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Chapter 75
Losing Your Way
When Zekra opened her eyes again, she found herself surrounded by an endless darkness, stretching as far as the eye could see. It only took Zekra about a second to figure out exactly where she was, and the moment that she did, her heart raced faster than a sprinting Rapidash, bringing her pain. She jolted to her feet as she hastily looked around her, trying to find a glimmer of blue light from within the impenetrable black.
Venri had to be somewhere in this mindscape of a world. Zekra could clearly remember how eagerly Venri would watch her from her mind's eye every time her eyes drooped, always wearing that smile filled with gemstone-shattering teeth. There was absolutely no reason that Venri would pass up such a perfect opportunity to finish her talk with the scared little Zorua. Of course, Zekra knew that Venri didn't actually want to talk. She knew that her plagued self had other, more sinister ideas in mind that didn't revolve around having a diplomatic chat.
All creatures related to the Primogenitor only wanted one thing and one thing only.
Unable to stave off her dread any longer, Zekra bolted from her spot, fleeing further into the darkness. She couldn't stay put in this world; Venri would surely catch Zekra then and promptly suck her soul right out of her. If she kept moving, then perhaps Venri would never spot her and she could find a way to escape from their shared world. She wasn't sure how she was supposed to find an exit, as the last time she left was by pure desperation, but she would try. She couldn't see Venri again.
Zekra leapt off to the side and angled herself to fall downward, ready to plummet far down into the abyss just as she had done last time. Unfortunately for her, the darkness made an invisible platform, causing her to hit the darkness face-first before tumbling over. She whined as she came to a stop, rubbing her snout with her paws as waves of pain coursed through her skull.
"Nice try, but that isn't going to work this time."
Zekra didn't waste another second. She leapt to her feet and took off running, shaking the pain away as she searched for any hint of light in the darkness. There had to be an exit somewhere. If she couldn't fall down like she could before, perhaps she could find the light that Venri had engulfed the world in the very first time they met. She remembered how quickly she had woken up when she touched that light before.
"Hey! Quit running!"
Something rammed into Zekra's side, knocking her down in an instant. Zekra hastily rolled back over onto her stomach and was to have her feet push her up, but then, something heavy instantly pressed itself down upon her back. Her chin crashed into the invisible ground beneath her, her legs sprawling out of the way so that they could not be crushed under the sudden weight. Zekra squirmed and forced her paws to push against the ground, but she couldn't get up. Whatever was weighing her down was too much for her muscles to handle.
Zekra started screaming and thrashing about like a caged animal.
"Zekra, you know that's not going to help you. You're stuck here with me until I want you to leave and you know it."
Something sharp with an oddly warm touch weaved its way through the tuft of fur on Zekra's head before lightly scratching her scalp. It took Zekra a moment to realize that something was trying to caress her head, as if to comfort her. However, it was more uncomfortable than soothing to the Zorua, for the claws pressed too deeply into her head and with each stroke she felt that her head might be cut open.
The Zorua quit struggling as the voice's words echoed in her ears. The voice was so near, so close to her. It was as if the voice was right next to her.
That was when Zekra finally realized what was going on. She swiveled her head back, and much to her horror, found Venri with her. The Sableye was sitting on her back, very close to where the Zorua's head was. Just like every other time Zekra saw her, she was wearing her devious grin that seemed to glow thanks to the light shining from her gemstone eyes.
"Hi again," Venri greeted in what Zekra decided was an unsettlingly cheerful voice. "It's been a while. I missed you."
Zekra instantly thought of turning into a Bisharp, knowing that if she could change, then she'd surely impale Venri with the many razors protruding out of her body. However, before the light could sweep over her body, a sharp pain shot through her mind, cutting off Zekra's illusion.
"Yeah… no, you're not going anywhere," Venri said with a shake of her head. "You're staying here for a while. I've waited too long for you to come back here to just let you leave again."
It was then that Zekra finally realized that one of Venri's claws was tangled in the fur on her head. It had been her Sableye claws that had been going over Zekra's scalp earlier, and it had been what had undoubtedly stopped her from changing forms. Zekra could only stare at Venri in absolutely horror, her jaw hanging open.
"Oh come on, don't give me that look," Venri said in mock hurt. "You know I'm not going to hurt you."
The Sableye once again ran her fingers through Zekra's scalp like she really was trying to comfort the tense Zorua. However, Zekra knew better. She knew what Venri was really up to. Zekra forced a scowl onto her face as she mustered up her courage, telling herself not to show any fear to the monster before her.
"Then why are you sitting on me and making it so that I can't change?" Zekra asked. "You wouldn't do that if you weren't going to hurt me."
"Well because you'll just run away from me if I don't keep you in one place," Venri answered. "I was going to just put you in a cell like they've got in those prisons, but then I realized you wouldn't like that very much. Cells are just too cold and kind of cruel, you know? Like I'm really trying to imprison you and steal your soul."
"I think I would have preferred the cell to you sitting on me," Zekra stated blandly. "At least I don't have to think that you could cut my head right open at any second. And you know, I like my personal space. That kind of thing exists, you know."
Venri laughed as she removed her claws from Zekra's head and adjusted her posture.
"As if there's an actual thing called personal space between yourself and yourself," Venri said with a bemused tone. "You're funny sometimes. I keep forgetting that you can be after everything that's been happening."
"You're not me," Zekra said with a low growl. "Quit saying you're me. You're not! You're-"
"You better keep your mouth shut," Venri hissed. "Don't you dare say what's on your mind right now."
Zekra's tense scowl deepened, but she held back her words. She knew better than to upset the Sableye. The last thing she wanted to do was be consumed by her and be turned into a pure Plagued One. What she needed to do was figure out how to escape from this world. She wasn't quite sure how, given that Venri was preventing her from going anywhere, but she knew there was a way. There had to be, or else Venri really was going to end up corrupting her in due time.
"So anyway, I think it's time you and I have that talk I wanted to have," Venri then said, snapping Zekra out of her stream of thoughts.
"Yeah, I don't think so," Zekra said quickly.
"You have no idea what I even want to talk about," Venri pointed out disapprovingly, casting the Zorua a glare. "You can't shoot me down if you don't even know what I want to say to you."
"I'm pretty sure it's not any good," Zekra shot back.
"Even if you could get stronger because of it?"
That quickly got Zekra's attention. She knew it was probably a trap, something that Venri was using to bait her to let her guard down, but she couldn't resist gawking at the Sableye in surprise. Venri's disappointed frown quickly turned into a pleased grin as soon as she saw that.
"You know, you don't have to go to that Greninja Village you're outside of right now to get stronger," Venri started to say. "Because really, what do you think you're going to find there? Some Greninja that you can copy a bunch of powers from? Yeah right, you don't actually need any of that. Reshiram's body? Yeah I don't think it's there, and even if it was, you wouldn't care. Something to help you get over Zev's death? Look, just because you go walking around there and hanging around the places you guys visited before he dies doesn't mean you'll get over anything. Visiting old places to get closure doesn't always happen. Sometimes it doesn't do anything. Sometimes it just makes things worse. Because really, that's why you want to go there, right? You doing this so you can get over Zev's death?"
"Yeah…" Zekra answered quietly, not liking how easily Venri could read her intentions.
"Yeah, thought so," Venri said smugly. "Well look, I hate to tell you this, but you're not going to get over anything by going into that village. You're not going to get closure and sure aren't going get stronger. Going in there is a complete waste of time. There's only one way to get the strength you want, Zekra, and it's not something you can find on Shiron. You can try to find it all over Shiron, searching under every rock and everything, but you're not going to find it. You want to know where it really is?"
"Where?" Zekra couldn't help but ask.
Venri's smile widened as she leaned forward a little, allowing Zekra to better see her face without having to twist neck back too much. There was an alarming amount of zeal in the Sableye's eyes. It almost startled Zekra to see so much eerie vigor in her eyes.
"It's with me," Venri answered. "I have your strength. I have all of the strength you think you lost and more."
"What…?" Zekra asked, her voice barely able to support her words.
"Now let's get one thing straight before you start making crazy assumptions," Venri stated, pointing a finger at the Zorua. "I didn't steal your strength. It just got drawn into me after Yimtri ditched you. From what I've figured out, whenever you get extremely upset about something, I absorb some of your strength and get a little stronger. It's what makes it easier for me to talk to you and stuff. But of course, I knew you were going to get it right back after you got better. That's always what happens. It's been proven true time and time again whether it's when you get over your trying to kill yourself or when you don't know if you should go throw yourself into Erebus Woods with the others.
"But you didn't get better this time. No, you just kept having meltdown after meltdown, and I kept getting more and more of your strength every time you did that. And it kept going until Zev finally died and you gave up on literally everything. Then almost all of your strength left you and it all got absorbed into me. Now obviously you've still got some determination, otherwise you wouldn't have left the island in the first place, but most of it is with me. And really, with all of this power inside of me, I can do a lot of things I could never do before. I could probably take over your body right now if I wanted to because you're so weak and everything that made you great is in me now. You know, just like a real Plagued One that you keep saying I am."
Venri flashed Zekra an evil grin, making Zekra cringe back. She was about to start resisting again and make a break for an exit once again, but Venri put a clawed hand on her head and loosely curled her fingers around her scalp.
"Hold on, don't go running off on me," Venri said with an exasperated sigh, her smile gone. "I said I probably could take over your body, not that I will. There's a difference."
"But you're still impossibly strong now," Zekra stated tersely. "You just confessed that you have a lot of my strength and that you are literally stronger than I am right now. How am I supposed to react to that?"
"By letting me finish talking," Venri answered in a bored tone. "Because let me tell you something Zekra; I'm not supposed to be able to give you all of this power I absorbed from you back. If I was a real Plagued One, I'd take over you right now and make it so that you could never break free. But I'm not; I'm special. And because I'm special, I can give you the strength I took from you, as well as power from myself."
All of the spite and anxiety building up in the Zorua was washed away as soon as she heard this. Her vicious scowl slowly melted away as a softer, more mystified expression came over her.
"You can?" Zekra asked in a soft voice.
"Oh yeah, I can," Venri said with a grin. "I know I can. It's all yours and you can keep it for the rest of your life. But you see, there's only one way for me to give you all of that power; I need you to synchronize with me."
"You mean… like where you and I become one?" Zekra asked with a puzzled stare. "Aren't we already synchronized, though? Plus I've seen you. You're connected to literally every single part of my body and you refuse to let me die no matter what I do..."
"Well, sort of," Venri started to say. "You see, you and I are both sharing the same body right now, but we're not the same Pokémon. We're two separate entities. Even though I know I'm you and that you're me, we're still not one being. Mother put the plague into you, and then after a while it made me from some part of your soul. It's like we're in a symbiotic relationship where I help you by giving you small parts of my power, like heal you whenever you get hurt, while you help me by giving me a body to live in and a voice to use. Neither one of us can have either of those things without the other, but we're still separate beings.
"However, if we synchronize, that's where the two of us become one Pokémon and we share everything. Everything I am becomes you, and everything you are becomes me. You can have all of the strength I absorbed from you along with some of my other powers I haven't even given you yet, all because I can only give them to you when we're one. And when we're one, we can do all sorts of things that neither of us could do on our own. Or anybody else for that matter. We'll be a really strong Pokémon that'll be unstoppable. Now, we'll still be able to talk to each other even though we're one Pokémon, but that's how you can get all of your power back. I'll hand it right over to you right after we synchronize because we'll be the same Pokémon.
"But if you really want that strength you lost back, that's all you gotta do. You just need to synchronize with me and then I can give it to you."
Venri smiled as she finally got off of Zekra and stood at her side. Zekra made no attempt to get up as the Sableye held out one of her hands toward her.
"So what do you say? Do you want to be strong again?" Venri asked.
The Zorua stared at the claw outstretched before her, looking at the purple claws patiently waiting for Zekra's paw to be put in them. She could vaguely recall Nyx talking about synchronizing with her plague, slowly becoming one with it so that the plague could offer them powers that no ordinary Pokémon could have. She hadn't explained exactly what these powers were, but based off what Venri could already do to assist Zekra in their current state, she could imagine they were powers capable of performing things beyond her wildest dreams. Perhaps she'd gain the ability to breathe underwater without having to transform into a water-type, or maybe she could command the very Plagued Ones that threatened to swallow the region whole. All she had to do to gain more these abilities was synchronize with Venri. She wasn't quite sure how they'd do that, but she had a feeling that Venri had it all figured out.
Zekra wanted her strength back. She wasn't sure what it would feel like to suddenly be as strong as she was before everything went into a downward spiral, but she craved it. She wanted her power back so that she could decide what she wanted to do with her life, and if it was as easy as simply shaking hands with Venri, then there was no reason not to. It would save her and Crystelle the task of visiting the Greninja Village. She did want to go inside the secret society again to see more of their customs and buildings, but it wasn't an overwhelming desire. She knew that she could go the rest of her life being satisfied with not visiting that village a second time.
She just wanted to be strong again, not the weakling she had allowed herself to become.
But just as Zekra was to place her paw in Venri's claws, she suddenly realized something. If she synchronized with Venri, she and that Sableye would become the same Pokémon. If she did that, Venri would have just as much control over their new body as Zekra did.
It was then that Zekra suddenly had a memory of her running through Aurora Town when it was being overrun by the Plagued Ones. She saw herself running through the streets, ignoring the gazes of the helpless civilians and avoiding the Plagued One's grasps before she ran into Rayne and Bane, two of her old Fellowship leaders. She saw herself attack them, raking her claws through their bodies and then turning into a Scyther, trying to slice them apart with a desperate, crazed look in her eyes…
And then she realized that was never her.
That was when she overtaken by her Instinct Infestation. That was Venri manipulating her unfiltered instincts and taking complete control of Zekra to do as she pleased.
If she synchronized with Venri, it would be exactly like that time from ago. She would become a monster. No matter how much Venri claimed she was benevolent and had no intentions of devouring Zekra's soul, she couldn't convince herself to believe the Sableye. Not after everything Shade had told her and how Venri was a fragment of the Primogenitor regardless of any circumstances. Somewhere in her she still had the instincts to kill and pollute the world with her kind.
Zekra ran away before she even knew what was happening. She sprinted past Venri, passing her as she increased the distance between them. She looked back to find that she actually was getting further away from Venri unlike last time, making the Sableye grow smaller with each passing moment.
She could see Venri standing there, glaring at the Zorua with a displeased, spiteful scowl. Zekra couldn't resist but to stop and keep looking back at the Sableye. Venri didn't move from her spot, instead choosing to keep her glare fixed on Zekra.
"Fine! Go to your Greninja Village!" Venri cried. "See if it helps you!"
The Sableye shot the Zorua one last nasty look, and then turned her back on Zekra. The last thing Zekra saw was Venri slowly retreating away into the darkness before a white light flooded into the endless void from high above and swept up Zekra in its grasp and ushered her away.
Zekra's eyes shot open, and she found herself sprawled out on her side inside of a small burrow. She was pushed into the far end of the little hole, keeping her safe from any wandering Pokémon. Standing right in front of her, blocking the only exit to the hole, was Crystelle. She was sitting there in front of the Zorua, staring at her with a blank frown. Not a single ring upon her body was glowing, making her blend in perfectly with the darkness surrounding them. It was only the glimmering of her red eyes that gave away her location.
The second that Zekra saw the Umbreon, she suddenly remembered what had happened shortly before she found herself in Venri's world.
"You!" Zekra snapped. "You knocked me out!"
"Yeah, I did," Crystelle said nonchalantly. "You weren't going to fall asleep on your own, so I helped you. Now, thanks to me, you've gotten three hours of sleep. Would have been better to get maybe five or more, but I know you're not going to be going back to sleep anytime soon."
"Don't you everdo that again!" Zekra spat as she sprang to her feet, baring her fangs. "I swear, you do something like that again and I'll tear you right up! You hear me? Don't you ever-"
"Yeah yeah, I know," Crystelle said with a dismissive wave of a paw. "Don't worry about it. You got rest and that's all that counts. Besides, it's not like the same trick is going to work twice."
Zekra stopped as she looked at the Umbreon. Now that her rage was slowly simmering down, she could see that something was not right with Crystelle. Her words, normally filled with such vigor and spunk, were now eerily hollow and detached. Her tone was almost an exact match to Zekra's own voice before she had left the island. Then not only that, but none of Crystelle's enthusiastic spirit was shining in her eyes. Normally Zekra could see a radiant sparkle in her crimson eyes, like she was always overflowing with energy and could never contain it. But now, there was only a disinterested blankness to her eyes, as if she had suddenly grown very bored.
"Are you okay?" Zekra asked, lowering her voice.
"Well, how do you think I'm feeling after what you did?" Crystelle answered, not even bothering to hide the bitterness in her voice.
Zekra sighed, realizing now what her actions had done. She calmed the hostile emotions raging in her heart by taking in a deep breath, and then looked up at the Umbreon with a rueful glare.
"Look. I'm sorry for yelling at you," Zekra said. "I shouldn't have lashed out like that. It's just that I really didn't like what you did. I… I see things when I fall asleep now. I see a lot of horrible things that I don't really like to talk about. That's why I never wanted to fall asleep in the first place. So when you forced me to pass out like that, making me see all of those things… well it got the better of me. So I'm sorry for how I was acting. I shouldn't have let my emotions get the better of me."
Crystelle kept her blank gaze on Zekra for a moment, not saying anything. Zekra was forced to keep her solemn stare fixed on Crystelle, hoping that she wouldn't reject her apology and strain their budding friendship. She had already dealt with enough turmoil with her past friendships; she wasn't sure her heart could take having any more painful relationships.
But thankfully, her faith was rewarded, for the Umbreon released a regretful sigh of her own and hung her head.
"No, you're right," Crystelle said quietly. "I shouldn't have forced you to fall asleep like that. Even if you really needed sleep, I shouldn't have given you that seed. I should have tried something else."
"It's alright," Zekra replied. "Nothing really happened, and I do feel a little better now that I've actually gotten some sleep. Just… you know, don't do that again. Please."
"Yeah, I got it," Crystelle assured with a small smile.
Zekra smiled in return, happy to know that everything had been resolved between them rather easily. For a brief moment, Zekra wondered if she could reverse all of the damage in each of her friendships just by doing something very similar to what she had done. But then, Zekra remembered that she had no idea where any of them were. The only way she could find out was to meet up at their rendezvous point in Aurora Town in a few weeks. And even then, there were no guarantees that any of them were alive. For all she knew, Terron, Novus, and Nyx were dead, and she was sure Yimtri was never coming back regardless of anything.
As soon as she realized this, she shut the thought out. Thinking about this would make her depressed, and she couldn't be that way right now. Right now she had something to find in the Greninja Village. She could think about her destroyed friendships when she was finished and had hopefully found her lost strength. Venri had claimed that Zekra's strength was only available through synchronization, but Zekra refused to believe it. She knew that there had to be another way to obtain it.
Maybe visiting the village and coming to terms with what happened to Zeverous was one way.
"Alright, well since that's settled, we should probably go into that village now," Zekra then said. "Because, it's night time right now, isn't it?"
"Yep! Sun set a couple of hours ago," Crystelle reported.
"Alright, then yeah, we should be able to sneak in with the darkness as our cover," Zekra said with a nod. "Alright, let's get going. We should only have to be in there for like an hour or so."
With that, the Zorua made her way past the Umbreon and exited the burrow, bringing her back to the surface. She soon found herself standing in the jungle, surrounded by darkness too similar the black that had enveloped Venri's world, the massive canopy of the trees blocking out most of the moon and starlight. However, Zekra didn't fret, for she could still see with her night vision and knew that Crystelle could as well. They would be fine. All they had to do was find that tree that Zeverous had showed her a time ago, or the very entrance to the village itself.
Zekra took in a deep breath, and then transformed herself into a Leafeon. She needed to make sure that the Greninja in the area didn't know she was sneaking into their village. Surely, if she pretended she was a feral Leafeon roaming about the jungle, they wouldn't think much of her. It would make everything easier.
She turned around, about to tell Crystelle how she needed to follow her from the shadows to avoid being caught, but Crystelle was one step ahead of her. The Umbreon sprang into the bushes nearby, becoming one with them before sticking her paw out for Zekra to see. She pointed forward before sinking her paw back inside the bush and became very still, making it impossible to tell that she was in there. Zekra had to resist a smile as she went forward, peering around carefully for the special mark upon a tree that would lead her to the underground tunnel. If she could find that, then she would have a set path to the village.
The false Leafeon trotted through the jungle, not bothering to keep quiet as her Umbreon companion darted after her, slinking into the shadows close to Zekra. Zekra gazed at every tree she came across, searching for the symbol Zeverous had put upon the tree long ago, but found none. But rather than give up, she kept walking, heading deeper and deeper into the jungle.
After traversing for what Zekra felt was half an hour, she finally spotted the tree she sought. It was difficult to spot, for the blades of grass had grown tall enough for it to nearly cover the mark, but she saw it. The second she did, she prodded at the base of the tree just as she had seen Zeverous do. Within moments, the dirt beneath the base of the tree caved in, revealing to her the tunnel she sought. Zekra grinned eagerly as she crawled into the hole and made her way down the tunnel. She forced herself to keep her mouth shut as she squirmed through the dark cramped passageway and tried not to inhale the dust falling from the ceiling above.
Minutes later, Zekra popped out of the other side of the tunnel and once again found herself in the Greninja Village. She released a relieved sigh as she turned back into a Zorua and shook off the dirt clinging to her fur.
"Bleh! I think I got a bunch of dirt in my mouth! Eugh!"
Zekra turned around to find Crystelle scrambling out of the tunnel, hacking up wads of brown spit rather obnoxiously.
"Hey! Keep it down," Zekra warned her in a hushed voice, drawing closer to her. "We've got to keep quiet. If those Greninja find us, they're going to kill us. They don't want anybody to know about this place."
"Oh, right. Sorry," Crystelle said with a nervous giggle.
Zekra rolled her eyes at Crystelle's naivety, but didn't say anything and only surveyed her surroundings. It had been quite a while since she had last come here, and time had not changed the mystic vibes that the village emitted so powerfully. The multi-colored orbs clinging to every tree in sight still glimmered with their ethereal power, and a very calming peace resonated through the air, easing many of the dark emotions churning in Zekra's heart. If she didn't know that there were highly-trained ninjas potentially watching her from the shadows, ready to strike her down at any second, she would have remained where she stood and simply absorbed the soothing aura until all of the unease in her spirit was eradicated.
The Zorua took in the peace for a moment longer, and then transformed into a Greninja. Then, after evaluating her surroundings, she hurried off toward the far end town that she knew she needed to visit. She didn't even need to look back to know that Crystelle was following after her, leaping from shadow to shadow to stay behind the false Greninja. Within minutes, the two finally arrived at Genryu's shrine, a small, empty space of land where only a single statue of the Greninja leader rested. The stone impersonation of the great leader remained deep in an eternal meditation, still holding the two orbs in his webbed hands.
Zekra smiled, but it was bittersweet. She knew why she was truly here and what had happened the last time she had stood before Genryu. She knew that somebody else besides Crystelle should have been with her to revisit the statue. They had both said that they wanted to visit again, but it seemed that only Zekra was the one follow that fleeting aspiration.
Zeverous wasn't going to be in the village ever again.
The false Greninja sat beside the statue as she felt her heart sink at the thought, already feeling the tears welling up in her eyes. However, she refused to let them to fall down her face, instead trapping them in her eyelids. She was about to force herself to think about anything except her dead brother, but then realized that his death was the exact reason she had come back to the village. She had come back here because this was the last place the two of them had ever visited before Shade murdered him in cold blood. The last of her happy memories with him were here in this secret village, right there by this statue of the great Greninja leader. She had come back here to find closure from his death, just as she had visited her hometown after it was destroyed because she wanted to find closure from her impromptus departure.
Zekra closed her eyes as she leaned into the statue, almost shivering from its cold touch.
Alright. I'm back here. Zekra thought to herself. Now what? Do I just sit here and wait until I feel better? Is that how this whole closure thing works? Am I supposed to just reminisce a little?
She put a hand to her chest, still feeling the ache in her heart. She released a saddened sigh as she sank down lower into the ground, and then forced herself to remember every single moment she spent with her brother after she discovered he was alive again. She watched from within her mind's eye as she bear witness to his heroic and brave deeds, whether it was saving her, Terron, and Novus from Shade or protecting them from Yimtri when they thought he was going to kill them for breaking their oath. She remembered the softness of his mane whenever she was in it, always feeling so secure as she remained in it, feeling that not a single thing in the world could harm her as long as she was in it.
And then, all of the happy memories she had of him were instantly dashed as she saw his corpse right before her, a pool of blood gathering beneath him. She could still see the lifeless expression in his face as his spirit left his body.
"No, this isn't working," Zekra said, opening her eyes. "This… this isn't working…"
"What's not working?"
Zekra looked over to find Crystelle coming out of the shadows and silently trotting over to her. All of the zeal in her eyes was gone, there now only being a solemn curiosity.
"Trying to get over Zeverous," Zekra explained with a sigh. "I thought that maybe if I thought about him and tried to think about everything we've done, I'd get over it. And if I got over it, maybe I'd feel stronger again. But I don't feel any better right now. I feel like it could be getting worse actually."
"Well of course you're not going to get any better that way," Crystelle said pointedly.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Zekra asked, resisting a snarl.
"I mean, his death isn't the only thing that's weighing you down," Crystelle replied. "You're sad about other things you did too, aren't you?"
Zekra stared at the Umbreon with a confused glare for a moment before she realized what Crystelle was talking about. As soon as she did, she turned away from Crystelle and looked down at the ground. It was Terron and Novus; she had ditched them with absolutely no second thoughts. She had no idea where they were now, and for all she knew, they could have been dead. She had lost two of her closest friends all because of her choices and there was no guarantee that she would ever get them back. Besides, she couldn't go back or else she'd ruin the rest of Terron's life. He couldn't know what happened he did as Dimitri. She had to keep him safe.
Then not only that, but she remembered everything about Yimtri as well. If she had simply kept her mouth shut and let him be, none of the catastrophes would have happened. Yimtri never would have left the group and she and Terron could have still been the best of friends. They could have been together and be there at each other's sides, supporting each other through everything with the happiest of smiles. Maybe she could have even convinced Yimtri to be more outgoing around everybody so that he too could have been a close companion amongst the group.
But she hadn't listened to Yimtri when he had given her his warnings, and now she was paying the price. Now she was all alone, having ditched her friends to save them and having her brother die to save her.
Crystelle seemed to realize what was going through Zekra's mind, for she drew closer to the false Greninja.
"You probably wish things could have ended differently," Crystelle said to her. "I can't say that I understand everything that happened to you, but I can imagine it and know how it must feel to be you. And I know that you must think that you wish you hadn't done certain things because maybe if you did, things would have ended up differently. But Zekra, you need to understand something. Things happen, and you can't dwell in what happened. You'll always wish you could have done something different, but the truth is that you can't think like that. You have to take what you have and make the most of it and forget about what you used to have. You have to keep going."
"I know that," Zekra sighed. "But it's just… everything really was my fault. I'm the one who made our group fall apart. If I had just left one of the guys I was with alone everything could have turned out so much better…"
"You don't know that," Crystelle said, shaking her head. "You don't know if everything could have been better. For all you know, that guy was planning on ditching you guys anyway and you just happened to give him the incentive to leave earlier than he expected. But you don't know if you're the actual reason. You don't actually know what's going on in his head, so you can't say that it's your fault. Plus, what if that guy did stay with you guys? Something else could have happened that could have been even worse than what already happened. You have no idea.
"But even if everything that happened was because of what you did… so what? So what if you did all of that? It's not like you can go back and change what you've done. We all make mistakes and we have to accept that we were the cause of our own misery. You just have to live with what's happened and accept the consequences, Zekra. I know that it's not easy sometimes, especially when you think you're on the worst road you could possibly take in life, but you have to realize that this is your path now. There's no turning back. And even though it doesn't look pretty and you really wish that you could have done something different, you have to remember that you can make it work. You can take this path you're on and make the most out of it, and you can actually end up stronger and better than you would have ever ended up becoming if you took those other paths. If you really wanted to, you could make all of the pain you've felt this whole time and make it your greatest power."
Zekra kept her stare fixed on the Umbreon, letting her words sink in. She knew what it felt like to use pain as a reason to fight. She had relied upon it when she lost everything before when she first met Terron. It had been a powerful motivator, driving her forward even when the sore muscles in her body could not. It fed the wrath and hate inside of her, making her vendetta against the Plagued Ones stronger as she kept going through each and every day, determined to find a way to defeat the Plagued Ones once and for all.
But she had given that up after all of her friendships slowly fell apart, whether it was by her choice or not. She had finally given into the pain, letting it move her into a downward spiral of depression. She no longer had the power to take that hate and keep moving forward. So she had run away from it, knowing that she could no longer cope with it. She ran away from everything that reminded her of her darkness and in doing so, she had lost her strength.
It was in that moment that she realized her darkness was her strength. All of the pain she felt and the need to make it go away had pushed her forward. Her constant battle with her darkness was what had given her the power to fight. But now that she had given up herself to it, telling herself that she had no reason to fight anymore… she had become weak.
"You're right," Zekra realized. "You're absolutely right. I was only strong before because I always fought with the darkness in me all the time. Whenever I fought with it, it reminded me why I was fighting in the first place, and it gave me the power to keep fighting. And it worked wonders. It let me survive when I should have died a long time ago…"
The Zorua stood up as she changed into a Skarmory. She lowered herself to the ground and looked back at the Umbreon.
"Come on, let's get out of here," Zekra ordered. "We're done here. I think I know what I have to do to make myself remember to fight against my darkness again."
Crystelle didn't move. She only remained where she was, standing still and slowly shaking her head at Zekra.
"No Zekra, you don't get it," the Umbreon stated. "You gave up on everything because your strength was you always fighting with your demons. It was a weak source of power. If you try to use that as your source of strength all over again, you're just going to crack again and get absolutely nowhere."
"What?" Zekra asked, turning to face the Umbreon. "No, you just told me that I could use my pain as my strength. You literally just said that. Why are you going back on what you're saying?"
"Because you're getting the wrong idea," Crystelle answered. "Zekra, you're not supposed to fight your pain to get stronger. You're supposed to work with it. You're supposed to accept it as a part of yourself."
Zekra shot the Umbreon a shocked expression, not believing her ears. She thought that perhaps the Umbreon had gone delusional. Nobody could work with their pain as Crystelle described it. Pain was not something to be integrated into someone's life, or else it would bring endless suffering. It was something to be fought against, something to ignore lest they fall into despair. Crystelle obviously had no idea what she was talking about, but that clearly wasn't a surprise since she hadn't suffered any tragedies herself. She was a happy, oblivious little Umbreon so naïve to the true horrors of the world until very recently. And even then, she couldn't seem to take the threats very seriously, as if everything was a joke.
But before Zekra could voice her thoughts, she saw a blue blur shoot out of the trees above them and descend upon Crystelle. She thought she saw the glimmer of a blue, watery object in the hands of the blur.
Zekra shot forward before she even realized what was happening. She landed on Crystelle, shielding her from the oncoming target as they descended upon the two of them. And then, there was a sickening squishing sound, and Zekra was filled with immense pain as she reverted back into her true form.
The Zorua forced herself to open her eyes and found that she was draped across Crystelle's back. Standing right before the two of them was a single Greninja, holding a watery sword the length of its arm. The blade of that sword was stuck fast in Zekra's spine, lodged deep into it but not quite cutting her in two. Blood seeped down her back and trickled onto the helpless Umbreon below her, who was too paralyzed with shock to bolt. She must have been too traumatized at the sight of Zekra's dying body on hers. She couldn't comprehend that Zekra had just saved her life at the cost of her own. The Greninja before them only stood there, prying the sword out of the Zorua. It would probably go after Crystelle now, thinking that Zekra would now die from that fatal strike. After all, no normal Pokémon could live through an attack that sliced their spine and many of her organs in half.
But Zekra was no ordinary Pokémon.
The Zorua opened her mouth and fired a Dark Pulse at the Greninja, blowing it backwards into a tree. Without wasting another second, Zekra leapt off Crystelle and landed upon her feet. She nearly fell down on her knees from the overwhelming pain spreading through her, but it quickly passed as her plague stitched her body back together and made her whole and unharmed once more. She shot Crystelle a fierce glare as she instantly turned back into a Skarmory.
"We're leaving, Crystelle!" she declared. "Let's go!"
But no sooner after she said that did a dozen Greninja suddenly leap from the trees surrounding them and descended upon the dark-type duo, all holding weapons of many varieties within their webbed hands. Zekra snarled as she sprang at Crystelle and snatched her up in her talons before taking off into the sky. She shot higher into the air, intending to break through the canopy and escape far away from the jungle, but then, she felt many tendrils tie around her feet and neck and drag her back down into the village. She looked back to find that all of the Greninja had created whip-like weapons out of water and were pulling her back to them with all their might. And though Zekra resisted, flapping her wings vigorously and fighting back with every ounce of her strength, she couldn't break out of the binds the Greninja had put her in. They were going to pull down her and Crystelle to them and slaughter them. Or rather, they would slaughter Crystelle. She was not like Zekra who had the immortal plague within her, unable to die by the hands of ordinary Pokémon.
When Zekra realized this, she looked down at the Umbreon clutched in her talons, watching the Greninja reel them in with an anxious glare. Crystelle would fire blobs of black energy at each of the Greninja down below, but they'd always be intercepted by waves of watery stars, only making harmless explosions in the air that would dissipate just as quickly as they appeared. And though she continued despite this, Zekra knew her efforts were futile. She was only delaying the inevitable.
Zekra knew what she had to do when she saw this. Though she personally didn't want to do it, she knew she didn't have a choice. She had a promise to keep.
"Crystelle, make sure that you get to Oracion Village," Zekra said to her, forcing herself to sound calm. "You might not see me for a while, but we'll meet up again somehow. Just don't come looking for me here. Just stay in that city."
"Wait… Zekra, what are you-"
Crystelle was never able to finish, for Zekra suddenly lurched forward. And then, with her increased momentum driving her forward, she threw her talons up in the air and released her grip around the Umbreon. She was pulled back by the Greninja, though her plan prevailed. Crystelle went flying out of her grasp as she rocketed out of the canopy and high into the air, sailing far away from the Greninja Village. Zekra didn't get to see her face as she disappeared, becoming nothing more than a black dot in the distance.
Zekra sighed and hoped that Crystelle would be able to land unharmed. And then, she finally stopped resisting and allowed the Greninja to pull her down to them, where each and every one of them had a sword out to impale her the second she reached them. Zekra didn't even bother to slow her descent as she simply let herself fall, ready for what was to come next.
The false Skarmory let every single one of the blades sink into her body, and then collapsed along the ground. She resisted letting out an ear-piercing scream as the weapons dug into her flesh, skewering her organs and tearing apart her tissue as she became a Zorua. Second she landed upon the grass, she prepared herself to change into a Scyther, ready to slaughter all of these Greninja and escape as quickly as possible. But as the light was to envelop her and turn her into the deadly bug-type, she stopped herself. She suddenly realized that it wasn't right to kill these Greninja. It would certainly be easier thanks to how much power she held within her, and her instincts screamed to do it, but she knew she couldn't. None of the Pokémon surrounding her deserved to die. They were only protecting their home from outsiders. They weren't attacking her out of malice. They just couldn't afford for her to live and know the secret location of their village.
When Zekra understood this, she forced herself to remain a Zorua and stifled the vicious, murderous thoughts in her mind. She couldn't listen to them. Instead, she fired a massive pillar of darkness into the group of Greninja, spinning around in a circle in an attempt to wipe every single one of them out
Several Greninja were consumed by the blast, convulsing for a few seconds before falling to the ground with eyes shut tight. However, a good majority of the group had managed to avoid the attack, scattering into trees or simply leaping over the pillar of darkness. Zekra's frown deepened as she felt her plague push all of the blades out of her body and instantly patch up all of her bleeding wounds, making it as though nothing had even happened.
"She really can regenerate," one of the Greninja pointed out, not able to hide the dread in their voice. "That wasn't just a trick. She must be one of those plagued creatures everybody's talking about."
"Great, what are we supposed to do with her now?" another asked.
"You let me go, that's what you do," Zekra shot back. "I don't want anything to do with your village. I just came to visit your shrine, and now that that's done, I'm done. I don't want anything to do with you Greninja anymore."
All of the Greninja stared at her, none of them bothering to attack her, but keeping their weapons close and their stances crouched and ready to pounce. Zekra stared back at them with a blank stare, trying not to look intimidated and reminding herself that she was in no real danger. These Greninja couldn't actually hurt her.
She was considering the idea of bolting again, but then one of the Greninja suddenly leapt at her and snatched her up in their hands. Before she could do anything, the Greninja closed one hand around her muzzle, preventing her from firing anymore Dark Pulses. Then, with its other hand, it grabbed one of her paws and showed it to the group.
"This is that Zorua that those Fellowship Pokémon want," the Greninja stated. "You can see the mark imprinted upon her paw."
Everybody peered at her for a moment, and she watched as each of their eyes widened as their already hostile stances seemed to tense.
"Well what do we do with her then?" another Greninja asked. "It's not like we can kill her… she keeps regenerating."
"Yes, that's true," Zekra's Greninja considered.
It stared down at her for a moment, releasing its grip on her paw and holding her more tightly so that she couldn't squirm or transform into something far more threatening.
"Let's take her to the elders," her Greninja then said after a while. "Let's see what they want to do with her."
And then before Zekra knew it, the Greninja smacked the back of her neck with a webbed hand, and she was out like a light.
Terron finally exited the icy wasteland as he made his way into a section of the plains that were untouched by the cold. Just as he had predicted, it was night now, the moon finally visible to him and no longer covered up by a massive blanket of dark storm clouds. He sighed in relief as he shook himself, riding himself of the icy crystals clinging to his clothes. He looked around him and studied his surroundings to see if there was anything worthy of note, but he found there was nothing. Absolutely nothing remarkable awaited him, save for the faint glimmer of a dirty brown in the far distance. He imagined that was a set of hills he was to climb over in due time, or perhaps it was the opening to a canyon of sorts. Terron wasn't sure exactly what his Socius had told him.
But regardless of whatever lay ahead of him, Terron knew that he could walk no more. His legs were growing weary and though he wanted nothing more than to keep walking forward, he knew he couldn't push himself. He needed to conserve and replenish his energy, saving every bit of power he could before he was to arrive at his destination. He couldn't afford to arrive there looking fatigued and half dead.
With a frown, the Cubone walked forward a few feet, and then summoned two bone clubs, one in each hand. He mashed their shafts together as he sent his plagued energy into them and watched as they merged to form a massive cone-shaped drill bit larger than his entire being. It spun around rapidly in his grasp, making a loud whirling sound. He plunged it into the ground at an angle and watched as it effortlessly dug through the dirt, creating a tunnel as Terron pressed it deeper and deeper. He kept his grip on the drill as he tunneled further into the ground, hopping into the hole and digging into the underground until after a minute, he had created himself a burrow with a single room large enough for at least five Pokémon of his size.
Terron smirked for a brief moment as he absorbed his energy back into himself and stored the bones back into his Socius. He went over to a wall of his burrow, and after checking the softness of the spot, laid down and produced a pillow under his head and a blanket over his body from his Socius.
And then, after wrapping himself up in the blanket tight enough so that he could not feel the draft flowing into the burrow, he closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.
Soon. Soon I'm going to find you. Just you wait, Yimtri.