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Chapter 68
A Dark Sunrise
Zekra stood there in the midst of the jungle, finding herself at a complete loss.
Crystelle's harsh words still rang clearly in her ears, cutting deep into her soul. And while the pain wasn't heart-wrenching, there was still quite a bit of inner turmoil, something that she hadn't felt in a very long time. Sometime during her stay on Shirra, her heart had become practically non-existent, only conjuring up an emotion out of her occasionally. And even then the emotion was incredibly subdued and easy to stifle. Nothing was able to linger long in her heart after she had adapted to a life of normality and monotony.
But that wasn't the case right now. She could clearly feel a deep sense of guilt worm its way through her heart, because deep down she knew that Crystelle had spoken the undeniable, cold truth; Zekra was a selfish coward. She had abandoned her friends without a second thought and ran away to Shirra because she wanted to escape all of her problems instead of dealing with them. She had left everything behind because she had quit caring about everything she once held dear. All she cared about was herself.
She was selfish, unthoughtful, and most of all, a weakling.
Zekra squeezed her eyes shut as she felt tears well up in her eyes.
No, she's wrong. Zekra told herself. Crystelle doesn't know anything. She doesn't know that I had to leave because I would have died if I stayed on Shiron. She doesn't know that I had to leave Tear because if I stayed with him, I'd crack one day and tell him something that would ruin his life. Keeping Tear safe and happy isn't selfish. Crystelle doesn't know anything!
Zekra opened her eyes as she growled bitterly, feeling a spark of wrath flare up within her, incinerating all of her grief.
She's wrong. I don't have to listen to a single word that obnoxious brat says to me. She's just being this way because she thinks she knows what's actually going on with the world since she got to go visit the main land. Tch, she doesn't know anything. She's just stupid and insensitive.
Zekra snorted as she felt the last of her heart-break fade away as the fire in her continued to rage. Then, upon realizing that she was still in the jungle with the dead Gliscor Crystelle had slain resting beside her, she stormed out and headed back home.
After minutes of fuming in silence whilst walking through the rough sand, Zekra finally found herself back on the doorstep of Lyra and Frazil's home. She shoved the door open and then wandered inside right as the doorknob crashed into a wall. She only had to glance around for a second to find that nobody was home. It seemed that Lyra was still out wherever she went and Frazil was presumably on an errand. Zekra honestly couldn't remember why she didn't see him for most of the day. She was sure that he had something at breakfast that morning, but she hadn't been paying attention.
But hardly any of this mattered, for Zekra also realized that Crystelle wasn't in the house either. Zekra knew it was probably because she was still upset with the Zorua and didn't want to be in the presence of a supposedly selfish and pathetic Pokémon. However, Zekra found that she didn't care; Crystelle wasn't home, and she didn't want to see her. She had enough of that Umbreon.
Zekra closed the front door shut with her hind leg before making her way down the long hallway of the house and into her bedroom. Zekra's bedroom, for the most part, had remained unchanged since she began living with her guardians once more. There was still a mirror hanging near the door, still a dresser containing absolutely nothing in its drawers, and the bookshelf filled with various novels remained untouched and dusty. There weren't any sort of paintings on the walls, nor was there any sort of plush toys that Zekra had seen a few times while at the market.
The only real change to her room was that she now had a bed tucked into a corner of the room. She had seen the bed at a department store she had to visit one day, and had asked Frazil and Lyra to get it for her. And since it had been the only request she had asked of them and because they thought it was far better than sleeping on the ground, they gave it to her without question. It was a decent bed, the frames and head board being made out of veneer and holding a mattress filled with cotton and a network of springs. Soft and colorful blankets covered the mattress as a single pillow leaned against the headboard. It was a bit of a small bed, the smallest in the store even, but she still found the bed to be suitable for her petite size. She imagined having an enormous bed would have been problematic for her anyway. The vast amount of empty space would have reminded her that she could share the bed with others that weren't with her.
Zekra hopped onto the bed and pulled the covers back before getting under them. Then, she pulled the covers up to her neck and rested her head against the pillow. It felt pleasantly soft just as it always did. And yet, it did nothing to calm the simmering bitterness within her.
She shut her eyes as she forced herself to go to sleep, trying to rid herself of the malicious thoughts rushing through her mind.
Zekra found herself sitting in front of a burning church, the flames having crawled out of the interior and flooding out of the windows. It was a terrifying sight, seeing that massive building before her reducing to ash and debris while being the only source of light in the endless darkness surrounding her. The violent flickering of the flames against the blackness in her sight and the crackling of the burning wood did nothing to help ease her dread. She wanted to run away from the sight, but found herself unable to get up. She was somehow entranced by the sight and bound to the cobblestone ground below her.
Where am I? Zekra wondered. I was just asleep a second ago. Is this some sort of dream?
It was then that Zekra saw something wandering through the burning building. She couldn't see them very clearly, for the smoke and flames heavily obscured the figure from her, but she persisted in peering at the ones within the church. She was about to get up and perhaps change into a fire-proof Pokémon so she could explore the building, but then the figure jumped out an open window and landed a short distance away from Zekra.
That figure was a Sableye.
It was relatively unharmed from the flames, having almost no burn marks upon it. It seemed somewhat fatigued for whatever reason Zekra couldn't understand, but otherwise, it was perfectly fine and in perfect condition. It gave a tired sigh as it dusted itself off and then wandered into the darkness away from Zekra. It didn't take long for Zekra to figure out who the Sableye was.
"Hey! Hey Yimtri, wait!" Zekra cried out.
Suddenly feeling strength in her legs again, she sprang onto all fours and bolted after the Sableye. Yimtri didn't seem to notice her and the distance between the two of them only seemed to grow. Zekra only ran faster, ignoring the fact that the darkness surrounding the two of them seemed to become more suffocating and almost threatening to swallow her whole.
"Yimtri, wait!" Zekra hollored. "Stop!"
The Sableye stopped and turned his head slightly to the side to look back at Zekra. His blank scowl immediately became that of a surprised, almost horrified one as soon as he saw the Zorua. The darkness separating them seemed to stop as well, no longer making it so that they could never meet. Zekra, seeing her chance, leapt at the Sableye and tackled him in the chest. The two rolled across the void's unseen floor before crashing into some unknown object. From the way the Sableye cringed and let out a groan, she imagined it must have been a rock or a strong pillar of some sort.
"Good, I finally caught up to you," Zekra sighed as she looked up at the Sableye. "I was worried I couldn't. Where are-"
Zekra stopped as soon as her eyes met the Sableye's. There was something different about Yimtri's eyes. Before, there was always a sort of bitter, resentful glimmer in them that only sometimes changed to that of a more empty and somber radiance. But now, there was a very different light in those gemstones of his. He seemed almost unnerved now, as if seeing Zekra clinging to him was something utterly disturbing to him. It was an expression that Zekra knew Yimtri never wore except on very rare occasions. She was sure that her tackling him, despite how much she knew he found it awkward and uncomfortable, wouldn't cause him to appear this way.
And then she noticed something else about the Sableye; he wasn't wearing his trademark cape. That cape he always wore and never removed from his sight was nowhere to be spotted on his person. Then not only that, but now that she finally had a closer look at him, she noticed that this Sableye didn't quite look like Yimtri. Its body was slightly different, being a much lighter shade of purple and the claws being slightly more elongated.
"Wait… you're not Yimtri," Zekra realized.
The Sableye took its claws and grabbed Zekra by the back of her neck and tore the Zorua off of its body. It hastily sat up as it threw Zekra away from itself before springing to its feet and rushing into the darkness surrounding the two of them.
"Hey! Come back!" Zekra called out as she chased after the Sableye. "Who are you? What is this place?"
Zekra never received an answer, for the Sableye disappeared into the black, becoming one with it just as a white light engulfed the void.
Zekra jolted awake, ripping the blankets right off her as she panted furiously. While the dream was not traumatic, as she hadn't been hurt nor was there any sort of indication that she'd be harmed, the dream still brought a deep sense dread that pulsed through her being. There was something about that dream that shook her. She knew that dreams weren't meant to be logical and that anything could happen within them, but somehow, she felt like that Sableye wasn't supposed to be there. The way it acted when it discovered that Zekra was there with it was too suspicious. There was no reason why a figment of her imagination would act that way. There was something very wrong with that Sableye.
She started to wonder if a Sableye had snuck into her room while she was asleep and tried to invade her dreams to give her a nightmare. She had heard that ghost-types could do so, and it was evening now, meaning it was the perfect time for ghost-types to lurk about unsuspectingly and find slumbering victims with dreams to invade. It would have made sense, even if she hadn't had this happen before at all, whether it be on Shirra or Shiron.
Zekra was about to ponder in the troubling subject more, but then a knock came at her door.
"Yeah?" Zekra asked as she sat up in bed.
"Dinner's ready, so come out and eat," Lyra said from behind the door.
Zekra sighed, partially in relief and partially in agitation. While she was glad that she could get her mind off the strange experience, she knew that having dinner with Lyra and Frazil most likely meant that she would have to eat with Crystelle. Crystelle should have come home by now and announced her return to her parents. She doubted that the Umbreon's little spat with her would be enough to drive her away from her own home after being gone for months.
The Zorua scowled in disgust at the thought of having to tolerate Crystelle's presence, but nonetheless leapt out of bed and made her way into the dining room. She knew she couldn't avoid Crystelle. It would be inevitable that they would cross paths again, especially since they were both being raised by the same parents under the same roof.
But much to her surprise, Zekra found that the Umbreon wasn't sitting at the dinner table. It was only Lyra and Frazil, a plate of cooked fish sitting in front of them. Zekra frowned cautiously as she went up to the table and settled herself in her spot at the table, a plate of her own waiting for her.
"Where's Crystelle?" she asked without hesitation.
"Um, she's still on her trip," Lyra answered oddly. "Why?"
Zekra's frown grew as she glared down at her food.
"She came home today," Zekra answered in monotone. "She dragged me off to this jungle so she could show me some abilities she picked up while she was training on the main land. I figured she'd be home by now."
"Oh! I didn't know that she came back," Lyra said, surprised. "I didn't think she'd be back for another month. If I had known, I would have made her something. Did you know about this, Frazil?"
"No, I didn't," the Glaceon answered. "She wasn't anywhere in town and I certainly didn't hear anyone talking about her return. But Zekra, you say that you were with her? Was she alright?"
"She was just fine," Zekra answered bitterly.
Lyra and Frazil exchanged an uncomfortable glance with each other before looking back over at Zekra. Zekra lightly ran her claws through her fish, her appetite soured and non-existent. Then again, it had never been existent in the first place. She couldn't remember the last time she had felt genuinely hungry.
"Did something between you and Crystelle?" Frazil asked gently.
"She and I got into an argument about stupid stuff," she answered icily. "You know, about why I'm here when I said I had some other stuff to take care of. She called me a selfish coward and then ditched me to go who knows where. I guess she's too mad at me to want to come back home to you guys right now. But maybe she'll come back tomorrow if I leave for a few hours."
"Oh, I see," Frazil answered blankly.
Zekra nodded wordlessly as she traced little shapes into her fish, as if she were trying to create a work of art on a canvas of flesh. But in reality, all she did was make meaningless scribbles all over it and ruin a perfectly good meal.
"Do you guys think I'm a selfish coward too?" Zekra then asked absently. "And don't lie to me; be honest. I'm not going to kill you or anything like that. I'm not that messed up."
"Well… it's really hard to say," Lyra answered carefully. "I don't know the entire situation behind your story, so I can't really make an opinion about it. If I did, then I'd be judging you wrongly since I don't have enough information. So I really can't answer that question."
"As for me, I'd have to say that you're not what Crystelle called you," Frazil then said. "I'm sorry that she said that to you; she never used to act that way before. But, it's true that you did abandon your friends to come here, but you had a reason to. Like Lyra, I don't understand the entire situation, but if you really were in as much danger as you claimed you were, then coming here wasn't a selfish choice. However, I can say this; your decision to come here might have been a wrong decision. Maybe it wasn't selfish, but it still could have been wrong and you really should be back with your friends. But I honestly can't tell you if that's true or not because I don't understand your situation. I can't make that judgement when I don't know what happened to you."
Zekra stared at both of the parents with a blank, faraway stare. Essentially, she had received no answers from either of them. Of course, Zekra knew that this was entirely her fault, as they knew almost nothing about what had compelled her to return to them. They couldn't fairly give their opinion when that was so, and Zekra knew she couldn't tell them the truth. So in the end, asking them that question had been pointless. There were no answers or insight to gain from them when Zekra had hidden her darkest secrets from them.
"Alright, thanks," Zekra said blankly.
The three of them then carried on with their dinner in silence. Half an hour later, Lyra and Frazil had finished, and Zekra's plate still had her fish sitting there. It was mostly untouched, save for the thin lines her claws had traced through it.
"You sure you're not hungry?" Lyra asked.
"No, I'm fine," Zekra said with a dismissive wave of her paw. "You guys can just throw it out or something. Or maybe you can give it to Crystelle whenever she decides to come back inside."
"Maybe," Lyra said quietly. "I just hope she's okay, though. I don't want her to get hurt or anything like that.
"She's fine," Zekra said as she got up and wandered away. "Besides, she killed a Gliscor when I was with her in that jungle on the island. I don't think anything's going to be able to hurt her when she can do that."
Zekra didn't even bother to see what Lyra and Frazil's reactions were, for she disappeared down the hallway and went inside her room before closing the door shut. Then, without wasting another moment, she crawled into her bed and went back to sleep.
Zekra was back in the black void once more. Except this time, there wasn't a burning church before her or a cobblestone road below her. There were no buildings nor vegetation or anything remotely tangible in her sight; it was only the endless darkness that surrounded her. It held her in its grasp, providing her an invisible platform to stand upon as she gazed into its impenetrable depths.
Oh not this place again, Zekra whined within her mind. Am I going to keep coming here every time I go to bed? Is this how Tear felt whenever he kept passing out and going to see Groudon or whatever it was?
Zekra immediately cursed herself as a bitter sting in her heart struck her. She knew she shouldn't have thought about Terron and the much happier days she once shared with him; it was a perfect way to bring an unnecessary amount of pain to her. It was one of the very few things that actually could hurt her these days.
Distracting herself from the pain, Zekra looked upon the darkness and peered around, trying to spot the Sableye she had seen before. However, it was nowhere in sight, leaving Zekra completely alone in the darkness. The Zorua scowled as she went forward into the black. As she expected, the invisible platform she was walking upon remained there underneath her feet, preventing her from falling down into the abyss.
"Hey! Sableye!" Zekra called out. "Where are you? I wanna talk to you!"
Her voice echoed through the empty void, but nothing answered back. Zekra continued walking, determined to find the lone denizen of the strange world. But no matter how far she travelled, there was no one to be found. The world only continued to go on forever, nothing encompassing her changing in the slightest.
"Come out! I'm not going to hurt you!" Zekra shouted.
There was still no response. Zekra growled irritably as she finally stopped in her tracks and glared down at her paws. Nothing was working, and she knew that she couldn't keep wandering through the vacant world for all eternity. While admittedly the appearance of the world didn't frighten her all that much, traversing aimlessly through it until she somehow woke up was unnerving. She wasn't even sure how she was supposed to wake up given that the last time she did, it only happened when the Sableye presumably threw her out. She didn't know if that was the only way out. If it was, then Zekra knew she could be stuck in the empty world for a very, very long time.
"Look, I don't wanna be here," Zekra said. "I didn't get brought here by choice, wherever this place is. So if you hate it when I come here, just tell me what this place is so that maybe I can figure out a way to quit coming."
Zekra waited once more, seeing if there would be a shift in the darkness or a whisper of a voice. If this didn't work, then she didn't know what would. She had tried everything else, save for attacking the world around her or attempting to go down into its bottomless depths, but Zekra didn't feel the need to be that drastic quite yet. So, she only waited in silence, anticipating an answer in some form.
Eventually, the Sableye she had seen in the previous visit to the world emerged from the darkness. It didn't appear to be mortified to see Zekra as it had before, now only appearing mildly confused. It drew closer to Zekra, and then stopped about a foot in front of her. Zekra was about to back away, not quite comfortable with the lack of space between herself and the unknown entity, but the Sableye's gemstones instantly flickered, prompting Zekra to stop.
"Alright, there you are," Zekra said, sighing in relief. "Was worried you weren't going to show up."
"How did you get here?" the Sableye asked. "You're not supposed to be able to get here."
Zekra shot the Sableye a puzzled stare. There was something very familiar in her voice, like she had heard it from somewhere before, but she couldn't remember where. It was a strange type of voice, being both enticing and highly insidious at the same time. It made Zekra feel torn between wanting to run up to the Sableye and tackle her down playfully and running away from her in sheer terror. She was very warm and welcoming, but at the same time, cold and dangerous. In the end, Zekra only remained rooted to her spot.
"I just fell asleep," Zekra answered. "Next thing I know, I'm here."
"I see," the Sableye said with a thoughtful frown. "So you didn't come here on purpose. …Interesting. I'm not quite sure what to think of this. This might just make things a bit more… difficult for the both of us. Or it might make things easier. I don't know yet. Time will tell."
"…Who are you, exactly?" Zekra asked carefully. "I'm pretty sure this isn't one of my dreams. And you aren't one of my dream people. Are you… actually someone else? Someone other than me?"
"That's a very good question, and one that's becoming much more difficult to answer as time goes by," the Sableye said. "As for my name… a name, a name. Let's see here... you might call me 'Venri'. Good as anything, I guess!"
"Venri," Zekra whispered to herself, testing the name. "Where is this place, exactly? Do you live here?"
The Sableye touched her forehead, as though having a headache. "Ah, you need to stop asking so many questions," she grumbled. "You presume I have all the answers when I don't. I'm trying to figure this all out… All I can imagine is that the pin did something we both weren't prepared for."
"…What pin?" Zekra demanded. "You mean…"
"What other pin would I mean?" the Sableye snapped back, as though exasperated. "How about the pin you so kindly jammed into my skin yesterday? Do you realize how much that stings? I still feel it."
Zekra opened her mouth to retort and demand an explanation, but she stopped in mid-breath. She shared a tense glare with the strange Sableye as it all clicked into place.
"No…" Zekra whispered. "No, you're…"
"You," Venri replied pointedly. "Well, sort of. It's pretty complicated. I remember all of your feelings and your memories as though they were mine. But then something happened, and… let's just say that Dimitri isn't the only person that Mother separated into two people."
Zekra took a shaky step backwards.
"You're my… my plague," she said in terror. "You're… the one… you're that monster I always hear in my mind."
"Oh, would you cut it out with calling me a monster? I really hate it when you call me that. I'm Venri. Venri, alright?" the Sableye sighed. "You know, like somebody you could actually get along with and not some spooky menace in your life. But anyway, seems that we've finally gotten a chance to talk to one another, even with that godforsaken pin of yours. Seems that when you so ruthlessly jammed that thing into me, it broke one of the barriers between the two of us. I'm not sure how, but here we are."
"I have nothing to say to you!" Zekra hissed, taking more steps backward into the darkness. "I don't want anything to do with you…"
"Aww, really, Zekra? But we have so much in common!" Venri said mockingly, approaching her. "What do you have to be afraid of?"
"I know what you really want," Zekra growled. "You just want to get into my head and take complete control of me. You want to turn me into a full Plagued One… and I'm never going to let you! I don't want anything to do with the Plagued Ones ever again."
"Look, it's really not as bad as you're thinking," Venri said evilly. "As far as I can tell, the plague is just an effect that causes a soul to split into two when it's not supposed to. Something like a cancerous growth that affects the spirit. It incubates for a while, just like I'm doing now, as the voice in your head slowly starts talking more loudly, and… thinking thoughts of its own. Then, we'll split, and I'm supposed to brutally murder you and fly off to serve the Primogenitor, right?"
The Sableye stepped even closer to the tensed, terrified Zorua.
"But I'm no ordinary Plagued One, Zekra," she said, grinning. "I think you'll find that I'm quite agreeable when you get to know me. And I have something a bit better in mind than just devouring your soul and using your body to go mess up the world. I think it would be better for the both of us if you were to cooperate with me. We could go places."
Zekra ran. She turned and dashed away from the figure of the Sableye and strained her muscles to carry her as far into the darkness as she could. Unfortunately, it was all imaginary, and the rules of the dream world didn't make sense. She didn't run very far; she glanced over her shoulder and saw that Venri was closer than before.
"Nope, you're not running away this time!" Venri said. "This time, we're gonna have a talk whether you like it or not!"
"No… no…" Zekra gasped, running faster than ever but still going nowhere. Her heart was racing. It was her worst nightmare. "No… She's just trying to break me… get into my head… I can't listen to her…"
Venri would catch up to her in mere seconds. She was desperate. She had to get away. She had to get out of the dream somehow. She couldn't let the Plagued One touch her.
At the last moment before Venri was about to reach out and pull on her tail, she cried out and launched herself into the darkness. When she came back down, the invisible platform no longer had an effect on her, and she plummeted down into the abyss.
"…or you could do that, I suppose," Venri said dryly.
Zekra was woken by the sound of her own scream.
She hit the floor in a tangle of covers and thrashed about to escape them as though they were the tentacles of the plagued ones. When she was free, she stopped to catch her breath and stared at the tiny bed she'd nearly destroyed, seeing that the blankets were nearly torn apart and the mattress was punctured in more than one place.
Her mind wouldn't stop buzzing, and now she knew why. Something was inside of it with a mind of its own. Something – no, someone – lived just under the veil of her subconscious and was growing stronger by the day.
Her innermost demon. Her plagued self. Venri.
"It can talk to me when I sleep…" Zekra uttered to herself, touching the anti-plague pin upon her cloak. "I… I need to stop sleeping. I can't sleep anymore… I need to distract myself…"
Overcome with an urge to get as far away from her bed as she could, Zekra used the form of a Sableye to throw the window open and prepared to take a late-night walk. But as soon as she leapt up onto the windowsill, a wet blast of wind nearly threw her back onto the floor, bringing ice-cold droplets of water spraying into her room. Keeping her balance, she squinted and saw that a rainstorm covered the sky. The relentless downfall pounded the ceiling of her room and dribbled down the eve, and the howling wind blew chilly mist into her face.
It wasn't raining before, Zekra realized. The sky was clear earlier. How long was I asleep? It must have been a whole lot longer than I thought.
She didn't know how long she would last until she would pass out again and meet her dark reflection in the odd dream-world. She didn't care. She only knew she wanted to go as far as she could before meeting her inner monster again. A little rain wouldn't hold her back.
Though the storm made it very chilly, Zekra decided to leave her cloak behind. She removed it and hung it at the foot of her bed, making sure to take the anti-plague pin with her.
No need to get it all muddy, she thought, hooking the pin into the back of her amulet as she became a Zorua once more. Besides, I need to feel the cold. It'll help keep me awake.
Without a second thought, she jumped out of the bedroom window, not caring that she was leaving it wide open for the rainstorm to ravage her room while she was gone. It wasn't the first thing on her mind. Shivering in the cold, she padded across the moist sand and away from the house, ignoring the grains collecting on the bottom of her paws.
She took in a deep breath as she wandered away from the house. There wasn't a single soul in sight, all presumably locked up behind the safe confinements of their homes and snuggled up by a fire. Zekra liked it that way; it meant that she could truly be alone with her thoughts. She could allow her thoughts to finally settle themselves out and leave her be with a clearer mind if there was no one to distract her. She had no idea where she wanted to go, but she imagined anywhere would suffice. So, she aimlessly traversed about the island, having no particular destination in mind as the rainwater poured down on her from above. After she'd adjusted to the temperature, it felt oddly refreshing to be out in the rain, feeling the water pelting her and cascading down her fur.
What felt like an hour passed, and Zekra found herself standing on a grassy hilltop she had found towards the very southern tip of the island, far away from where she normally roamed. She had found that for whatever reason, the southern part of the island was mostly desolate, save for a few jungles filled with wild Pokémon. There were no cities in sight, and as far as Zekra could see from atop her hill, there weren't any docks to ferry anyone out to other islands.
In other words, Zekra truly was alone, cut off from everyone.
The Zorua sighed as she sat down, shivering only for a second as the cold water along the blades of grass soaked her further. When the uncomfortable sensation passed, she only looked out to the ocean, watching the waves stir and the palm trees sway in the wind. With no one to bother her and her thoughts having finally calmed themselves, Zekra found she could think comprehensively once more.
I don't know what I'm going to do, Zekra pondered. This thing inside of me is getting stronger. It's incubating in me. It's been incubating all this time, ever since I became plagued. Now it's getting too strong. It's taking its own shape. It's becoming its own creature.
It's not just a voice in my head anymore. It thinks for itself. It has a personality. It even has a name.
But I'll be fine. I can ignore her. As long as I've got this pin, I can keep her quiet as long as I'm not asleep. Maybe I'll have to face her in my dreams, but I'll just have to avoid sleeping as much as I can…
I'll be fine just so long as I can keep my thoughts clear. I just can't let her start to control me. I can't let her… start to talk me into things. If I start agreeing to listen to her, then… then the next thing I know, she'll take over me completely, and I won't be myself anymore. I'll be gone. Just like all the… the other plagued ones who killed their hosts… I'll be gone… I wonder if this is how Yimtri always felt… the voices in his head just kept getting louder, trying to win him over… his plague just wouldn't ever leave him alone…
But wait… if Yimtri and Tear are the same person, and they split apart because of the plague curse, does that mean Yimtri was the Plagued One that came out of Dimitri? Was he the part of Dimitri that split off into its own person just like Venri wants to with me? That sounds really weird… could that be true? It would explain why he acts so weird all the time and why he's so emotionally unstable… he has all the memories of Dimitri but he's just a bunch of inner demons come to life!
But Yimtri and Tear both faced their own plagues, too… maybe the curse never ends? Maybe it just keeps multiplying humans and Pokémon over and over again until we're just mindless shells of the original person? Maybe Yimtri is a Plagued One being tormented by another Plagued One?
But if Yimtri really is a Plagued One… and he really did become his own Pokémon… He wasn't really such a bad guy after all. I mean, he did a lot of good things while he was working with us. Nyx did say that the curse she gave to us was special. Maybe that's why. Maybe…
…Maybe Venri just wants to be my friend?
No! NO! I can't think about it like that! I-if I start thinking about it like that, Venri will win. I can't let her win. I can't. She's the Plagued One, Zekra. You've beaten them. You got yourself out of the stupid war, and you're safe here. Don't let Venri take everything away from you again.
She's the one who took everything away from me. She's the one who…
…She's the one who made me a killer.
She fell over onto her back, slumping her head into the moist ground as she felt a number of unpleasant emotions stir up inside of her. All of them were telling her to act differently, one telling her to go on a rampage, one telling her to regress into a sobbing mess, and yet another telling her to run back to Lyra and Frazil and tell them everything. They each screamed their suggestions at her, clashing against the other in a fight for supremacy as Zekra only remained there, vacantly staring into the sky as the raindrops fell on her head. A gale blew past her, pushing her closer towards the edge of the hill, but Zekra barely noticed.
"Didn't bring your little blanket with you, huh? Figured it would have kept you warm in this rain."
Zekra blinked. She turned her head to find Crystelle standing right next to her, her eyes glowing red and the yellow rings around her body illuminating softly as well. The Zorua scrambled away from the Umbreon as she righted herself up and got back on all fours.
She shot Crystelle a spiteful glare. The wariness she had felt when she had first encountered Crystelle was no longer there. She only felt a churning hatred within her heart, fueling a number of malicious thoughts in her mind.
"What are you doing here?" Zekra asked venomously. "How did you even find me?"
"Because I was stalking you," Crystelle answered blandly. "I saw you leave mom and dad's house, and I followed you here. But geez Zekra, you didn't even bring your blanket in this weather?"
"It's not a blanket," Zekra corrected tersely. "It's a cloak, or a cape. It's the same thing. And I didn't bring it because I didn't want it to get all wet and dirty out here. And because I thought that the wind might blow it away. I'd rather not lose it."
"But you'll still wear it when you're killing Pokémon and get their blood over it," Crystelle stated dryly. "You know, even though a wild Pokémon can tear it off just as easily as the wind can."
"What do you want, Crystelle?" Zekra then said, ignoring her remark. "I kind of want to be alone right now."
The Umbreon turned away from the Zorua as she wandered toward the edge of the hilltop that overlooked the sea. After a few seconds, she turned her head back at the Zorua, wearing a stern, smoldering glare.
"You need to go back to Shiron," she said simply. "You need to finish whatever you started there."
"Crystelle, I'm not going back there," Zekra said in a firm voice. "I already told you this. There's nothing you can say that'll convince me to leave this island and go suffer some more back on Shiron. I'd be stupid to go back to that place and get hurt over and over again. I've had enough pain in an entire lifetime."
"But you'll let Terron and Novus stay on Shiron and suffer by themselves," Crystelle then said.
"I don't care about them anymore," Zekra uttered bitterly. "They can do whatever they want."
But Zekra knew that she was lying when she spoke those words. The second they left her tongue, she felt a sting in her heart. It took her a moment to stifle it.
Crystelle kept her gaze on Zekra, saying nothing. Her exasperated glare remained unflinching in the darkness, glowing steadily with the yellow light of her rings even as water pelted down upon her. Even as another mighty gale blew through the area, nearly knocking Zekra over from the blast, the Umbreon remained firmly rooted to the ground.
"Why do you even care what I do?" Zekra yelled over the wind. "You're strong enough on your own! If you care about Terron and Novus so much, you go help them!"
"So you would send me to my death?" Crystelle said mockingly. "Are you completely blind? Are you even listening to what you're saying? You're staying here like a coward because you don't want to see any more suffering and death. What if Terron and Novus are dead already? What if they're dead because you weren't there to help them when they needed it? What would that mean, Zekra? What would that mean about you?"
"SHUT UP!" Zekra cried, turning away.
"That would make you responsible for their deaths!" Crystelle shot at her. "That would make you their killer!"
Zekra lost control, lunging at the Umbreon with bared fangs. But Crystelle was ready for it. She dodged the attack and tripped the Zorua as soon as she touched the ground, causing her to flip over. Zekra found herself pinned beneath the Umbreon's paws.
"You're going back to Shiron whether you like it or not, Zekra," Crystelle finally said after a while, her voice a low hiss. "This isn't what you're supposed to be. You're supposed to be better than this. I did not get this strong just to see you give up."
The Umbreon lashed at Zekra in that instant, descending upon her with jaws wide open. Zekra wasn't able to move fast enough as Crystelle sank her fangs into her and ripped her up off the ground. Her teeth didn't puncture far enough into her flesh to be lethal, but is still brought an uncomfortable amount of pain.
"We're leaving, Zekra!" Crystelle said in a muffled voice as she clamped her teeth down harder on the Zorua. "You and me! Right now!"
"No!" Zekra screamed as she thrashed about. "No! No, I can't go back! I can't!"
"Too bad! You've lost your right to make your own decisions!"
Crystelle crouched down low, ready to bound down the hill in a single leap.
"No! I don't wanna go! I don't wanna see them!"
Zekra immediately blasted a pillar of darkness at the Umbreon, knocking her out of Crystelle's grip as the Umbreon went tumbling away from her and towards the edge of the hill. Crystelle frantically dug her claws into the wet blades of grass, bringing herself to a halt just as she was to disappear down the grassy slope. She shot Zekra a hateful glare, eyes burning bright as she shook herself.
Zekra stood there, bleeding from each of her puncture wounds, returning the glare with an equally vicious one.
"I'm not going back to Shiron!" Zekra declared. "You're not making me! I will never go back there as long as I live! Nobody is going to get me to change my mind, and I'm most certainly not about to get dragged off there by you! So back off and leave me right now, or else-"
"Or else you're going to kill me?" Crystelle asked skeptically. "Is that what you're going to say?"
The Zorua frowned hard as Crystelle let out a snort. The Umbreon flickered her tail as she pranced about her spot for a moment before looking back at Zekra. An evil smile crept onto her face as the red in her eyes seemed to radiate all the brighter.
"Is that a challenge?" Crystelle asked eagerly. "Are you saying that you can actually kill me before I get you out of here?"
"Don't test me, Crystelle," Zekra growled. "You have no idea what I've done in the past."
"So you are saying that you can kill me!" Crystelle exclaimed, her sinister grin growing. "Oh wow, Zekra, maybe you aren't a disgrace to dark-types after all. Maybe you're not as much of a wimp as I thought you became after you supposedly died."
"I said don't TEST ME!"
Zekra sprang again at the Umbreon, tackling her down as she lunged her fangs directly at Crystelle's neck. Crystelle snickered as she shot a mirror of Zekra's Dark Pulse at the Zorua, blowing Zekra right off of her and skidding along the ground. Zekra quickly changed into a Scyther as she dug her blades into the moist ground, forcing herself to a halt.
"I'll test you all I want!" Crystelle proclaimed as her eyes flickered. "Go ahead, kill me! If you're really that desperate to stay on this island, then try and stop me!"
Crystelle sprinted forward just as the lights upon her body disappeared, leaving her as nothing more than a black blur rushing through the dark rain. Zekra tensed as she eyed where the Umbreon dashed about, finding she was having a difficult time keeping track of Crystelle. Not only was she disturbingly quick on her feet, but the rain was doing an excellent of camouflaging her as well. Crystelle had become a complete shadow.
Something flashed in the corner of Zekra's sight. She promptly lashed out at it, swinging her arm down upon it, only to have it become embedded into the dirt. She ripped it out as she hastily turned around, searching desperately for the Umbreon.
Another flash of movement appeared by Zekra's side. The false Scyther swiped at it and immediately felt something slice through her blade that she knew wasn't vegetation. She could clearly feel the fur and blood running across its metallic surface and drip down her arm. Without wasting another second, Zekra transformed back into a Zorua as she sprang at the spot where she had presumably cut Crystelle. However, she was soon to find that she had nothing, for she crashed into the grass and skid along its slippery surface, smearing mud all over her belly.
The Zorua looked down at her paws as she forced herself up, and was baffled to find that there was no blood stained upon her claws.
But… I felt her! Zekra reasoned. I know I hit her! I could feel her blood on my paws! I know I did! But then… why didn't she scream?
Something rammed into Zekra's side, knocking the wind out of her as she went tumbling down the hill's slippery slope. The world rapidly spun around her as she rolled down to the bottom, unable to stop herself. When she finally did come to a stop, her fur was drenched in mud and water and covered with quite a few cuts. Just as she was to get up, something hard pressed down into her side, provoking a sequel of pain out of her. She wearily looked up to find that Crystelle had her foot on her ribcage, glaring deeply into her eyes with a disgusted scowl. There wasn't a single scratch upon her.
"Ugh, I really didn't want it to be this easy," Crystelle groaned. "I really thought making you that mad would do something to you. But no, I guess it doesn't change anything. But why am I surprised? The old Zekra isn't you anymore. All of her fighting spirit left you."
Zekra 's eyes illuminated as she began to change into another Pokémon, but Crystelle quickly spat out a blob of ghostly energy close to Zekra's head. It didn't directly hit Zekra, but the blast still seared her fur, cutting off her transformation.
"Looks like I've won, Zekra," Crystelle proclaimed without joy. "You can't do anything right now and I can easily knock you out and drag you back to Shiron. We're going to finish what you started, no matter how weak you've become. I'm not about to let you stay here and wither away for the rest of your life all because you're too selfish and weak to face whatever's bothering you."
"Why do you even care about me going back?!" Zekra screamed. "You don't owe me anything and you and I were never really all that close when I was still here! What's it to you?"
"Take a look at me, Zekra," Crystelle answered. "Look at what I am. Do you honestly think that I'm an Umbreon because that was a childhood dream of mine? When I kept telling you when I was an Eevee that I thought everything you said was creepy and weird? Do you really think I'd become an Umbreon because I have some weird, morbid fascination with all of the freaky darkness stuff that goes on inside of me?"
Zekra didn't answer the question, but Crystelle didn't seem to need a response.
"I became an Umbreon because of you," Crystelle said vehemently. "I became what I am right now because after thinking about it, I realized you were kind of awesome. You could go kill wild Pokémon without worrying about anything and you looked so strong. You never worried about being a killer because you just knew that death was just a part of life and it didn't bother you. You weren't scared of anything and you stuck by your friends no matter what. You were strong, impossibly strong. I wanted to be like that. So, I became an Umbreon because I thought that having the darkness you have inside of your body would make me strong like too. I left home to train as an Umbreon because I admired you and everything you did.
"So when I see you like this, all weak and spineless and no longer caring about whatever you needed to do, it does something to me. It makes me really angry to see that the one who made me a much stronger Pokémon is now probably the weakest Pokémon I've ever seen. And that's something I just can't stand. I can't stand to see you so weak and pathetic when I know you can be an awesome Pokémon again that could do just about anything. Zekra, you were my hero. You changed everything. You made me see life in a completely new way. And now… I guess I just want to be your hero in return."
Zekra found herself speechless. She had never thought that she was that influential to Crystelle, but it made sense. When she took her to Bloodshed Jungle for the first time and talked about what it was like being a dark-type, it must have had a profound effect on her. She never would have realized it; the poor little Eevee at the time had seemed freaked out by everything, but it must have inspired her to overcome her fears and dive into them…
Zekra couldn't say the same about herself. She was a disappointment. She was only a hollow shell of her past, and the antithesis of everything Crystelle had idolized.
"You're right," Zekra said quietly. "I really am weak now. I'm pathetic."
Crystelle slowly took her foot off of Zekra and stepped back, as if to let Zekra rise back to her feet. However, Zekra only remained there on the ground, looking up at the stormy sky with a gloomy stare as the rain continued to fall down upon her.
"I really don't know what I can do about it now, though," she sighed, resigning herself to the humiliation. "It's true that some part of me does want to go back, but… I'm not strong enough to go back. I'm just not... I'm too traumatized by everything that happened and everything I saw. I've reached my limit. There's no sense in trying to fight again if I'm just going to break like a coward at the first sign of danger."
"What makes you think you'll break at the first sign of danger?" Crystelle said calmly. "Why not tell me?"
"Tell you… what?" Zekra groaned. "Everything?"
"Yeah, I don't see why not," Crystelle said. "Look… maybe if you want to convince me to leave you alone, and just leave you here on this island to wither away and die of old age, you should at least tell me why. Tell me what's so terrible that you can't go back and face it, even for the sake of your friends."
Zekra closed her eyes as she prepared to confess her story to the Umbreon.
"My enemies are called the Plagued Ones," Zekra said. "They get into your soul like a virus and they turn you into a demon. And they spread. They're everywhere on Shiron. They've killed… they've killed all my family. All my friends. All of… all of the citizens of so many towns, so many hardworking Pokémon, so many warriors and… and they just keep spreading and killing and nobody can stop them. And nobody knows they even exist because they never leave any survivors, and there's this organization called the Fellowship which is trying to keep them a secret… I tried so hard to fight them, Crystelle, you just don't understand. So many good Pokémon died, but I just kept getting back up and letting myself believe that I could keep fighting them. I tried to let all my pain and my anger motivate me. And I stood by my friends for as long as I could, but our friendships kept breaking away for different reasons, but I still kept standing because I knew someone needed to fight the Plagued Ones…"
Crystelle continued to gaze down at Zekra, saying nothing, only listening solemnly without a single hint of fear in her eyes. Zekra sobbed profusely as she tried to force out the rest of her story, her tears mixing with the falling rain.
"They even banished me… that's why I ended up here that one time. Even after I was banished here, I thought I could just… get back up and keep going…"
"But… but then I lost my brother to them, the last of my family I had left, and… and that was it. That was just the last straw. Because that's when I was left all on my own. And I can't stand on my own, Crystelle. I just… I can't stand on my own. What was I supposed to do?! I couldn't keep fighting after that. I wasn't as strong as him… I can't fight when I'm all alone."
"Why not find Terron again?" Crystelle asked. "Then you wouldn't have to be alone anymore?"
"Because I don't know where he is!" Zekra shouted. "We split the team up, and… he's somewhere, I don't know… And besides, I can't see him anymore. I have to keep a secret from him, probably forever. But if I see him again I know I'll probably crack and I'll tell him, and then he'll probably wish he were dead. I can't bring that onto him. I can't make him suffer like that. I can't."
"What secret?"
"That… that he caused all of this. He's the reason the Plagued Ones are killing everyone…"
"Hmm, I see," Crystelle said thoughtfully.
Zekra considered telling Crystelle right there about her plagued self and what it was capable of, but then decide against it. She didn't need to disturb Crystelle even more. Though the Umbreon seemed rational and collected at the moment, she had no idea what was truly going on in Crystelle's mind, hidden behind her pensive persona. It seemed too soon to drop such a heavy and dark secret, despite everything she had just said.
"Well, what if I told you this," the Umbreon said, sitting down next to her. "You don't have to be alone anymore. I can come with you…"
"What? No, no…" Zekra sighed, rolling over away from her. "I can't…. I can't lose you too. Not you. What if we get to be really good friends and I learn to trust you and everything, and then… and then I have to watch you die just like everyone else? I couldn't take it anymore. If I have to see one more person I love being destroyed by all this, I don't know what I'll do. I'll break. I'll just… I'll completely break. I have to stay here."
"So I see," Crystelle sighed.
The two Pokémon of darkness shared a moment of quiet as the storm died down. The pounding rain turned to a sloppy drizzle, and Zekra felt the large raindrops slamming against her cheek and running down her neck. She nearly felt herself getting lulled into a peaceful rest by the rhythm, but knew she couldn't let her eyes close completely. She still saw a Sableye's face staring back at her in her mind's eye.
"So… is that really what you want?" the Umbreon said gently. "You really want to stay here?"
"Yeah," Zekra groaned.
"Alright, fine," she said, standing back up and beginning to walk away. "If that's what you think will make you happy… I guess I'll leave you to it. I hope you'll be happy here, Zekra. I really do."
Crystelle turned to walk away, climbing to the top of the hill. She paused at the summit just before disappearing over its top, and stared at the cloudy sky. The moon was peeking through a crack in the clouds.
"I'll admit, I can understand if you don't want to fight anymore," Crystelle said back. "After going through all that, I think I'd make the same choice. But there was one thing mainly that set me off when I saw it. It was your bed."
"…Huh?" Zekra grunted, rolling upright and glancing at the Umbreon high above her.
"Yeah, when I saw that bed in your room that you'd chosen… that's how I knew 'this is a Pokémon who's completely given up on life.' And that's really what set me off and made me want to fight you."
"What are you talking about…?" Zekra oddly said.
"Well, obviously it's too small to fit a Zoroark," the Umbreon said pointedly.
Zekra's mouth fell open. She glared with wide eyes at her companion, unable to think of a response.
"Zekra… I know what it's like to grow in power. I started out as a pathetic weakling and eventually I found the strength to grow up, and now I can stand on my own. I know what your problem is. You're still that weakling. You have no idea what that feels like to have that surge of strength fill you. You don't know what real power feels like. In fact, I bet you forgot about evolving completely. You've given up. It wasn't even a second thought for you anymore."
The Umbreon descended the hill again until she stood face-to-face with the Zorua. She pointed at the glowing amulet still chained to Zekra's chest.
"Believe me, I know what that thing can do," Crystelle said. "I saw you use it during the battle. I bet you use it all the time, don't you? You probably even used it to turn into your brother. But it's still all just an illusion, isn't it? It's not real. You've never been a real Zoroark. You have no idea what it feels like. That's the difference between you and me. I know what a dark-type is really capable of. You don't. Don't you think your brother would have wanted you to experience that for yourself?"
"My brother died like all the rest," Zekra spat. "Being a Zoroark didn't help him at all in the end."
"Did he ever save your life?" Crystelle shot back.
"Well, yeah…" Zekra tried to say.
"Then he did make a difference," the Umbreon said to her face. "You and I wouldn't be talking right now if it weren't for him. So he did at least one thing that transcended his lifespan. I'm sure he did a lot of things that lasted longer than him. Because he was strong. And somewhere in you is the power to at least double everything he did. So you can tell me how weak and pathetic you are. You can tell me how much of a coward you are. You can tell me how crazy you'd go if you saw more suffering and death. But don't you dare try and tell me that you've reached the end of your strength. Don't you dare tell me that you can't grow stronger anymore. Because I know for a fact that's not true. There is a Zoroark inside of you, Zekra. And it's more powerful than you can comprehend. I can only tell you that you won't find it here on this island. So the question I have for you… do you want to come with me so I can help you find it?"
Zekra stared blankly past the Umbreon, staring at the moon that was slowly drifting out from behind the clouds.
Though her mind buzzed with weariness, and her muscles ached from the battle, and her heart had long since been crushed into tiny pieces… Though her body felt like it was drained of all hope, of all strength and energy, of all the will to do anything with her life… she realized what she had forgotten for so long.
It wasn't her end, not if she didn't want it to be. There was still an entire aspect of her life that she had still yet to experience. And though she had lost everything and everyone in the world, she still had herself. She still had her own future.
If she wanted, it could be a beginning.
"Yeah," Zekra said with a faraway voice. "I want to."
The Umbreon gave her a warm nuzzle. "See? There you are, Zekra," she said gently. "You weren't really dead. You were just hiding. Tell you what: once we get you evolved, you can decide whether or not you want to give up. Come all the way back to this island and I won't stop you! But not until then, alright? Who knows? Together we might even be stronger than your brother was. We might be able to do some serious damage."
"Alright," the Zorua said, finally giving in. "Alright, Crystelle… I'll go with you."
Zekra turned away from Crystelle and looked up into the sky. Dark storm clouds still engulfed the sky and brought darkness upon the land, but now, she could see an orange light peeking through the rifts. It didn't take her long to realize that it was the sun that was fighting through the impenetrable darkness. And though it was weak against the endless cover of clouds, it still drove back a small fraction of the darkness and served as a powerful beacon to those caught in the storm.
"Let's go," Zekra announced. "We've wasted enough time. Let's go tell your parents that we're leaving."
The Umbreon nodded. Then together, they made their way back to their home, walking strongly side by side, each wearing solemn glares of unwavering determination.
Special thanks to ScytheRider for writing out a good chunk of this chapter and revising parts I wrote to make everything more impactful.