrified stare as she saw them close in on her.

"No, get out of here. Do not get caught up in this."

"We're not letting you die, Nyx!" Terron said vehemently.

The Cubone flung his bone club at the creature, watching it sail through the air as it twirled about rapidly. Just as it left Terron's hand, Novus spat a fireball at it, coating it in bright flames so that it was now a deadly fireball. The bone impacted the beast, but much to Terron and Novus's horror, saw that it only smacked into the creature with a loud clang before rebounding off it harmlessly. While part of its body did seem charred from the burning flames, the creature didn't seem to be affected in the least bit.

It snapped its gaze from the Darkrai and instantly locked onto the two still running toward it. Then, it charged at them, its claws hastily skittering along the road.

Terron anticipated that it would pounce at them just as it had when it had attacked Nyx, but once again, this creature had a surprise for him. It closed in on him and Novus within seconds, but just as it was to trample over the two, it swerved to the left, missing them by about a foot. At first, Terron wasn't able to understand why it had avoided them when it seemed dead-set on killing them, but as soon as he heard the sounds of loud buzzing, he quickly figured out what happened.

The Cubone grabbed Novus and forced the two of them to the ground. He felt something fly right over their heads, cutting the very tips of Novus's fur and the horns of Terron's helmet right off. He saw them land right beside them, the end where they had been cut off glowing with a molten orange.

Before Terron could ponder for much longer, he felt something cold and smooth wrap around his body before flinging him across the street. He skid to a halt, but just as he was to get up, he found himself constricted once again and slammed back down against the street. A cold, heavy set of claws pressed down onto his chest, making it very difficult for him to breathe.

Terron looked up at his captor, and was immediately terrified of what he saw. He found himself held down by the creature from before, but now it was right in his face, staring down at him with its menacing red eyes. Now that he was so close to it, he was finally able to make out the details of this entity. Just as he had seen from before, the creature was very similar to a Houndoom in that it walked upon four legs, held three claws upon each of its paws, and had a long, slender tail that ended with a sharp point. However, that was as far as similarities went. This creature was made entirely out of metal, immediately making Terron realize that this was not an organic creature but rather, a creature of technology imbued with artificial intelligence only humans could have created. The metal that made up its claws, tail, and even what appeared to be makeshift ears were razor-sharp blades, allowing the creature to easily slice up anything it wanted to with the utmost ease. The tail, in particular, seemed the most dangerous. Though the very point ended with a dagger upon it, the rest of the tail was filled with tiny blades similar to that of a chainsaw, all of them glowing with an orange light. The blades upon it were rotating, emitting the same buzzing sound that Terron had heard from earlier.

The robot continued to stare down upon him with its massive red eyes, whose irises he now noted bore a heavy resemblance to an aperture camera's lens. Terron struggled against its grasp, but found that the creature's hold upon him was firm. It had absolutely no intentions of letting its prey go.

It opened up its jaw wider, allowing Terron to see that its teeth, which were more square and molar-like as opposed to the fangs he was anticipating.

"Termination init-"

The robotic creature seemed to stop moving. It looked at the Cubone for a moment longer, then had the light within its eyes pinpoint.

"Anomaly detected in target. Further analysis initiated."

The Cubone watched as a metallic, prehensile tongue slithered out of the robot's mouth and injected its tip into Terron's arm. Terron let out a yelp as it punctured his flesh, but it was more out of shock than pain, for the prick had felt more akin to being poked by a tiny needle than having a dagger jabbed into his body. The creature's eyes flickered as what appeared to be numbers of sorts flashed through its eyes.

"Analysis complete. Target is still identified as spawn, but now can be identified as human as well."

The robot withdrew its tongue from Terron's flesh, but still kept him pinned under its weight. It pressed its face into his mask, staring into his blue eyes as it pressed its claws deeper into him.

"Requesting aid from headquarters. Anomaly will be contained until headquarters provides answer."

The robot suddenly leapt to the side, removing its claws from off the Cubone. It shot its tongue out at the Cubone, instantly wrapping it around his entire body before withdrawing it back into its mouth, taking Terron with it until he was lying right between its jaws. They clamped down upon him firmly, but not enough to puncture his flesh. He frantically looked to his side to find Novus and Nyx standing not too far from him, a massive scorch mark upon the ground where the robot had once stood.

"Situation has changed. Being attacked by hostile targets. Bringing anomaly to headquarters to be examined to prevent harm."

The creature clamped down upon the Cubone harder, and then took off running. Terron heard its metallic feet clanging against the street as it raced through the empty road before springing onto a building. The second its feet touched the wall, its claws seemed to morph, allowing them to grow more jagged and curved. They sank deep into the wall, and then the creature sprinted upward to the very top.

"Terron!"

The Cubone looked down to find that Nyx was holding Novus in her grasp she sped after him, quickly catching up to the robot with a dark glare in their eyes. The Darkrai quickly caught up to the robot, and then launched Novus onto its back. The Quilava clung to the being as he bit down upon its neck, breathing out the hottest flames he could manage. The robot screeched as it attempted to buck off the Quilava, but found that Novus refused to release his hold.

It bounded off the side of the building before landing upon the rooftop of a nearby building, still thrashing about as its exoskeleton slowly start to melt. It seemed that though fire didn't seem to harm it the first Novus had attacked it, prolonged uses of fire were an entirely different matter.

The robot lashed its tail at the Quilava, but Novus quickly leapt off its back, preventing himself from being sliced in half. The robot shot Novus a spiteful glare as the claws upon its feet morphed, turning them into sawblades that churned rapidly upon the ground, sending sparks flying up into the air. It sprang at the Quilava, spinning around like a cartwheel as it became a giant razor-blade itself, tearing apart the rooftop with giant fissures. Terron had to keep his mouth clamped shut in order to save his last meal from projecting out of his stomach. The world around him was spinning so quickly that he could barely make out what was even happening.

All he could do was listen as he shut his eyes tight. He heard sounds of fire scorching metal, and he could hear the sounds of blades slicing apart the building and occasionally Novus's skin, but otherwise, he had no idea what was going on. Everything was moving too fast. The robot was moving so rapidly that he surely thought that at any second, he'd go flying out of its maw and down plummeting into the depths of the city.

And then, amidst the confusion, it suddenly stopped. Everything completely stopped, not a single noise in the air.

Terron reluctantly opened his eyes, and was amazed by what he saw. The robot still held him in its jaws, but now that robot was completely frozen in the air. It was stuck in a curled position, as if were still spinning about as a living sawblade, its jaws still tight around Terron. It struggled to move, but it couldn't do anything more than twitch and flicker its makeshift eyes.

"This ends now."

Terron looked over to find Nyx hovering close to him, holding out both of her hands toward him and the robot. Her eye was glimmering with a bright light as she seemed to emit waves of powerful energy from her body. He was about to ask what she doing, but soon received his answer, for the jaws upon the robot suddenly opened and the tongue's grip loosened, allowing the Cubone to harmlessly fall onto the rooftop just a foot below him.

"Terron, are you alright?" Novus asked, approaching the Cubone.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Terron replied.

He looked over at the Quilava to find that he was covered in quite a few cuts and was bleeding from every single one of them, but was fine for the most part. Terron was about to ask the Quilava if he too felt fine, but the Quilava then redirected his attention back to Nyx.

Terron watched as the Darkrai clenched her claws into fists as her eye seemed to glimmer all the more brightly. No sooner had she done this did the robot's body suddenly cave in on itself, causing the creature to let out an ear-piercing howl. Its body continued to become crushed as Nyx's psychic energy worked its way through it, until after a brutal minute later, the robot was nothing but a warped pile of scrapped metal. Then, with the flick of her wrist, she sent the robot plummeting into the rooftop, snapping its body in half.

The Darkrai went up to the robot as it continued to struggle futilely, desperately trying to rise upon its useless legs. Nyx grabbed the head of the massive creature with her claws and looked into its flickering eyes with a glare.

"Never steal Cubone Dimitri from me."

Then without wasting another second, she sank her claws deep into its head, and ripped out a large network of wires. The moment she did, the robot finally ceased its struggling and fell to the ground in a heap, the light in its eyes dying away.

Terron and Novus watched in tense anticipation as the Darkrai continued to hover above the decimated exoskeleton of the creature, glaring down upon it as the psychic energy continued to ooze off her in waves. They knew that she wasn't going to harm them, but they were too afraid to speak to her. The way she had torn apart that robot so easily with hardly any effort sent shudders down their spine.

The Darkrai turned away from the mangled mess and looked back at Terron and Novus, her eye still lingering with malevolence.

"We should leave. More of whatever those things were might appear. We should hide until morning."

This time, Terron knew better than to argue with her. He only nodded as he and Novus approached the Darkrai, allowing her to stoop down and pick up the tiny ones in her claws. Then, once they were securely in her grip, she flew away from the sight, retreating out of the city.

Despite what Terron had come to believe about Kuron, the entire world was not infested with large cities without a single bit of nature to be spotted. The humans had, for whatever reason, left some parts of their world untampered with by their ever-changing lifestyle for not too far away from the outskirts of the city, there was a sprawling field that wouldn't seem out of place back on Shiron. Several trees sprouted throughout the field as well as a fewer smaller bushes and shrubs. Granted there were still a few of the luminescent roads crawling through the sea of green, but otherwise the place had remained untouched by human hands. Terron could only assume they had let it be because some part of them still wanted to preserve nature despite all of their technological advances.

Nyx swooped down toward the field and settled herself by a small cluster of trees before she gingerly set Terron and Novus onto their feet. Terron almost shuddered as the blades of grass tickled his feet. He had almost become accustomed to walking upon the smooth surfaces of the human city.

"This should be a good place to stay for the night. I do not sense anything nearby, so we should not have to worry about anything attacking us."

"Alright… well, thanks Nyx," Terron said awkwardly.

The Darkrai only nodded as she drifted away from the two Pokémon, presumably to scout out the area to support her claim that they were truly safe from harm. Terron sighed as he looked over at the Quilava, who was already curling up into a ball against the trunk of a nearby tree.

"We should get some sleep, Terron," Novus suggested. "I know it feels odd to sleep now when it was still daylight in Shiron, but it's not as though we can do much else at this time."

Terron wordlessly made his way over to the Quilava and sat down beside him. He then fell onto his side and rested his head against Novus's back, blinking a few times as he gazed up into the night sky. He found it was the exact same sky as Shiron's. All of the stars still shined just as brightly and the moon, which was a full moon here, still lit up the parts of the world that the city lights could not.

"I wonder what Zekra and Zev are doing right now," Terron wondered aloud.

"Hopefully having more success than we are," Novus replied. "And hopefully not whisked away to another dimension."

"Hah, yeah right," Terron said dismissively. "Like that's going to happen. Where are they supposed to go again?"

"I believe I assigned them to go to that Greninja Village, the Froslass domain, a graveyard that resides near the eastern Fellowship, a canyon far to the north, and a few other locations I can't quite name off the top of my head right now. But I really do not think that they will be having trouble reaching any of those places. They're illusionists after all; they can get to just about anywhere with very little difficulty."

"Yeah, I know. I'm not worried about them. They're probably fine."

Terron immediately felt his mind digging through his subconscious and conjuring up the memory of his goodbye to Zekra. Without a second thought, Terron cut the process off, leaving him in a blank stupor. He knew that he would feel the sting of heartbreak if the memory formed completely, and he knew he couldn't afford to be affected by it again. It was too debilitating to him.

So, he quickly changed the topic before it could come back. He chose the very first thing that came to mind.

"I wonder what Syn and Impetus are doing," Terron stated blankly.

It took Terron a moment to realize what he had just said. He was about to take back his words to avoid the awkward subject, but found that it was too late. Novus had already heard him speak the words.

"I honestly wish I knew," Novus spoke, his words solemn. "I want to say that they're alright, but deep down, I'm not sure if I actually believe that. Especially since Syn is probably a Blight Demon by now and Impetus is simply gone."

"Yeah," Terron replied glumly. "But, we might be able to find Impetus again. I mean, she said she'd come back. She promised she would."

"She said she would come back if she found Syn," Novus corrected as gently as he could. "If Syn is a Blight Demon and she has found him, there's a very good chance that she will not be coming back. I don't enjoy thinking that will be her fate, but it's been quite a while and we've heard nothing from her."

"But there's still a chance that she could come back," Terron insisted. "She's smart, she probably knows how to avoid the Plagued Ones. And besides, she's like me; she's got that special plague in her. Maybe in the time she's been gone, it's grown more attached to her and it's keeping her alive."

"I can only hope," Novus sighed.

The two remained in a collective silence, both of them feeling faint traces of pain work their way into their hearts. It had been quite a while since they had thought of their two lost companions, so they had nearly forgotten how much it hurt to think about their loss. They had forgotten how much they had enjoyed both of them in their company.

"I've lost a lot of friends ever since I got plagued," Terron said. "First Syn was taken away by the Plagued Ones. Then Impetus left me to go find him. Then Yimtri decided to ditch us because apparently he hates being around us. And now, even though we're still friends and I'll see her again someday, Zekra doesn't want to be around me anymore. That's four Pokémon I cared about, gone from my life."

"I didn't know you considered the plagued Sableye to be your friend," Novus said dryly. "If he's your friend, you have a very odd definition for friendship with the way you two always have arguments and have attempted to murder each other countless times from what you've told me."

"Well he's half of me and we work together, so I think it's the closest word I've got," Terron said indifferently. "Doesn't feel right to just call him an acquaintance. It's more than that. But you could say the same thing about us. You and I don't exactly get along all the time and we're still friends."

"I suppose that's true," Novus chuckled to himself.

"I'm not going to end up losing you too though, am I Novus?" Terron then asked. "You're not going to leave me all alone with Nyx, are you?"

"So long as no one kills me, I see no reason as to why I would leave you," Novus assured. "We have been through a great deal of trials together, not to mention you're becoming one of the few creatures I can truly trust completely. It's a rare luxury that I'm not willing to give up. So no Terron, you don't have to worry. I promise that I'm not going anywhere. Even if everyone else we know and love dies and we find it's the two of us against literally every living creature across Kuron and Shiron, I will not leave you. "

Terron smiled warmly as he reached over and pat Novus's head. The Quilava smiled back as he closed his eyes and slumped his head against the ground.

"I think I'm going to try and get some rest," Novus announced. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Alright, good night Novus," Terron said.

The Quilava nodded his head once, and then ceased to speak. Terron watched as the Quilava drift deeper into sleep, his breaths becoming quieter and slower with each minute. The Cubone let out a short breath as he turned onto his back and stared up at the night sky.

He was about to join Novus in slumber, but then, something came to his mind. Specifically, the events that had occurred before that metallic beast had attacked him and his friends. As soon as Terron recalled the memories, all of his lethargy ceased and he found a conviction burning within him.

Terron rose to his feet, taking extra care not to wake Novus, and then wandered off in the direction where he had last seen Nyx. He had no idea how far she had wandered off to, but he imagined it couldn't have been far.

He found that he was right. After roaming through the field, Terron found Nyx hovering in the distance by the edge of one of the radiating roads, staring down upon it. The Cubone adjusted his persona upon his head as he slowly approached her.

"Hello Cubone Dimitri. I knew you would come here."

For some reason, Terron wasn't very surprised that she had been anticipating his arrival. He ignored her remark as he drew closer to her and stopped by her side. She didn't even bother looking over at him as she continued to gaze upon the empty road, eyeing it with a blank stare. Terron frowned as he turned to completely face her.

"You and I never got to finish our talk," he said to her.

"No, we did not."

"So, are you going to tell me what's happening to me?" he then asked. "Or are we going to keep playing this game where I keep pestering you and you keep telling me you can't tell me the truth because I'm going to get hurt?"

The Darkrai paused for a moment. Terron anticipated that she would shoot him a resentful glare, but to his surprise, she remained stationary and composed, still keeping her gaze fixated on the road before them.

"No. No we are not. We are going to do something different."

"You mean you're going to tell me the truth?" Terron asked.

"No. You still cannot know the answer. What is going to happen instead is that I am going to explain something to you. I am going to share with you some secrets that I think will help you understand why I am doing this to you."

Terron's frown grew as he heard this, but it wasn't out of contempt.

"What do you mean?" he asked, lowering his voice.

"You obviously do not want to take no as an answer from me. You cannot understand why I will not tell you anything. So I am going to tell you what I see when I look at this situation and what you cannot see because you are not me. Maybe it will make you understand everything better."

"Um, alright," Terron said, not entirely sure what she was talking about. "Well, that's fine. Go ahead."

The Darkrai nodded as she finally brought her gaze over to the Cubone.

"I cannot tell you what was happening to you, or any other secrets of mine because they can and they will hurt you. I know I told you this before, but I am going to clarify exactly what I mean when I say that. There are some things in this world that will hurt you if you come to understand them. They are carefully hidden so that no one will know them and save them from a life of pain. For example, there is something about me that I never wanted you to know about me because I know it will hurt you. And that secret is that I am going to die as soon as the Primogenitor dies."

Terron felt something within his chest fracture. He shot the Darkrai a horrified expression as his mouth twisted into a confused scowl, but the Darkrai's solemn gaze didn't break.

"What do you mean you're going to die?" he cried. "I thought you were a legendary! You're supposed to live for hundreds of years and you don't even look remotely old!"

"I am only supposed to live for a few centuries, most likely about five. I have lived for well over a thousand years, possibly even more. I lost track of time after the Primogenitor went into a coma. The only reason why I am still alive is because of the blight within me. It prevents me from dying and as long as it remains within me, I will continue to live for forever. I should have died a very long time ago, Cubone Dimitri."

"Well just because we kill the Primogenitor doesn't mean you'll die," Terron reasoned. "I mean sure, it'll probably kill the plague in you, but that doesn't mean that you'll drop dead. It's not like all of those years will just catch up to you and you'll shrivel up into dust…"

"But that is what will happen. The blight in me is constantly regenerating my body even though I should slowly be disappearing, little by little by now. The blight has overpowered my normal body and does everything for it now. So the second the blight dies, my useless body will gain control once more, and I will finally have the toll of time catch up to me. And even if I wasn't ancient, my soul is so deeply connected to the blight that if the blight in me was killed, it would be similar to tearing out a vital organ. My body is deeply dependent on the blight to help keep me alive."

Terron felt his heart break further. He squeezed his eyes shut as he held his chest, feeling the writhing in his chest as something began to clog his throat.

"No… you're not going to die," Terron uttered. "You're not… you said you'd stay with me and be there for me. You promised me that when I was in that dream."

"And now you see why I kept this secret away from you. Do you still think that knowing that I will die when your goal has been reached is better than having me lie to you and making you believe that I will still be with you?"

Terron didn't answer the question. He wanted to say that he preferred knowing the truth and that the pain was a small price to pay for it, but he found he couldn't do it. The pain welling up inside him was absolutely heart-wrenching because as of that moment, he realized that he truly was losing all of his friends, one by one. Though they all left him for various reasons, it was all the same in the end. In due time they would no longer be with Terron, and he would be all alone.

The Cubone felt something cold grab both of his shoulders. He feebly looked up to find that Nyx had placed both of her hands on him and had lowered herself down to create a better eye level with him. She was still significantly taller than him, but she was less intimidating now.

"I know it is hard. I really do, but I want you to understand that this is why I cannot let you know anything I know. I know much darker things that will bring you even more pain than what you are feeling now. So please, trust me when I say that you cannot know my secrets. Promise me that you will let all of this go, Cubone Dimitri."

"Yeah… I promise, Nyx," Terron whispered in a hoarse voice. "I won't ask to know your secrets anymore."

The Darkrai beamed at him as she carefully lifted her claws from off of him and turned away from him. Terron found he couldn't look at her anymore and averted his gaze as well.

"Thank you. Now, we should go and get some rest."

Terron nodded wordlessly, still feeling the heart-break within his chest as he followed the Darkrai back to the tree. They found that Novus was still sleeping under it, apparently undisturbed by the Cubone's absence. Terron didn't even bother to cuddle up next to the Quilava. He only wandered a few feet away from his companion and collapsed onto a patch of grass. He didn't look over to see if Nyx had gone to sleep; he only wanted to forget about her for the time being. Instead, he cast Novus a long stare, briefly contemplated the validity of the oath the Quilava had sworn to him only minutes ago, and then forced himself to sleep.

Terron was awoken by the sound of howling wind. He didn't know how long he had been asleep, but from how groggy he felt, he imagined it couldn't have been long.

Terron looked over to where he had last seen his companions, but was surprised to find that they were no longer lying along the ground and slumbering. They were instead quite a distance away from him, both of them staring up into the sky with anxious stares. With a confused scowl, Terron made his way over to them.

"Guys, what's going on?" he asked them.

Novus didn't say anything, choosing instead to point to the sky. Terron followed his gaze, and immediately saw what was giving the both of them the frightened stares. There, high up in the sky, was a cloud moving through the sky at a phenomenal speed toward the city. At first it appeared to be nothing but a black storm cloud, but after closer inspection, Terron realized that there was something very wrong with it.

There were hundreds of orange lights within it. It didn't take Terron long to figure out what those lights were.

"Those are Plagued Ones," Terron realized. "But… why are they in Kuron?"

"I do not know," Novus said tensely. "But it doesn't matter. They are obviously here in this world and probably intend to devour the humans."

"Well what do we do then?" Terron asked. "We can't just let them attack everybody. Sure, there's no humans running around outside, but I'm pretty sure they'll find a way to break into wherever the humans are."

"BZZZZZZZZZZZZRRRRRRR-GGGGGGGGH!"

The loud, savage roar broke through the air, making the three nearly jump out of their skin. They snapped their gazes up to the storm cloud of Plagued Ones to find that there was now something speeding straight toward the swarm. Something black that gave off bright flashes of electric blue.

It dove right into the storm, becoming embedded into the thick mass as its light seemed to intensify. The swarm immediately stopped as they smothered out the object that had flown into their group, extinguishing the light as they presumably devoured whatever had attacked them.

There was a blinding flash of the light as what appeared to be a massive, crackling sphere of blue exploded from within the swarm, instantly eradicating everything it touched. All of the Plagued Ones disintegrated as their bodies dissolved into wisps, their shrill screams briefly sounding all around the group before they abruptly ceased to be. Within seconds, every single Plagued One was gone.

Terron, Novus, and Nyx waited for the Plagued Ones to reappear, knowing full well that they could regenerate with ease. But much to their surprise, the corrupted beings never came back. Their bodies never reformed, leaving the air they once occupied vacant. All that hovered where they once were was now the massive creature, its body still pulsing with the light it had radiated so intensely earlier.

"What… is that?" Terron said in complete awe.

No sooner did he say that did the black creature come rushing toward them. Terron had no time to react as it landed before them, sending shockwaves into the ground that toppled Terron and Novus over. When the waves of violent tremors ended, they looked up, only to have themselves nearly die of a heart attack.

Standing before them was a ferocious dragon whose hide was as black as the night. Blue streams of light coursed along the outside of its body, dimming and brightening with each breath that the creature took. The air around it was filled with a tremendous electrical power that flowed all around the group, grazing their bodies so much that they worried that moving an inch would give them a nasty shock.

Everyone knew what stood before them now. There was no mistaking it. They had found the one who they had been searching all of Kuron and Shiron for.

They had found Zekrom.