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Chapter 70

Here Again

Terron and Nyx sat upon the white cushions of a Kuron transportation vehicle, gazing out the front window in silence as it sped along the luminescent road. With the light of the early morning sun, they saw the city they had flown into only moments ago grow more and more distant with each passing second. The neon lights sprawled along the buildings and roads slowly dimmed as the sun rose over the horizon.

Terron turned away from the window and set his claw upon the console before him.

"How far away is our destination?" Terron asked aloud.

"You will arrive at Hemimorphite in thirty minutes."

"Alright, thank you."

Terron removed his hand from the console and lay back in his cushion, sinking deeper into its soft contents. He had to resist closing his eyes, lest he fall asleep. Of course, taking a half-hour nap didn't seem like such a bad idea after he thought about it. It would certainly make him less lethargic and able to better appreciate his hometown when they were to arrive.

However, it seemed that his decision was already made for him.

"I find it strange how you humans do not give your cities titles as Pokémon do. You do not call your home city 'Hemimorphite City'. You only call it Hemimorphite."

"Well that's because we find that kind of redundant," Terron answered, sitting up in his seat as old memories came back to him. "I mean, if you look at the place, you'll know it's a city. So why say that it's a city when you already know it is? That's like if I called you 'Nyx Darkrai' every time I talked to you. Doesn't that sound kind of pointless?"

"It does not sound pointless to me because I do not care what I am called."

"Oh, right," Terron realized. "Well you sure seem to care about why human cities don't spell out that they're cities or towns or whatever."

"I would not say that I care so much that I find it strange. I can find things strange and not care about them. It is called a fascination."

"Alright, call it what you want then," Terron said dismissively. "Wonder what else will be different than what's on Shiron when we get to Hemimorphite. I kind of remember some things, like clocks and vehicles and little things like that, but I don't remember what humans used to do during the day or how we went about doing whatever we do. I'm pretty sure that some of them have jobs, but with all of this technology everywhere, it makes me wonder if almost everything is done by robots or something."

"You do not remember what you used to do as a human?"

"Not really. I remember that I had friends, even if I didn't always spend time with them, and that I went to this weird place my mind keeps referring to as 'school', but that's it. I don't remember my parents, and I don't even remember what I did this at this school. For all I know, it was just another word for prison for kids."

"If that is true, perhaps it is a blessing that my rift stole you and Sableye Dimitri out of this dimension."

Terron rolled his eyes as he turned onto his side. He could feel his stomach churning, for he hadn't eaten for quite a while, but knew there was nothing he could do about it. He and Nyx hadn't taken their team bag with them. He knew that if he wanted to eat again, he'd have to wait until they arrived at Hemimorphite and somehow sneak into a restaurant or grocery store without being detected. Though he had very vague details about what humans ate, he imagined that any supplier of food would be heavily populated. He could only hope that most of the humans would still be asleep by the time he and Nyx arrived at his city.

Terron closed his eyes as he curled up into a small ball. Nyx seemed to realize that he wanted rest, for she remained quiet and kept her distance. So with no one to keep him in the waking world, Terron soon drifted off to sleep.

"You have arrived at Hemimorphite. Please step out of the vehicle and watch your step."

Terron opened his eyes as the robotic voice rang through his ears. He was soon to find that Nyx was hovering in front of him, holding out a claw toward him. From behind her, he could see that the scenery was no longer moving in the window. It had stopped upon a landscape of massive buildings towering over them.

The Cubone rubbed the tired out of his eyes as he grabbed Nyx's hand and let her pull him to his feet. He stretched out his arms for a moment, and then slowly made his way toward the makeshift door the vehicle had created with Nyx following close behind. As soon as the two stepped out of the sphere, it disappeared back into the ground, becoming a glowing ring of white energy. What now lay before the two was the city the two had visited during the night on their first day on Kuron, but now that the daylight shined all around them, it almost appeared to be an entirely different location.

The buildings were now grey, and the luminescent lights that had sprawled up and down the walls and streets were gone, only thin, black lines where they once shined. While it was only the coloring of the entire city that was different, as the city's layout and structures were exactly the same, the coloring made all of the difference. It was almost as contrasting as seeing a forest in the day and then returning several hours later to view it in the night. It was the same forest and none of the trees had uprooted themselves and moved to another location, but because of the darkness, everything felt completely different. Then also, the night was ruled by many dangerous creatures that were intent on slaughtering anyone they could find. Kuron was exactly the same. With the light of day, there were no guardians to fret over. Nobody would kill them in the daylight of Kuron.

At least, they could only hope that would remain true.

"Should we go to your home first?"

"No, I think it's better to get something to eat first," Terron answered. "I don't exactly remember where everything is in this city, and I kind of do need food. Maybe eating would help me remember, since I don't think those vehicles would take me to my house. Maybe there's something else that can do that."

"And where exactly can you obtain food in this dimension?"

"I… don't know," Terron confessed. "I guess we'll find out. I'm sure if we walk around we'll find something. Humans probably have food vendors everywhere, or close to it. Especially in a big city like this."

Nyx shrugged, but said nothing more. Terron then lead her down the nearest street, keeping his footsteps light lest he be detected by humans. He knew that many of them were most likely asleep, but he didn't want to risk waking them, even from something seemingly as soft as footsteps clattering against a road. He didn't want humans with sensitive ears to hear him. Even if he knew that many humans didn't exactly have super-heighted senses, he wasn't going to take any chances.

Thankfully, his footsteps proved to be quiet enough, for after several minutes of walking, he and Nyx came across a rather peculiar sight. It was what appeared to be a white box of sorts built into the side of a building with a massive window and several smaller signs plastered above the window with many lines of words. To the side of the window was a smooth, black board with the outline of a human hand. But most noticeably enough, there were digital images alongside the sides of the box-like structure. Terron vaguely recalled those images to be human food, something his mind kept telling him were very common foods of the human diet.

As soon as Terron realized this, he rushed up to the structure and looked at the signs resting above the window. The white lights of words flashed before him, showing off a dozens of choices, each varying in price. Unfortunately, Terron was unable to remember what any of the menu's options looked like. He only knew that the cheaper the product, the smaller the product probably was.

"What is ramen?" Terron asked himself. "And why is it so cheap compared to everything else?"

"Maybe it is an appetizer of sorts, or perhaps a snack."

"Maybe… I guess I'll just get that, though probably the more expensive kind of ramen with all of this weird stuff on it," Terron stated as he scanned the menu. "This machine probably goes by the same idea as the vehicle where it just bills you at the end of every week or whatever. So as long as nothing's happening to Dimitri's account I should be good. Or at least, I hope so. It's been three weeks since I've had to use Kuron's currency system. Maybe it got locked down when the humans in charge of money figured out Dimitri wasn't paying anything back. I mean, I know I said the humans give you a month before they bill you, but things could have changed in the five years I've been gone."

"Or maybe whole Dimitri had enough funds in his account to support everything you've been spending your currency on in this dimension. There is only way to find out."

The Darkrai carefully lifted up the Cubone and held him in front of the black board a foot above his reach. With a deep breath, Terron placed his paw upon the board and watched as it immediately sparked to life, bright, flashing colors streaking across its surface. Terron couldn't help but feel a little intimidated at the intensity of the lights and the whirling sound that emitted from deep within the box.

A short moment later, there was a loud ding, and the window opened up. A large bowl of steaming noodles and various meats rolled out on a counter, a metallic, stick-like object and two wooden sticks resting on either side. Terron slowly took the bowl in his hands and removed it from the counter along with the objects, and then watched as it disappeared back inside of the box. The words "Thank You" flashed before him on the black screen, and the board went dark once again.

"Seems you had nothing to fear after all."

Terron shrugged as he brought the bowl over to a white bench with deep black cushioning. Terron set his bowl upon the bench and then climbed up onto the seat beside it. He anticipated that the bench would do something odd, such as light up or perhaps have strange objects pop out of it beside him, but much to his surprise, nothing happened. The bench was the same as any other bench he had sat upon in Shiron, even if this one was much more comfortable and warmer in the chilly morning weather. Nyx hovered right beside him, floating a few inches above the bench. It seemed that she wasn't going to make an effort to sit in something that didn't have a backrest. Perhaps it would impossible for her to sit on the bench if that were the case.

The Cubone sighed contently as he placed the bowl in his lap and reached for the wooden sticks. But just as he was to grab them, he received a prompting, telling him to instead use the metallic object instead, which it insisted calling a fork. It told him that he wouldn't be able to use the wooden sticks, though it refused to explain why. Terron saw no reason to argue with it as he dropped the sticks and picked up the fork and stuck it into the noodles, twirling it around as he got a slice of meat stabbed through the points. Then, he took of his mask, set it beside him, and took in the forkful of food.

He nearly spit out the noodles thanks to how hot they were, but quickly forced himself to tolerate it and chewed it down. After swallowing the food, he took in a few raspy breaths, getting the spicy flavor off of his tongue.

"Ugh, I forgot that this stuff is really hot when it's first done," Terron remarked, tears welling up in his eyes. "You're supposed to give this like ten minutes to cool off."

"Was it any good at least?"

"Well it was a little hard to tell with how quickly I had to swallow it down, but yeah, I think it was," Terron replied. "Did you want to try some?"

"No thanks."

Terron blew on his noodles, decreasing the time he had to wait to eat. He hovered a paw above the bowl and was quick to find that the intensity of the heat still escaping from his meal felt just about the same.

"Wait, do you even eat anything?" Terron then asked. "I mean, I don't think I've ever seen you eat before. Every time Novus, Zekrom, and I eat, you're always just floating there, watching us."

"I eat, but it is not what you mortals eat. Darkrai are special in that we do not need to eat organic food."

"Then what do you eat?"

"Dream matter, similar to what the Drowzee and Munna eat. Our bodies do not require anything organic, for our bodies are not very organic to begin with. They are composed of nothing but dream matter, which is what allows us to enter your dreams so easily when we are not psychics. If we were the least bit organic, entering the dreams of others would be a very difficult task."

"Oh. So what you're saying is that every time I'm asleep… you eat parts of my dreams to keep yourself alive. Or Novus's or Zekrom's," Terron said slowly, shuddering at the thought. "Does that… hurt me at all when you do that?"

"No. It has no adverse effects on you. If anything, I am doing you a favor by devouring any nightmares you might be having. If I eat the dream, you will in no way remember it. But I do not know how many nightmares you have had, because I devoured them before they had a chance to start."

"I guess it's better when you put it like that," Terron then said. "But, if you're just made out of dream matter, does that mean you're not like me at all? Do you have any organs at all?"

"I have a mind, but that is it. I do not have a stomach, or bones, or muscles, or veins, or even a heart. Even these eyes of mine are not real eyes as you have. They are only illusions so that you think I have a body. But really, I am nothing more than a mass of dark dream matter, or as you creatures would call it, nightmares. Even the egg I emerged from was the same. It was nothing but a cage of dream matter that housed my spirit until it was time for me to awaken into this world. And when that time came, my spirit absorbed the egg, and the egg and I became one. Just as how when the blight was injected into me, it and I became one."

"You Darkrai really different from the rest of us Pokémon," Terron remarked. "I mean, I know I never saw you bleed at all, but I never would have thought that it was because you literally can't bleed. I guess that's why your body is considered different like the rest of the legendaries out there. No wonder why the plague ended up just merging with you instead of taking over you."

Terron wound a large wad of noodles around his fork and stuffed them into his mouth, now finding that they had cooled down enough for him to savor properly. It was still hot and spicy as he had tasted the first time, but now he could tell that it was also quite salty. It made for an interesting, almost addicting flavor, prompting Terron to smile in satisfaction as he chewed it down and gathered up more noodles and meat onto his fork.

"But wait," Terron then realized as the implications of Nyx's form dawned upon him. "If you don't actually have a real body, then how are you able to talk to me? I mean, do you have a mouth that's just hidden like how your one eye is?"

"I do not have a mouth. I use telepathy."

"Can you feel pain?"

"If it attacks my mind, yes. Otherwise no."

"So does that mean that you can't feel emotions either? Is that why you act so detached to everybody all the time?"

Nyx gave the Cubone a sharp glare as her one exposed eye glimmered eerily.

"You already know I only do that because I do not want any of you attached to me. I am capable of feeling of emotions just as much as any other creature can. You do not need a physical heart in order to have an emotional, metaphorical heart."

"Alright, sorry for asking," Terron said sheepishly. "Was just wondering."

The Darkrai didn't give a response, effectively ending the conversation. Terron looked away from her as he continued to eat his ramen in silence, trying to savor the flavor as much as he could. He had a feeling this would be the only bowl of noodles he would be having for the rest of his short life, and if that were so, he'd want to enjoy as much as he possibly could.

Several minutes of silence later, Terron finally finished his bowl, leaving filled and satisfied. He wiped his mouth with his sleeve before putting his persona back upon his head and took his bowl and utensils back to the vendor that had supplied him with the meal. He spotted a bin near the window, and with Nyx's help, deposited everything inside before continuing on their way down the road.

They didn't need to walk for very long for them to notice movement coming from around the corner of a nearby building. Without hesitation, Nyx yanked Terron from off his feet and darted up onto the rooftop of the closest building before peering off the edge. There, now walking down the street they had once been traveling upon, was a single human being. It was a man as far as Terron could tell, perhaps an adult based on the stature wearing an assortment of black clothing. Though it was somewhat difficult to tell exactly how the clothing appeared thanks to how high up it was, he noted that the coat the human wore did bear a resemblance to the coat Terron also wore.

Terron was about to get a closer look, but then, he noticed something happening where the human had originally come from. All of the doors in the buildings in that area were beginning to open, allowing dozens of humans to pour out of them and into the streets below before going about in separate directions. Some of the humans remained together, engaging in conversations with one another while others went their separate ways. None of them bothered to look up to see him and Nyx standing there, watching them. All of them seemed to preoccupied with whatever was happening at ground-level, whether it be with their acquaintances, vendors they came across, or a strange device latched onto the wrists of seemingly every human that they would fiddle with occasionally.

But what Terron found most amusing was that none of the humans seemed to wear the same combination of clothing. Perhaps it was because of his time on Shiron, but he found it rather fascinating that every single human had managed to find a way to organize their outfit in such a way that no one in the crowd was identical to them. Then not only that, but some of the humans rather interesting hair colors. Many of the humans had similar hairstyles, but the color was another story. Some humans had what Terron felt were the natural hair colors of the human race, such as brown, black, blonde, and red. But there were also a significant amount of humans that also held more exotic colors within their normal-colored hair, such as purple, blue, or even an extremely bright and vibrant pink. Then some humans even had their hair dyed completely with these exotic colors, making them contrast starkly in the crowd of humans strolling through the streets.

"So this is what all of the humans are like," Terron remarked. "It's like Shiron pretty much, except everybody really looks different despite them all being the same species. But then again, I guess having all of those clothes and hair colors are really the only ways to set ourselves apart from everybody else without looking too weird. We can't be like you Pokémon where we can just look like different species altogether."

"Many of those humans are playing with something strange on their wrists. Even you had one when I brought you to Shiron. Do you remember what they are for?"

Terron peered down at one of the humans that had one of her wrists exposed, trying to get a better look at the device Nyx spoke of. Now that he was able to focus in on the device, he was able to see that it was actually a square, metallic object latched onto about a quarter of the human's forearm through the use of black, vein-like wire that then dug into the human's flesh. He could vaguely see the screen of the device showing off strange words of sorts, but was unable to read what anything on it said.

"Yeah, I think I do actually," Terron replied after staring at the faraway contraption. "Let's see… oh! Yeah, I know what they do. They're operating systems, or more commonly known as "Socius", which mean that they're basically just these devices that can let you do basically anything on them. They let you know how much money is in that bank account I told you about, what day it is, if you have any plans for the day, let you chat with friends you can't be with right now, give you directions, and pretty much anything you can think of. It can even tell you your heartbeat and blood pressure and tell if you're going to have a heart attack so you can call the hospital before it happens. They're awesome! I think they even hold all of your clothes in them and if you want it to, it'll change your clothes whenever you want. So like, if I tell it I don't want to wear this jacket anymore and want uhh… I want just a scarf instead, it'll do just that! It's really hard to explain this, but I think it's able to convert data into real stuff and vice versa. But I know everybody has one. They're really convenient."

Nyx stared down at the device Terron was also gazing upon with a blank expression.

"You say they can do anything?"

"Yeah!" Terron answered giddily. "I mean, they can't make a vehicle show up in front of you, but they can tell you where to go to get home and everything. And where to find some item you really want. And where to find your friends if you're looking for them."

"How is it able to track down your friends?"

"Well, because the Socius is able to keep tabs on where you are all the time," Terron explained. "And if you want to, you can do the same with your friends. You just send them a little prompt, asking if you guys can be friends on the device, and then once they give the okay, you can know where they are all the time. And it's able to do that because when you get the device, they have to install it. And in order to install it, they literally have to connect the wires to your nerves. They don't have to do any surgery for that, since the wires just go right through your skin when they apply it, but basically the Socius is connected to your brain that way. It works the same way those transport vehicles do."

Nyx became quiet as she continued watch the humans down below. After a few seconds of pondering, she merely shook her head.

"So what you are saying is that these Socius devices are essentially human-made blights."

"Wait, what?" Terron gawked, looking up at her. "No! No, they're nothing like the plague! The plague is out to get you and take over you, with the exception of your own!"

"But everything you described is essentially what the blight does. It becomes a part of you and is able to hear your thoughts so that it can perform tasks for you without your vocal consent. It can change you just as how the Socius can change your clothes while your life energy is your bank account from the blight's perspective. The blight knows everything about you and can share everything with you if it truly wanted to. Your Socius is nothing more than an artificial blight."

Terron thought for a moment, and then realized that Nyx was right. She was horrifyingly right, something that suddenly made Terron rethink everything he once thought was great about those Socius devices. Everything he once found amazing to him now because utterly disturbing and made him wish Nyx had never pointed out the similarities between the demon latched onto his soul and the device he once wore as a human.

But before his paranoid thoughts could escalate too far, a much more rational thought broke through his mind and reminded him of something.

"Alright, maybe you're right about all of that," Terron admitted. "But the Socius devices don't intend to kill us or anything like the plague does. So you're wrong about that. Yeah, the Socius things sound kind of creepy now when I really think about it, but they're not life-threatening. So really, the plague and Socius aren't the same. They just have a lot of similarities."

"If you insist."

The Darkrai hovered closer to the edge of the building, tightening her grasp on Terron. Terron could already feel the maelstrom of dread easing from within him, allowing a calm to settle upon his heart and leave him mostly at peace.

"Can these devices tell you where your home is?"

"Well if I had one, yeah, it could," Terron replied. "But you know, I don't. Don't even know if it would work now since I'm a Pokémon."

"And can they be shared between people?"

"Well I don't think you're supposed to be able to do that, but there'd be no point anyway ," Terron shrugged. "Because if you try to do that, then all of their personal data gets erased for security reasons and it ends up just putting all your data on there. So it's-"

Terron stopped as something dawned upon him. He looked up at Nyx, finding that she was eyeing a lone human wandering down an alleyway, toying with their own Socius. It didn't take Terron long to understand what she was thinking.

"Nyx no, we're not doing this," he pleaded. "We're not-"

But it was too late. The Darkrai set Terron upon the rooftop and swooped toward the human being with the silence of a Noctowl in a midnight flight. Terron watched from his spot as she created a black sphere in her claws, and then shot it at the human's back. The second it was absorbed into the human's body, the human collapsed onto the road, fast asleep. Nyx drew to their side as she lifted up the arm holding the Socius and grabbed the metal box and gave it a pull. The wires embedded deep into the human's arm instantly came out, dangling limply in the air and dripped with strange, clear fluid and what was unrecognizably blood. Miraculously the human didn't seem too injured from having their device ripped out of their nerves, save for a few bleeding spots upon their arm.

Nyx immediately came back over to Terron, clutching the Socius tightly in her own claws. Terron noted that despite how the cords brushed up against her arm several times, they never once did they embed themselves inside her flesh. He considered it was perhaps because she had no nerves to connect to in the first place.

"Let us hope this works."

Terron didn't even get a moment to protest, for Nyx grabbed his left arm, pulled up his sleeve, and placed the Socius upon his exposed scaly hide. When the device touched his arm, the wires were soon to follow suit and dug themselves into his scaly skin. Terron hissed as the wires wormed their way down his limb, connecting to his nerves and sending a cold, numbing sensation into his body everywhere they went. It wasn't long before he felt it infest his mind, latching onto all of his neurons as it obtained everything his mind held and transferred it into the Socius. Terron could only stand there, frozen in terror lest he interfere with the process and potentially damage his mind even further than it was already.

After what felt like an eternity passed, the cold feeling finally ceased to be, and the square latched onto his arm shrank until it was equally proportionate to his size. Now, instead of taking up his entire arm, it only took up a quarter of his forearm just as it did with the human.

Hello Dimitri.

Terron flinched at the sudden voice in his mind, fearing it was his plagued self speaking to him. But then, he realized that the voice within him did not sound like a mirror version of his own voice, but rather, a more calming, feminine voice with a tinge of monotone to it. Terron sighed in relief when he realized what was happening.

"Looks like we got lucky," Terron said to Nyx. "It works. It just gave me the welcome message. Now we can use it however we want."

"Good. Now we can find your home with ease."

"Yeah, but just… don't ever do that again," Terron groaned, pulling down his sleeve over the Socius. "Kuron freaks me out a little right now and I don't wanna have weird devices attached to me out of nowhere. At least ask me before you pull something like that again."

"Sorry. I will not. I only wanted to help you find your home even if it means using those horrifying devices for a brief time."

"I know, but still," Terron sighed. "Anyway, it's okay. Let's just see if this thing can access my memories and tell me where Dimitri's house is. It still thinks I'm him apparently."

Terron didn't even need to think the thought a second time, for he could feel the Socius traversing through his brain and generating up maps into his mind's eye. Terron watched in awe as flashes of dozens if not hundreds of streets went before him, giving him quick glimpses of Kuron every second. He even thought he recognized some of the locations it briefly showed him.

Eventually, the images settled, and Terron found his mind now had a clear path formulated for him, showing him precisely which streets to take and what house to search for once he got to his neighborhood. He could see the images so clearly in his mind, as if they truly were in front of him and not deep within his mind, only visible to him.

Terron smiled as he turned toward an alleyway the map's route had suggested for him to take.

"Let's go, Nyx," he announced. "Let's go find my parents."

Shiron

Zekra landed upon the sandy shore of the continent just as the sun began its descent behind her, her breaths raspy and her muscles loosing feeling. It was a wonderful to see land again; there had been nothing but ocean for miles and miles, and it didn't help that she hadn't taken a single break. She wasn't able to spot any tiny islands floating out in the middle of the ocean, forcing her to keep flying for about an hour until she was where she was now.

The false Flygon released a relieved sigh just as Crystelle leapt off her back. Unable to fight off the weariness anymore, Zekra reverted back into her Zorua form and collapsed into the sand, the bag in her grasp landing beside her. Her tattered cloak settled over her like a blanket, offering her protection from the cool, ocean breeze. Zekra could feel her eyes drooping as she lay in the sand that was still warm from the daylight shining upon it for the last few hours.

Venri's smile appeared before her mind's eye and illuminated the growing darkness surrounding her. The rest of Venri was soon to follow, revealing the Sableye to the exhausted Zorua. She outstretched a claw to Zekra.

"Come on, let's just talk. What's there to be afraid of?" Venri asked deviously. "You know I would never hurt you."

Zekra shot her eyes open, eradicating the image of Venri from her mind as she came back into the real world. It seemed that she hadn't entered a deep enough sleep for her to be trapped in that world she shared with Venri. Zekra groaned loudly as she dug into the bag resting beside her until she found a Chesto berry. And though it appeared to be decaying around parts of it, she wasted no time in chomping down upon the whole thing and cramming it down her throat. As the juices trickled into her stomach, all of her lethargy left her and her pupils dilated. Within moments, her body was buzzing with energy but not enough for her to become incredibly hyperactive and go dashing through the forest, howling giddily.

"You know, it's okay if you rest," Crystelle said as she drew closer to the Zorua's side. "You've been flying for a while and I can understand if you're exhausted."

"No, it's fine," Zekra replied as she dug through the bag once again in search of an Oran berry. "I'll sleep tomorrow. Right now I kind of want to get some stuff before the sun complete sets. All of the stores should be closing up soon."

"Whatever you say," Crystelle shrugged facetiously.

Zekra eventually found an Oran berry and ripped off a large chunk of it. As her fatigue slowly left her, she withdrew her head from out of the bag and for the first time in three months, looked upon Shiron and basked in its dusk. She had no idea which part of the west coast she was on, but she could tell that it wasn't the same part of the coast she had arrived on when she, Terron, and Novus had left Shirra the first time. For not too far from where she stood, there was a small cluster of little huts with lanterns dangling off the sides of the roofs. A few palm trees grew in the area, sprouting out of the sand and offering their shade to the Pokémon that lived in the little village.

The Zorua grabbed the enormous bag with her teeth and made her way toward the village, dragging the bag right alongside her in the sand.

"Here, I'll carry that."

Crystelle snatched up the bag's strap with her teeth and pulled it out of Zekra's grasp before dragging it along her own side.

"You don't have to," Zekra said. "I can do it myself. It's not that hard."

Zekra was to take the backpack away from the Umbreon, but Crystelle snapped it away from Zekra, flinging it over to her other side so that Zekra couldn't reach it.

"No, I'll do it," Crystelle argued. "You flew me all the way here and I know that was really hard on you, so just let me do this for you in return."

Zekra was about to protest, but Crystelle shot her a stern glare, prompting Zekra to remain quiet. But deep down she was touched by Crystelle's generosity. While the bag wasn't terribly exhausting to lug around, it was somewhat burdensome, and Zekra knew that changing into a much larger Pokémon wouldn't change any of that. She'd still have the strength of her true Zorua form, as pretending to be a different Pokémon would never provide her their monstrous strength or abilities, with the exception of flight and being able to phase through walls as a ghost. If she had tried to turn into say, a Zoroark, then she would have had to bear the strain of carrying the bag and maintaining a false form. But with Crystelle's help, now she didn't have to worry about any of that.

Minutes later, Zekra and Crystelle arrived at the small town, and were quick to discover something was very off. Though everything seemingly appeared quite normal, there wasn't a single Pokémon in sight. The lanterns that Zekra had seen shining dimly in the distance still held tiny flames in them, though now she could see that at any moment they would surely go out. The grass huts that littered the sandy beaches were all closed shut, though all of the vendors and shops had their windows and displays wide open. But despite how empty and utterly desolate the town was, the two dark-types couldn't help but feel that they weren't alone. Though they couldn't see anyone, they were fairly certain that it wasn't only the two of them in the seemingly abandoned area.

"What happened here…?" Zekra wondered.

"I don't know," Crystelle replied as she strutted over to a lonesome shop with its door wide open. "Looks like everybody left."

"But why? I mean, you were on Shiron for a while. You remember any places being like this?"

"Nope! Everything was as perfect as could be when I was here last."

Crystelle disappeared inside of the store, leaving Zekra all alone in the midst of the empty buildings. Dread seeped into her soul as she glanced around. This beach city was starting to remind of her too many towns she held dear in her life. She had a sinking feeling that the reason this town was so vacant was the very same reason her old home was a ghost town. She prayed there was a less ominous reason. She wished, despite how horrible of a wish it was, that bandits had ransacked the town and left it decimated. It would have been much better than the other reason she was thinking of.

Zekra wandered aimlessly, trying to see if she could find somebody. Anybody that was still alive and not something out of one of her nightmares.

She only had to take about five steps before she heard a loud thump from her side. Zekra leapt into the air and skittered away out of reflex, but was able to compose herself a few seconds later and forced herself to look toward the source of the sound.

Pressed up against the glass from within a nearby house, staring into her soul, was an Ursaring. Except, Zekra knew it wasn't an Ursaring.

It was a Plagued One living inside the body of an Ursaring.

It stared at her, grinning at her as its eyes glowed with the orange, sinister light that flowed out of its eye sockets and spilled into the air around it. It waved a paw at her, the claws now having become decayed and unnaturally long.

Zekra bolted. She didn't even look back as she rushed into the store that Crystelle had disappeared in and slammed the door shut. She leaned against the door, panting furiously as the mental image of its eyes gouging into her burned in her mind, tormenting her. The lack of light in the store did not help her, leaving her feeling alone and vulnerable in the darkness. Even if she could vaguely see the shelves lined with goods and useless souvenirs, it didn't make her feel any better. If anything, it made her anxiety worse, for she feared that a Plagued One would pop out of the shelves and do knew who knew what.

"Oh there you are. Alright I found some bags for both of us and some other stuff I found and- Whoa, what happened to you?"

Zekra looked up to find Crystelle standing close by, two bags looped around her neck and bulging with what Zekra could presume were supplies she had raided out of the shop. She was giving Zekra a horrified, concerned look. Zekra swallowed nervously as she slowed her heart beat.

"There… there was a Plagued One outside," she stuttered out. "It was in some house, and it was waving at me…"

"Really?" Crystelle asked, her expression suddenly becoming giddy. "I wanna see!"

Zekra couldn't even protest before Crystelle moved Zekra out of the way and dashed outside, taking all of the stolen goods with her. Zekra frantically scrambled to her feet and hurried after the Umbreon. Even though she was terrified out of her mind after seeing one of those monstrous creatures again, she wasn't about to let Crystelle be one of them. She had promised Lyra and Frazil that much. Then also, she needed Crystelle to be with her. She couldn't imagine going on this journey completely alone.

But by the time Zekra had made it outside, Crystelle was standing still in the sand, wearing a displeased frown upon her face. She turned back to Zekra and shook her head.

"Aw man, you love teasing me, don't you?" Crystelle asked distastefully. "There's nobody here!"

"But… there was!" Zekra tried to say as she pointed to the window in which she had encountered the abomination. "I saw it! It was looking at me! It was in that house right there!"

"There's nobody here," Crystelle said again. "Whatever you saw, it's gone now. If you even saw anything in the first place."

"But I did…"

Crystelle sighed as she approached Zekra and cast her a pitiful stare.

"Look Zekra, I think this might be a sign that you're getting sleep deprived," Crystelle stated pointedly. "I mean, it's been a day since you've slept and you're using that Chesto berry to stay awake right now instead of sleeping. You're starting to see things. Flying over the ocean without resting at all probably isn't helping."

"But…"

"Trust me, there's nothing here. I would have seen it."

Zekra sighed as she gave the window another glance, expecting the Ursaring to appear once more and prove its existence to the two Pokémon. However, it never appeared, leaving Zekra to look into a completely empty and dark house. Zekra frowned sadly as she looked back over at Crystelle.

"I can't sleep right now, though," Zekra said after a while. "Not right now."

"Well then when are you going to sleep?" Crystelle asked. "You know you can't stay awake forever. It's going to mess you up real bad. If this is just day one of no sleep, imagine what it's going to be like if you don't sleep for two days."

"I'll sleep… when we get to this Greninja Village," Zekra decided reluctantly. "I'll sleep before we go inside so that I'm ready to face what's in there."

"Why are we going there?" Crystelle asked, shooting Zekra a confused stare.

"Because that was the last place I was in with my brother before he got killed," Zekra answered quietly. "We spent some time there looking for something that Novus wanted us to find. I think that maybe, just maybe, the part of myself I left behind is in there. I don't know if it's actually there, but it's worth a shot, isn't it?"

"Hmm, fine," Crystelle said as she took the bags she had strapped around her and dropped them at Zekra's feet. "Well then if that's where it is and you're clearly not going to sleep 'til you get there, how about we go there now? I've taken everything I think is worth taking here. And I can even tell you where we are on the map too since that store had a little map plastered up on a wall that told me exactly where we are on Shiron."

Zekra nodded silently as she and Crystelle then took all of the supplies out of Zeverous's old backpack and stuffed them into the newer messenger bags Crystelle had found, both of them more adequately fit for their sizes. After carefully organizing the seeds, dried berries, and odd, seemingly useless knick-knacks that Crystelle had insisted upon keeping, they sealed up their bags and fastened them around their bodies.

Then, after a quick look at the map and verifying their location, Zekra changed into a Flygon and shot into the air with Crystelle sitting upon her back.

The Greninja Village would only take maybe a day or two to reach, and though Zekra was somewhat excited to see the village again and potentially find her lost strength, it was overpowered by another feeling in her heart. It was the dread that came with knowing that she'd inevitably run into more than just the Greninja in that village.

It was the dread of having to face Venri again.