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Chapter 77
You're Not Listening
"It's time to wake up."
Zekra felt her eyes snap open on their own. The world before her was blurry, a mesh of many bright and vibrant colors, but after blinking a few times, clarity returned to Zekra's vision. She found herself sprawled out along the ground in a hollow located right at the base of a large tree. A massive and thick spiderweb covered the entire opening of the hollow, allowing the hole to serve as a makeshift prison. It wasn't a very big one, barely large enough for Zekra to walk more than five steps in any direction, but Zekra had a feeling that this cell was not made with her comfort in mind.
Standing on the other side of the web was a group of four Greninja. All of them were glaring at her and holding a variety of watery weapons in their webbed hands in the light of what Zekra believed to be the morning sun.
"You'll be coming with us," the front-most Greninja of the group said to Zekra. "The elders wish to speak to you."
"Elders?" Zekra asked, her mind still in a daze from having just woken up. "Why do they want to talk to me?"
"Because after a week of pondering endlessly amongst themselves over what to do with a frightening creature like you, they felt that they needed to see you in the flesh to arrive at their final decision," the Greninja answered curtly.
Zekra stared at the group for a moment longer before she finally realized why she was in her current situation. She had infiltrated the secret Greninja Village with Crystelle, and much to her great regret, they had been spotted by the village's residents. Crystelle had been able to escape thanks to Zekra's help, but at the cost of Zekra being captured and knocked out the second they realized she was a plagued monstrosity. And though she had felt that she only slept for a few hours, in actuality it had been much longer according to these Greninja.
I was asleep for a week? Zekra realized as she looked around her tiny cell. They just kept me locked up this whole time? But I couldn't have been asleep for that long. I would have woken up much earlier than that if I was just knocked out. And I would have seen Venri...
Zekra couldn't ponder for much longer, for a Greninja from the group took a torch in his grasp and lit the web on fire, causing it to disintegrate instantly. The second that the silky trap was incinerated, two other Greninja tossed watery chains at Zekra. They bound around her legs, clinging to them tightly and nearly cutting off her circulation. Zekra scowled at the Greninja and started to change into a Joltik so she could flee, but suddenly found that her body was not changing as quickly as it used to. The process was happening, as she could feel herself shrinking, but it wasn't instantaneous as with every other time.
The Greninja yanked her out of the hole, cutting off her transformation as she was dragged out into the village. Her captors shook their heads disapprovingly as the remaining two Greninja pointed watery swords at her, holding them dangerously close to her neck.
"We'll be having none of that," the head Greninja stated. "You'll walk with us, or else we will drag you against your will. Attack us and you'll find a number of painful blades lodged into your body."
Zekra's scowl deepened as she looked down at her neck, and was quick to notice that her Deception Amulet was nowhere to be found. Her cloak was still garbed around her and her pin was still latched onto the inside of the collar, but the necklace was nowhere to be found.
"You guys took my amulet!" Zekra cried, pointing a paw at each of them. "What did you guys do with it?!"
"We confiscated it from you for reasons you can probably comprehend," the Greninja answered. "But enough about that. It's time to go. No more loitering around."
Zekra wanted to make another retort at the Greninja, but upon seeing each of their dark gazes and the gleam of their weapons, she knew she had to do as they instructed. She knew that she couldn't die, and was aware that they also knew of her immortality, but she didn't want to experience being sliced apart. Even if she couldn't be killed from it, it was still an extremely unpleasant and painful experience she wanted to avoid. Then also, there was nothing else she could do in her situation. Her Deception Amulet was stripped from her, leaving her without her greatest weapon. She was essentially powerless before the four upstanding Pokémon before her.
When she realized this, the Zorua released a defeated sigh and rose to her feet. It hurt for a moment, perhaps because she truly had been asleep for an entire week, but the pain did pass and she soon found she could move with ease. The moment this happened, the Greninja then took her with them through the village to meet the leaders and discuss her fate.
As they walked through the village, Zekra for the first time took in the sights of the civilization in the daylight. The glowing orbs were no longer filled with their vibrant ethereal light, now only clinging to the branches and bark of the many trees. They were now nothing but odd spheres of pure white that Zekra could have easily mistaken for an exotic kind of fruit. And yet despite the village no longer being alight with the mystic orbs, there was still a calming peace resonating through the air. Though her captors were pointing weapons at her and forcing her to follow them against her will, the mystic aura of the village prevented her emotions from becoming too volatile. She could still feel her irritation and hate at being in her situation, but it was greatly subdued thanks to the atmosphere. Zekra briefly wondered if the orbs were generating this strange vibe, or if it was what all isolated villages felt like.
There were a number of Greninja going about through the streets as Zekra and her captors continued on their way, certainly more than Zekra had anticipated. She thought that perhaps there were only about twenty Greninja in the entire village, but based on how many Greninja strolled past her as she made her way through the square of town, she was sure that there had to have been twice as many living in the village at the very least. Perhaps there were even more hiding away from her, taking alternative routes so that she would not see them. None of them seemed to pay her any mind, not bothering to give her a glance as they continued on their way, but Zekra knew that they were at least mildly interested in her. She saw the brief glimmer of their eyes as they passed her. They were only putting up a façade of indifference.
Zekra wasn't sure where each of the ninjas were going despite all of them heading somewhere far behind her, but she imagined that it must have been for training of sorts. Despite being dark-types, she imagined that they still liked to sharpen their skills with a sufficient amount of light surrounding them. At least, that was what Zekra thought. She honestly didn't know and she knew she wasn't going to be finding out when she was in a village that she had no reason to be in.
After traversing through the hidden city for ten minutes, Zekra's captors finally brought her to their destination. They stopped and instructed her to sit down upon a patch of grass as they adjusted the chains binding her limbs so that she would not sit on them. The swords continued to be pointed at her, not even moving an inch. Zekra sighed, but said nothing as she surveyed her surroundings.
It was a large pond of sorts with many lily pads floating idly on its crystal-clear surface that glimmered softly in the light of the sun. Stalks of various plants sprouted out around the edges of the water, gathering murk around them and trapping a few stray lily pads in their grasp. A small waterfall flowed down into the pond from up higher in a gathering of large rocks that held a small pond of their own, alerting Zekra to the knowledge that this was an artificially made pond. There must have been an invisible line beneath the water's surface that sent all of the water from the bottom up to that waterfall.
Magikarp could be swimming by in the reasonably deep waters, some being very close to the surface and occasionally nipping at the water's edge. Zekra felt her mouth water at the sight. She wasn't starving despite having been asleep for quite a while, but she could still feel a rumble in her stomach. Then also, it wasn't every day that a fresh meal was right before her as if begging to be eaten.
"You will not eat them, plagued creature. We will not have this tranquil place filled with blood."
Zekra snapped her head up and found herself looking at something in the pond she had not noticed earlier. There, sitting on a number of smooth, grey rocks rising out of the water, were five Greninja. They were all sitting crossed-legged upon their platforms, watching her with solemn stares that seemed to radiate with an ancient wisdom and power Zekra couldn't understand. She had met many powerful beings in her life and remembered how even gazing upon them seemed to make her fur stand on its own. But with these Greninja, she couldn't feel that. Instead, she felt a mild confusion as to how she was supposed to act around these strange Greninja.
It was then that Zekra recognized one of the Greninja. The farthest one on the left had been the supposed elder Greninja that had let her and Zeverous flee from the village the last time they had been here. She hadn't changed much from the last time Zekra saw her and didn't show any indication that she knew Zekra. She was only glaring at Zekra with the same contemplative stare all of the other presumed elders held.
Alright, she didn't see me back then. Good. Zekra thought to herself. That might have caused problems.
"Do you understand that you will not eat the denizens of this pond?" the centermost Greninja asked.
"Oh, um yeah," Zekra said, bringing her attention back to the present. "I won't eat them. I promise."
"Good. We will be watching you," the Greninja said with eerie solemnness. "Now, I presume that you know why you are here?"
"Yeah," Zekra said with a nod. "You guys wanted to figure out what you wanted to do with me since you guys think I'm a monster and am dangerous and all that. But I'm telling you guys, I'm not a monster. I swear, I'm not. I'm just like you guys. The only difference between you and me is that I just have a parasite inside me. But! I have something that doesn't let the parasite do anything to me. So really I am just like you guys."
"What exactly allows you to no longer be affected by your parasite?" the Greninja asked.
Zekra reached up and pointed to her cloak's collar. She wanted to reach under and grab her pin, but the chains binding her wouldn't allow her to do so. She was already stretching it by raising her paw. Her captors did not want her to move and potentially kill their leaders.
"It's strapped on to the inside of this thing, but it works," Zekra stated. "So as long as I have it on, I'm a normal Pokémon just like you guys."
The head Greninja didn't say anything, only keeping his stare blank and eternally fixed upon her.
"What do you call yourself, plagued creature?" the Greninja on his nearest right asked. "Or were you a beast that roamed the land without a name before you had the plague put in you and gifted you with intelligence?"
"I'm Zekra," she answered. "I'm not a feral and never was. I actually grew up in a town that was in a forest kind of like here, but it wasn't as nice as here. What's your guys' names? I mean, I know you guys are all elders, but I can't just call all of you 'elder'. It'd be a lot easier if you guys just gave me your names so I can talk to you guys a little easier."
The guards holding Zekra immediately shot her a nasty, deeply offended glare, as if Zekra had just violated a scared custom of theirs. They seemed ready to lash out at her, but the center Greninja raised up a webbed hand and lightly shook his head, prompting them to stop.
"I am Elder Rayle," the head Greninja answered. "The ones on my direct right and left are Elders Violet and Torrent respectively. The ones on the furthest right and left sides of myself are Elders Razor and Shion."
Shion. That's the Elder I already know. Zekra noted. But, it doesn't matter anyway. She can't know that I recognize her.
"Alright, got it," Zekra said.
"We've spent a lot of hours talking and discussing what to do with you, Zekra," Elder Shion then said. "Even though we have spent so much time figuring out what to do, we can't quite decide what to do thanks to a lot of contradicting details. So, we are going to ask you a few questions to clear things up so we can figure out what we really want to do with you."
"Sure, bring it on," Zekra said with an indifferent shrug.
It was then that Zekra noticed the subtle glimmer of disdain in each of the elders' eyes. As soon as Zekra saw it, she knew that her behavior wasn't exactly polite or respectful to any of the Greninja before her and she wasn't going to be winning their favors with her behavior. She wanted to walk out of this situation peacefully, not with violence and bloodshed.
"I mean, yes, I'll answer them the best I can," Zekra quickly corrected, forcing a meek tone into her voice.
"Very well," Shion said with a nod. "First question then: are we correct to believe that you were plagued by the Plagued One queen known as Erebus?"
"Well… yes," Zekra answered quietly. "Yes, I was plagued by her when I went into this dungeon she made a long time ago. Because you see, when you go into Mystery Dungeons-"
"You don't need to explain how the dungeons worked," Shion interrupted. "The Fellowship has informed the entire world of how they were produced and Erebus's connections with them."
Zekra wasn't sure if she found the Greninja's knowledge of the dungeons' workings to be comforting or not. On one hand it meant that she didn't need to give any lengthy explanations. However, on the other hand, she knew very well that the Fellowship had undoubtedly twisted the information so that it only bore some semblance of the actual truth. She had no idea how much information the Fellowship could have possibly spread to the world and manipulated it to their gain. She didn't put it past them to frame her for whatever was going on in Shiron at the moment and make her out to be a villain.
She finally understood why the Greninja elders were questioning her now. Zekra's actions when she had been caught, where she had been unwilling to kill any of them despite it being an easy choice to make, surely must have contradicted the image of a bloodthirsty maniac the Fellowship had potentially painted her as.
"I understand," Zekra said with a nod.
"Next question," Elder Torrent then said. "What happened after you were plagued by Erebus?"
"Well nothing at first," Zekra answered. "I just kept on living as if nothing happened. I just kept being a Fellowship member and everything was okay for a while. You wouldn't even think that I was plagued if you saw me back then."
"You didn't immediately assist Erebus in setting her free from the forest that held her captive?" Elder Torrent then asked.
"No, I didn't," Zekra said, scowling a little. "That's not what happened. Sorry to ask this… but do you think you can tell me everything you've been told about me? I feel really confused about all of this. I've been kind of out of the loop for a while. Had a lot of… things going on."
Each of the elders cast each other a brief glance before returning their stares to Zekra. For a moment, Zekra thought that she wouldn't obtain any answers from them and that they'd only continue on to question her. However, the Greninja were generous enough to offer her the perspective the world held about her. From what they described, she and her friends were the ones who set Nyx free from Erebus Woods and were supposedly working alongside her to plunge the world into chaos. Granted, supposedly she and her friends were brainwashed by Nyx and had no will of their own, but they were also apparently beyond saving and that they had been transformed into ravenous beasts. The Fellowship, who had claimed to know about how dangerous Nyx was and thus were the ones who imprisoned her, had made a statement about the plagued group. That statement was that if everyone could be eliminated, then the Plagued Ones would finally cease to exist, and peace could be restored. Everybody could finally return to their homes if this was done, for the Plagued Ones were rapidly spreading across Shiron and turning every landmark into a ghost town. And not only that, but everyone was placed on a hit-list with a massive bounty upon each of their heads, encouraging Pokémon of all shades to hunt after them and bring them back to the Fellowship for a fortune.
By the time the Greninja finished, Zekra found herself at a loss. She certainly wasn't surprised that the Fellowship had concocted such a terrible web of lies to kill her and her friends, but it was still so difficult to take in. It almost didn't seem real, like all of it was nothing but a surreal dream. But she knew that everything the Greninja spoke was true, for she had seen the signs. She saw the abandoned city when she returned to Shiron with Crystelle, and she remembered the lone Plagued One behind the window that had been staring at her.
But there was something else that bothered Zekra. Though she knew that everything the Greninja spoke was true, there was a contradiction with Crystelle's words. When Zekra had asked Crystelle if she had remembered Shiron being as abandoned and desolate as it was before she showed up, the Umbreon had stated that everything had been perfectly fine. It had been the exact same way as it had been before Zekra retreated to the remote island. Now though, the Greninja were telling Zekra that this entire wave of plague that was flowing over Shiron in an east-ward wave had been happening for months. Surely Crystelle would have noticed the increasing number of ghost towns if that was so.
Something was obviously not right when this was so. There was something amiss with the information she was being given, though she couldn't tell who was the one giving her the wrong information. The Greninja were rather ambiguous with their morals, making it very possible that they were lying to her, but then Zekra realized they had no reason to lie to her. It wouldn't benefit them in any way to have an immortal Zorua that they could not control in their hands. Thus, that left Crystelle as the obfuscator of truth, except that Crystelle had no reason to deceive Zekra either. The two of them were friends and Crystelle did seem to have Zekra's best intentions in mind. Therefore, Zekra had no reason to suspect Crystelle either. Crystelle was a good-hearted Pokémon that only wanted Zekra to be the strong dark-type she was always meant to be.
But as Zekra thought about it, she realized that maybe this wasn't true. Maybe that was an excuse for her actions, a façade. Maybe Crystelle had other reasons for forcing Zekra back to the island. She had been too eager to have Zekra return to Shiron, and there was always a strange gleam in her eyes every time she smiled…
Zekra would have pondered in the troubling information further, but then she saw the Greninja before her narrow their eyes at her.
"You claim that you were confused about your circumstances," Elder Violet said. "You talked as though you didn't know what you have done. Why exactly did you say that earlier?"
"Because none of it's true!" Zekra exclaimed, unable to stop herself. "Nothing the Fellowship told you guys was true at all. For one, Erebus isn't the real queen of the Plagued Ones; that's some other weird thing called the Primogenitor! And the Fellowship works for it and they've just fooling everybody and keeping everybody ignorant by leading the resistance against it! They're spreading lies so that nobody can actually stop them! I'm one of the few trying to stop them! That's why they put me on that stupid wanted list; because they know I'm a threat to them and know all of their horrible secrets. They want me out of the way so they can keep tricking you guys and turn everyone into Plagued Ones!"
"Really?" Elder Violet asked dryly. "Then why exactly do you have the plague in you if you're not aligned with the Plagued Ones?"
"Because Erebus… put it in me to set her free," Zekra answered reluctantly. "But she's not the bad guy! She was just brainwashed by the Primogenitor to make dungeons and Plagued Ones and she needed my help to set snap her out of it. She knew it was the only way I could get strong enough to defeat her. I know that it sounds hard to believe, but it's true! I'm not some monster like the Fellowship is painting me out to be!"
"And do you have proof that you are speaking the truth?" Elder Violet asked. "Because even though we'd like to believe you, there's hardly anything proving your innocence."
"Well I didn't kill you guys when I could have!" Zekra pointed out. "If I was a monster, I would have just killed you guys. I can't die, and there's only so many of you. All I would have had to do was just kill all of you and then I could have gotten out of here. But I didn't, and now I'm here with you guys with nobody dead."
"That's not a convincing reason for us to completely disregard an organization the entire world has trusted since their conception," Elder Shion interjected. "Even though we try not to get involved too much with the outside world until our time in this village is done, we know who to trust and who not to. Saying you spared us isn't a good reason for us to believe you."
Zekra scowled bitterly, but couldn't think of anything to say. These Greninja were stubborn in their resolve, and in a way, she couldn't blame them. She knew how trustworthy the Fellowship seemed. She remembered the hospitality Len and his team had given her and Terron when they had nowhere to go. She still wasn't quite sure if she believed that her Fellowship guardians were evil. She knew Shade, Chrysalis, and Zephyr were, but not Len. Len had never tried to kill them. He had dismissed them from the Fellowship, but he hadn't done it out of malicious intent. If anything, it was out of benevolence after what Zekra found out upon becoming rogue.
Maybe Len had been unaware of Fellowship's deceptive ways. Maybe he was like Yimtri in that he was leading his Fellowship with virtuous intentions, but had the darkest thought in the back of his mind that maybe something was not right with the other factions. Zekra didn't know, and deep down, she didn't want to know. She still wanted to think of Len as a wholesome figure, even if she still couldn't agree with him kicking her out of the Fellowship despite knowing disastrous events could have happened if she stayed.
"I think that's all of the questions we have for you," Elder Razor then said. "You've provided all of the answers we needed."
"Wait, it's over already?" Zekra asked. "But… you only asked me two questions. Don't you want to know more? Like don't you want to know why I look like a normal Pokémon or what I've been doing this whole time? Or where this Primogenitor even is? You're just satisfied with knowing Erebus plagued me?"
"Your reactions gave us the answers we needed," Elder Razor stated. "They told us everything we need to know."
"Well… what's going to happen to me then?" Zekra asked quietly. "Do you guys believe me?"
The Greninja each stared at one another for a moment before they all huddled together and turned away from the Zorua. Then, they whispered their thoughts and opinions to one another, and no matter how hard Zekra tried, she found she couldn't hear them. Their voices were lower than the water from the waterfall seeping into the pond and the Magikarp swimming about below the glimmering surface. Zekra wanted to get closer to them and eavesdrop, but her captors held her still, making her unable to move even an inch forward.
Minutes later, the elders finished their impromptus meeting and resumed their spots while facing Zekra. The expressions on their faces hadn't changed, making it impossible for Zekra to know what they were going to say next.
"We have reached a decision," Elder Rayle announced. "Thanks to many days of pondering and listening to you own words… we are delivering you to the Fellowship."
Zekra's heart shattered. She looked at each of them, waiting for an explanation, but none of them gave her one. They only returned her horrified stare with a blank one, as if they truly were unconcerned about her well-being.
"What?!" Zekra screamed. "Why? I told you, they were evil! They're going to kill me and then send the whole world into chaos!"
"The evidence you gave to support that claim was flimsy," Elder Rayle stated. "Then also, you reek of monstrous attributes. There's the occasional glance at the Magikarp below you that glimmers with bloodlust, the subtle twitch in your paws every time you speak like you're trying to keep your claws within your paws, and most obviously enough, your very aura gives off a murderous air. It taints the atmosphere so much that if I had a Lucario here, he would see nothing but a large, black mist seeping out of your body and trying to strangle anything it touches."
"We have a hard time believing you to be benevolent when that's true," Elder Shion then added.
"But you believed Zev when he was here when those Pokémon were in the jungle around here!" Zekra shot at Shion. "You let him go free even though you didn't have any real reason to believe him, and he was even worse than me! What makes my situation any different than that?!"
Zekra immediately regretted what she had said. She quickly closed her mouth and wanted to take back her words, but she knew it was too late. Shion had heard everything she said and was now glaring sharply at the little Zorua. The other elders were shooting her quizzical looks, but none of them dared say anything as hateful emotions glimmered darkly in her eyes.
"Wait a minute… you're talking about that Zoroark that was here," she said, putting the pieces together. "That Zoroark I set free because he said all of those Pokémon in the jungle would leave if he did. Which means… you were with him. You were that Joltik I thought I saw crawling on the ground before he left. And you came back even though I told him not to!"
Shion let out a hissing noise as she pointed a disgusted, webbed finger at Zekra.
"I can't believe you came back here, even after I told him to stay away," Shion spat. "And even though you're not him, you're still bound to the oath he swore, and now you've broken it. Well then, you remember what I said I'd do if I found him here again, don't you? And since you're taking his place now…"
"Oh no… no, you have to listen to me!" Zekra pleaded. "I came back here because I needed answers! I wasn't here to hurt anybody or tell the world where your guys' village is, I swear! I just needed answers!"
"You came back here when I explicitly said never to come back," Shiron growled. "You don't deserve my pity. You deserve punishment for making me trust an outsider that clearly didn't value my mercy."
And then before Zekra could beg any further, Shion formed a small, black water star in her hand and flung it at Zekra. The Zorua felt it pierce her forehead, making her cry out in pain as it tore into her brain and spread a numbing coldness into her body. But instead of her plague pushing out the weapon and sealing up her wound, she suddenly felt weak and collapsed right there, feeling the world around her grow dark.
It was a long time before Zekra gained the strength to open her eyes again. But even as vigor returned to her muscles and consciousness crept back into her mind, she had no will to bring herself back to reality. Even if she couldn't actually see her surroundings, she knew where she was. The black behind her eyes and the cold, smooth surface beneath her body told her everything.
And right now, Zekra was in no mood to deal with what was waiting for her to awaken. She only wanted to remain in her pseudo slumber and pretend that the Fellowship wasn't going to kill her any day now. If she wasn't dead already thanks to whatever Shion had thrown at her head.
The Zorua remained where she was for a long time, unmoving and breathing quietly as she listened to her surroundings. She kept waiting for somebody to wake her up or to be addressed, but it never happened. Her only company was silence. It was nothing but lonely silence that Zekra knew was exactly what the inside of her heart felt like at that moment.
After several minutes of remaining there in the darkness, nothing stirring around her, Zekra finally opened her eyes. As she had been expecting, she was in the mindscape she and Venri shared with its ever-present darkness holding her in its grasp. There was only one source of light, and that was from the other void's denizen's eyes glimmering a short distance away from where Zekra lay.
Venri was sitting in a black and silver throne made out a strange, metallic substance Zekra had never seen before. However, instead of sitting upon it like a dignified queen, Venri was sprawled sideways across it. She had her legs crossed over one of the arms while she rested her head against the other arm. She was playing with a blue ribbon as she absently stared at it, mindlessly looping it around her fingers or tying it into strange shapes. She didn't even seem to notice that Zekra had woken up.
Zekra started to think of a way to slink past the Sableye without her noticing.
"Oh, not even going to say hi, huh?" Venri asked.
The Zorua tensed as Venri turned her head to look right at Zekra. Zekra feared that the Sableye would attack her, but much to her surprise, Venri didn't move. She only remained upon her throne, watching Zekra with a blank scowl. Zekra felt an uncomfortable shiver go down her spine. Venri looked too much like Yimtri this way. Zekra almost wished Venri would wear that unnerving smile again.
"It's been a while," Venri said, none of her usual enthusiasm present in her voice. "You enjoy your time away from me? I gave you a week to sleep in peace."
"Wait, you mean those Greninja really did keep me in a coma for that long?" Zekra asked. "They weren't lying to me?"
"Oh no, they kept you asleep for that long alright," Venri answered. "They kept putting you to sleep with this weird toxin they get from these plants in the area. They'd keep injecting it inside of you and whenever you're going to wake up, they just put more of it in you. They didn't want you awake and killing everybody."
Zekra frowned uneasily at the thought. It seemed that the Greninja had found a way to make her immortality useless, because even if Zekra couldn't die, she couldn't possibly be a threat if she wasn't able to fight. They had found a way to make her harmless.
"Shion had that weird toxin in that star she threw at me, didn't she?" Zekra then asked. "So that means…"
"You're passed out and being taken to the Fellowship right now so that they can kill you," Venri finished indifferently.
Zekra felt a sting in her eyes, but refused to let tears form as she temporarily looked away from the Sableye. She took in a few breaths even though it hurt her throat before glaring back at Venri. The Sableye was still sitting there, not even a hint of remorse in her eyes. Zekra really wished she'd smile again. Seeing her so blank was unnatural.
"No, they're not," Zekra argued weakly. "I'm going to get away and live another day. The Fellowship's not going to kill me."
"You're going to die, Zekra," Venri stated. "You're going to die, and there's nothing you can do on your own to stop it. All because you wouldn't listen to me and just had to go to that stupid Greninja Village. Still think you found the strength you wanted there? You think it was worth getting captured and sent off to your death?"
"I'm not going to die!"
Zekra let out a fierce growl as she bared her teeth at the Sableye, her eyes faintly flickering with a blue light. Venri looked at her for a moment before flashing her a faint, knowing smile.
"Yeah you are," Venri said with a little laugh. "You're going to die because you can't do anything with how you currently are. You're too weak still and there's nobody to help you. Zev isn't here to protect you anymore and Tear sure isn't going to come swooping in out of nowhere to come and rescue you."
"I'm going to rescue myself," Zekra proclaimed. "I don't need anybody to save me. I can do it on my own now that I know how to fight again."
"Zekra, you still don't get it," Venri sighed, shaking her head. "I keep telling you this, but you're not strong anymore. If you were, I wouldn't be as strong as I am now. I wouldn't be sitting on this awesome throne that's ridiculously comfortable to sit in while you're on that cold ground. You've got a poor source of power right now. There's only one way for you to be strong again and let you keep living."
"I don't want to synchronize with you," Zekra spat. "I know what you really want, and I'm not doing it. I'm fine on my own. I don't need you. You're just a parasite that needs to go away."
Venri abruptly sat up in her chair and shot Zekra a nasty glare, her gemstone eyes flickering maliciously. Zekra immediately felt the overwhelming urge to bolt, but she found she couldn't move. She was stuck lying on the ground, as if invisible chains were holding her down. All she could do was remain in the presence of the wrathful Sableye.
"Would you stop that with calling me a parasite?!" Venri screamed. "How many times do I have to say it? I'm you! YOU! You can deny it all you want, but if you take a good look at me, you'll figure out that literally everything about me is just you. I'm not a parasite, not a monster, not a freak of nature… I'm just the you that you apparently don't want to believe exists anymore! Well guess what, Zekra? Whether you want to admit I'm you or not, we're both going to die pretty soon. Nobody's going to save us. I can't do anything because you've still got that stupid pin on, and you sure can't do anything because those Greninja took that amulet away from you. We're both in a hopeless situation and we're going to let the Plagued Ones win by dying. There's only one way out of this."
The Sableye's vicious expression slowly melted into a more somber one as the dark atmosphere surrounding her faded away.
"Please, just listen to me," Venri said, her voice softer. "Please, for both of our sake's, stop thinking I'm a monster that's out to get you and understand that I want to help you. All of those times I was talking to you before you shut me out… I was just trying to help you to be strong. I wasn't trying to ruin your life. I really didn't know that Zev was going to die back then. I really wanted to protect you so that we could keep fighting. Please, you need to believe me. Just listen to me and let me help you again! Please!"
"No! I want nothing to do with you!"Zekra snarled viciously. "If I have to turn into a monster in order to keep living… then… then…"
Zekra squeezed her eyes shut as the tears welled up in her vision. Her heart was breaking at the very thought of what she was going to say, but she had to. This endless war between her and Venri had gone on long enough.
"Then I'd rather let the Fellowship kill me! I'd rather die as myself than let you ever become me!"
Venri's jaw dropped open as the throne she was sitting on suddenly disintegrated beneath her, forcing her to land upon the invisible ground with a thump. She didn't bother to get back on her feet as she sat there, her gemstone eyes glimmering with a pained, flickering light. Zekra could feel Venri's broken heart within her own heart. She could feel the painful thudding and the strain in her muscles as if the two of them really were the same. It was so powerful and so overwhelming that Zekra thought that she would burst into tears.
And then, the ground beneath Venri and Zekra shattered, sending the two of them plummeting down into an abyss.
Zekra's eyes snapped open, and she found herself within a large bag, a thick cocoon of silk wrapped tightly around her body. She shifted around in place, trying to free her limbs, but found that they were bound fast within the webs.
"Elder Shion, it seems that the Zorua is awake now," said a voice from outside of the sack. "I can see her struggling."
"So she didn't stay asleep the whole time," said what was unrecognizably Shion's agitated voice. "All of you, keep an eye on her until we get to the Fellowship. Shouldn't take much longer now. She might not be able to transform since she seemed to be relying on that amulet, but you never know. Zorua are very tricky Pokémon not to be messed with."
"Yes, Elder Shion," said what sounded like six voices at once.
Everything went quiet once again. Zekra grimaced uncomfortable as she felt the soft bounce of her body against the bag as the Greninja presumably carried her to the eastern side of Shiron. They really had captured her just like Venri had been saying, and in the very near future, she was going to be handed over to the few ones in the world who could actually kill her. She had been running away from the Primogenitor for so long, doing everything in her power to remain hidden. She had been doing so well, but now she had finally stumbled and allowed herself to be caught. Now she was finally going to die by the very same plagued Tyranitar that had killed her brother what felt like eons ago.
There was nothing she could do to stop herself from dying.
Zekra quit struggling as she slowly forced herself to remain still and resign to her fate. She knew she couldn't escape from the bag; the spider webs were holding her limbs fast and her Deception Amulet was still stripped from her. There was nothing but darkness surrounding the Zorua, making it impossible for her to see those around her so that she might copy their form. She was stuck in her true, weak form that couldn't do anything useful. Even if she could muster up a Dark Pulse and it somehow phased through the bag and hit a Greninja, there were multiple Greninja around her. They would undoubtedly knock her out the second they saw she was resisting and make her efforts futile.
Venri had been right; there was nothing Zekra could do in her current state to let her escape and live another day.
She felt the painful ache of heartbreak throb painfully in her chest once more, but this time, Zekra saw no point in holding back tears. She only let them flow down her cheeks as she managed her breathing so that no one could hear her whimpering with each tear that fell. As she cried in silence, Zekra focused on the memories surfacing before her mind's eye, showing her where everything had gone wrong. They held no order as they went before her, one memory with her meeting Terron for the first time before it changed and she saw herself leaving him behind to save him from horrible pain. She found she could not care. She only watched them with a disconnected sadness, occasionally questioning if any of the things she remembered were real. She wondered if everything she was seeing was nothing but something her mind had hallucinated.
No… they're real. Zekra realized after a moment. It doesn't feel real… but they're real. They're all real and they're all something from my life. Something from this endless cycle I will never get out of, no matter how hard I try. I'll always be stuck in this cycle of pain where everybody around me gets hurt too. Maybe…
Maybe it is better that I just let it all end. Crystelle was right. Fighting my pain to keep going… why did I ever think that I would be strong enough not to let it overwhelm me? It's pain… you can't fight pain forever. You're going to lose one day, and when that happens, the pain will swallow you up and never let you go. And you can't fight all of the pain I've felt. You can't fight the pain of knowing that everybody in your family is gone, you can't talk to your best friend anymore, and that you have literally no idea where anybody else you ever cared about is. I sure tried. I tried so much. But… I should have known it was hopeless in the first place. You can't win against pain.
Pain always wins in the end.
Always.
A fleeting thought about Venri's offer went through Zekra's mind, but she quickly dismissed it. Venri was wrong; there wasn't a way to become strong with Zekra's current condition. She had tried endlessly to become a strong, unmovable Pokémon that could withstand any suffering, but she had failed every single time. Venri knew this, and she only wanted to give Zekra false hope so that she could become a monster. She wanted to prey on Zekra's weakness.
Zekra released a sigh as she curled up into a ball. She thought she heard the sounds of townspeople nearby. It meant she was getting closer to Oracion Village, home of Shade and Zephyr's Fellowship. She was getting closer to dying.
She closed her eyes and tried to become one with the darkness of her prison.
Zekra was violently jerked to the side as something seemed to grab the bag she was within and collapsed onto the ground. The little Zorua immediately tumbled out of the bag from the force of the collision, and she soon found herself laying upon the grassy flooring of the outskirts of a nearby city. She squinted her eyes at the city, trying to see if it felt familiar, but then something snapped their jaws around her body, picked her up, and took off running.
When Zekra looked up, she almost couldn't believe what she was seeing.
"C-Crystelle?!" Zekra cried.
The Umbreon didn't say anything as she continued running toward the city, clamping down tighter on the Zorua. Everything started to become a blur as the Umbreon picked up her speed, sprinting at a speed that Zekra was sure was impossible for either of them. She even thought Crystelle's feet didn't touch the ground as she ran.
"What are you… but I… how are you…?" Zekra stuttered as she tried to form a comprehensive sentence.
The Umbreon abruptly threw Zekra forward as she skid to a halt, ripping the webbing from off the Zorua's body, and then bolted from the spot where she once stood. As soon as Zekra was able to come to a stop herself, she was able to see it was because a watery star was embedded deep into the ground. The Umbreon snarled threateningly as five Greninja appeared around her, all of them ready to pounce at a moment's notice.
"Get out of here!" Crystelle ordered Zekra, casting her a sideways glare. "I'll take care of these Greninja! Just get away from here!"
"But you'll-"
"Just get out of here!" Crystelle screamed, her voice morphing into that of a demonic one as her eyes gave off a sinister light. "Run away and don't die on me!"
Zekra was so afraid of the sudden change in her tone that she did exactly as told. She fled into the town, running as quickly as her legs could carry her. She cast a glance back at Crystelle to find that all of the Greninja were springing toward Zekra, but Crystelle had somehow stopped each and every one of them so that they were unable to get very far. She wasn't sure how the Umbreon was managing it, but Zekra paid no mind. She only kept running, refusing to look back again as she entered the city.
It was a fairly prestigious city made out of various grey stones, bearing resemblance to many cities that Zekra had visited throughout her time as a Fellowship member with many civilians wandering about on their daily routine. She briefly wondered if there were Pokémon here in this city when there had been none in all of the other locations she had seen throughout Shiron. She considered it was because the east-ward wave of plague had not reached the city quite yet, but she found she couldn't take in the atmosphere of the new location. She was frantically searching for somewhere to hide. She couldn't understand why when she was so sure she wanted to die, but her instincts screamed for her to keep living and to find somewhere to hide until Crystelle came back…
Just as Zekra rounded a street corner in her continuing search for an abandoned home to flee into, a familiar face jumped right into Zekra's line of sight, forcing her to skid to a halt. It was Crystelle, alive and well, not a single injury upon her. The Zekra's heart swam with relief as she smiled a little.
"Crystelle, you're okay," Zekra sighed. "I was so worried about you. I really thought-"
"There's no time! C'mon Zekra, we need to hide!" Crystelle suddenly ordered.
It was then that Zekra realized something wasn't right. Crystelle's voice didn't sound the same as it always had after Crystelle became an Umbreon. Usually it was very upbeat and enthusiastic, falling somewhere between a child's light-hearted tone and a constant giggle. Crystelle sounded like that nothing now. Her voice was now somewhat deeper, more steeped in darkness with only a small trace of childishness to it.
However, Zekra forced herself not to be concerned at the moment. There were more important topics to focus on. The voice change was probably because she was panicking for a reason Zekra could not understand.
"What, why?" Zekra asked. "I thought you took care of those Greninja. I mean, they were the onl-"
"I'm not talking about whatever you're talking about!" Crystelle urged. "Now COME ON, we don't have any time to waste! Follow me!"
Zekra, though greatly confused about why her Umbreon companion suddenly seemed so panicky when she was always so composed and confident before, followed her into another section of town. They fled into what appeared to be a residential area, many houses all made of rock standing side by side to one another, hardly any space between any houses. Each house seemed exactly the same as the other, all of them being the same, slate grey with two windows and a wooden door to allow entry into the home. The only difference was that each home had a mailbox that was painted in its own unique way, whether it was because it had paw prints of all of the residents who lived in the home pressed upon it in a variety of colors or because mosaics were carefully drawn upon it.
Crystelle quickly ushered Zekra into one of these homes, one that she noted had a mailbox that seemed absolutely plain compared to the others'. The second they stepped inside, Crystelle slammed the door shut and closed all of the blinds surrounding the windows.
"Um, what's going on?" Zekra asked. "I mean, you show up out of nowhere to save me, and then you tell me to run away, and then you show up again, and now you want to lock me in this house with you… just what is going on?"
"I'll tell you what's going on," Crystelle said as she finally turned around to face Zekra, her eyes glimmering in a way that sent shivers down Zekra's spine. "That Umbreon you've been with this whole time? That wasn't me. That was somebody pretending to be me."
"Wh… What?" Zekra babbled.
"I know it's hard to believe, Zekra, but it's the truth. I didn't want to believe it myself either."
Zekra swiftly turned around to find Frazil and Lyra standing behind her, the both of them keeping close to another closed window on the other side of the house in what appeared to be the dining room. Once they both verified that it was closed off to the outside world, they came over to Crystelle's side and soon joined their daughter. They both gave her saddened, but solemn frowns, clearly not wishing to share the information on their minds, but knowing they had no choice.
"Wait wait, what are you guys doing here?" Zekra asked, her mind spinning. "How did you guys even find me? I didn't tell you guys where I was going!"
"We didn't know for sure that you were coming here," Frazil answered. "We honestly had no idea where you were even though we desperately wanted to find you and get you away from that imposter. So, we decided to try going to the Fellowships since I know that you, Terron, and Novus used to belong to them and still seemed very interested in them. We thought you might be there, or at least in the general vicinity."
"We went to the Nestati one first since we knew that the Aurora one was abandoned," Lyra then said. "But just as with the one Éclair used to run to Len, that one was abandoned too. There wasn't a single Pokémon living in that city because of these… horrible monsters that Crystelle informed us were eating everybody. So we came here and found that it was actually still okay and that none of those monsters had come yet. So we figured that eventually, you'd come here because it was still in one piece. And sure enough, about a day after we got here, you showed up."
"I was keeping an eye out for you on the streets while Mom and Dad were figuring out how to get us a place to stay for a while," Crystelle explained. "I didn't know when you would show up, but you just had to. And then I saw you running through the streets today and I was really lucky that you were alone without that fake me… I really didn't want to have to fight her…"
"Who? Who are you talking about?" Zekra demanded, growing frustrated with this onslaught of information. "Who have I been with this whole time?"
An uncomfortable silence fell over the Eons as they looked at one another with nervous scowls. Zekra felt a flare of wrath ignite within her as she stamped her foot down and drew closer to her caregivers.
"Who?!" Zekra repeated. "Who's been pretending to be Crystelle?!"
"They can't answer that question, Zekra, because they honestly don't know the answer. They just know that it can't possibly be anybody good if they're pretending to be somebody else."
Everybody turned their heads, and were startled to find the Crystelle doppelganger standing amongst them, smiling wryly. No one was sure how she had gotten into the home, for all of the doors and windows were locked. It was as though she had suddenly appeared there out of thin air.
"But you're so used to having pretenders in your company that were really just someone really close to you, so why should it really be such a surprise to know I'm not really Crystelle?" the imposter laughed bitterly. "I did a terrible job at playing her anyway."
Zekra had to resist a scream as she shirked away from the Umbreon.
The Umbreon's smile faded before she closed her eyes and shook her head.
"I guess it's all over," the imposter said. "No point in hiding it any longer."
The Umbreon's body morphed into a black, vague shape before it rapidly reformed into another creature. A creature Zekra thought that she would never see in reality amongst her. Zekra's very heart shattered at the sight as soon as she saw a new Pokémon standing before her.
It was a Sableye.