?
The midsection of my body ached beyond my comprehension. Never in my life had one of my bones been broken, so the pain that was bestowed upon me in such a small amount of time baffled my mind. One day right after the next, I had been humiliated by two different pokemon. I didn't know who they were, and I didn't care. I hated both of them with a burning passion, especially the damn umbreon.
It usually took a long time for me to gather hatred for someone, but he managed to sprout these feelings in my mind in less than a day. He disrespected me, humiliated me, injured me, and condescended me. He wasn't even the one that broke anything, and yet, he was so much worse than the leafeon. While the leafeon was the one who caused the pain I was feeling in my midsection right now, she didn't disrespect me nearly as much, and I found the lack of respect far worse than giving me my first broken bones. I was able to ignore pain if I tried hard enough, but I couldn't get that umbreon out of my head. He's worse than the glaceon.
I always had that glaceon pinned, she was always fearful, she never dared to say a word of disrespect to me, never taking any action against me. She was afraid, always was, and I thought she always would be. I saw her again, and I felt gleeful, ready to resume my favorite pastime that I hadn't participated in for the past month. I had no idea where she went for a month, nor did I care, but I was ready to see her cower in fear once more. Much to my dismay, the umbreon was standing next to her, and she didn't have a fearful expression for more than a few seconds. After that time passed, she just stared at me indifferently, not holding the same kind of death glare the umbreon was, but just staring at me.
Needless to say, I was annoyed. Not only at the umbreon being present, but at the lack of fear displayed by the glaceon. My hatred for her began to glow alongside the umbreon, and my body moved on its own. I found my fist colliding with the face of the umbreon with all of the strength I could muster within my body. Yet… just like before, he just stood there without a reaction. Not only that, but the glaceon looked amused at the situation, which mocked me further. The first time I encountered him, I denied the thought in my mind again and again, refusing to believe that I couldn't hurt him. I couldn't handle the existence of someone who would mock me like he did, and then back it up. Nothing would make me accept it, nothing other than the brutal fight I watched take place right in front of me.
I had never seen pokemon move like that before, the leafeon in particular. To move with such speed, strength and precision, the umbreon and Naru didn't stand a chance, or so I thought. They lasted long against her, despite the two of them taking a massive beating, they both kept on pushing. They didn't win the battle, that leafeon was just beyond comprehension, but watching them move like that still angered me, because it proved just what I was trying so hard to deny. It proved that the umbreon was on another level, and not just him, but the small girl I used to torment on a daily basis, she could knock my lights out in an instant if she wanted to. The realization that I was in nothing but total baseless denial put me in a blank state of mind.
I was walking down a small street in Myriad alone, not wanting to interact with anyone. I even left my acquaintances behind, which I don't do very often, considering how much we've helped each other out in the past. We all had the same interests, and the same tendencies when we were roaming the streets of our home town. It's been awhile since I separated myself from the group, but I wasn't pleased with them right now. After the battle between the leafeon and the two other eeveelutions I hated took place, all four of them went over to the umbreon and Naru's collapsed bodies, and patched up whatever wounds they had, and even moved them to a safer place. Why they wanted to help either of them was beyond me, as I thought we all reached a consensus of hatred towards the two, but apparently not. Something about watching that battle inspired them or something, and they felt the need to help. The dragonair of our group spat at me for not helping, despite the fact that the umbreon saved my life, but I could care less. I just left them to do whatever they wanted, while I gave myself time to recollect the events that had just passed.
It was now the night of the next day, and when my group went to check on where they left the two eeveelutions, they were both gone. I had hoped that they ended up being taken overnight by some random pokemon roaming the streets, but for some reason I seriously doubted that. Fate wasn't that kind. They probably healed enough to start moving again and then went to wherever they needed to go, which I had no problem with. I never wanted to see their faces again unless I was beating them to a bloody pulp. I still didn't want to go back to my group, our anger towards each other was still mutual, and we only grew more separate from my outburst of wanting the umbreon and Naru to have been kidnapped when we figured out they were both gone.
I felt the center of my body ache every time I took a step, regardless of the healing that my acquaintances gave me right after I received my injury. This wasn't the kind of pain that would be gone in a day, and it was annoying me. I wasn't used to this kind of struggle, so I had no idea how long the pain would last. I probably shouldn't have come out to go for a walk so soon, but I honestly didn't care enough. I needed space to think, and since Myriad's streets were almost always completely empty at night, walking around was the best way to obtain the silence that I yearned for. I saw a shadow of another pokemon in the distance, but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. What was out of the ordinary, was when said shadow began to dash towards me at an impressive speed. Once the shape quickly arrived next to me, I realized who it was, which made me backpedal back down the road I had just came from.
I began to back up quickly, which caused me to trip and fall down backwards, harshly landing on my back. I let out a small shriek, feeling my cracked bones scream in pain once I made contact with the stone ground. The shadow that was rushing at me earlier just stood over me with a disappointed stare, almost as if she was expecting something from me, but I didn't deliver. The leafeon's stare soon turned into a devious-looking grin, and she began to laugh, presumably at me for falling down like I did. I was about to retort in some way, but I was distracted by the edges of the sharp-looking leaves all around the leafeon's body. The upper parts of them were dyed a deep purple, and her eyelids were hanging low, but not quite so they were closed. This only distracted me for a second though, I didn't know what to do in this situation. After all, this leafeon already would have killed me once if it wasn't for a pokemon I didn't want to think about, so what was holding her back from finishing me right here? Before I could try to bolt away out of fear, she calmed her laughing down.
"Alrighty… you looked hilarious a second ago, so I couldn't help but laugh at you!" She then let out more chuckles, but with great effort, didn't burst out laughing again. "Now, don't know if you caught my name earlier, so I'm Grace! I doubt you forgot who I am, after all, I sort of almost disintegrated you from existence." She began chuckling again, which made me shiver. What is wrong with this pokemon?
"Anywhooo, I'm not here to kill you, I've already had my fill for today, and you can only kill so many pokemon in one day without getting sick of it. I even spared a few souls. Well, after injuring them beyond repair, they're probably better off dead. Honestly, the screams of different species of pokemon are quite interesting when you listen to so many back to back, even though pokemon of the same species have different voices, there is always a distinct tone in their scream that I recognize. I absolutely love it! It adds another level to the agony I can feel oozing off of them!" Grace licked the edges of her mouth and closed her eyes with a pleasurable expression. My body began to involuntarily shake after her rambling.
"W-Why are you talking to me?" I managed to get out. I never got scared by anyone, and here I was, stuttering in front someone who may or may not excite herself through others' pain.
"Oh! Right!" Her eyes shot open and she looked at me again, putting on another horrifying grin. "I noticed that you're not too fond of Blacky back there. I thought that you were just another cocky pokemon picking fights with someone you know you can't beat without reason, but you definitely had some negative thoughts directed at him, I can notice that sort of thing. It's a type of look that I've gotten a few… a lot of times in the past. I don't know why, but whenever I manage to take a pokemon and bring them back to the Void, they always give me that look. I mean, they think I'm a psycho or something, can you believe that!?" I would believe it…
"W-What is the V-Void?" Grace's angry expression changed back to that of her devious smile.
"You don't know? Well, I guess that's kind of to be expected. Fun fact, I didn't know what the Void was even while I was working in it for a while!" Grace laughed herself to tears before wiping them away with a forepaw right after. "We're a group that likes doing things, usually bad things by the general public's opinion. Not that I care about the public, they're just a bunch of civils who can barely defend themselves. You know the last time I had a good fight outside of the Void until yesterday? It's been waaaaay too long, it was nice to feel pain outside of my organization again." It felt nice to feel pain..? "The others in the Void tend to hold back so I don't get injured. If I get injured, then my work will slow down, then I'll get yelled at, and then I need to be punished, but then they figure out that a Void member injured me, and then they get punished, blah, blah. I don't really care much about the rules, I just like doing my own thing."
"W-Wait." Grace looked at me curiously. "W-Why are you telling me all of this?" She put on a thinking expression for a few seconds and then her face excitedly lit up.
"Oh yeah! I guess I just rambled for a bit. Well, the Void likes to make these drug things out of a lot of random ingredients that I'm not allowed to see because apparently I'll blow up part of the Void. We've made some progress with these things. Our overall goal was… Um… I think to just make one that can increase someone's physical and type-based abilities without any drawbacks. At the moment, we've killed four-hundred pokemon through testing these drugs." I shuddered. "But, that was just the beginning! We've made a lot of progress! Now, our test subjects consistently survive, but they become mindless shells after injected. It's weird, they become stronger, but then they can't move, so it doesn't matter. I remember once when I was in the room when they were testing one of the drugs, but I had to be escorted out. Apparently, standing right next to our subject and staring at them intently wasn't allowed, so with the power of charismatic words, and about fifteen feet of rope, I was escorted out." Grace looked annoyed at the memory she brought up.
"Back to the point, progress. Recently, we used a new concoction on a small vulpix that we took off of… off of… a boat I think. This one was meant to erase someone's memories, but had some… interesting possible side-effects, so we wanted to monitor said vulpix until we knew exactly what this new drug could do. Sounds like a simple plan, right? Well, let me tell you why it's a good idea to close doors." Grace took in a large breath and sighed. "Some of the Void could be rather incapable. I mean, he had one job, ONE JOB! He just had to watch a small child and prevent her from escaping, but nooooo, that's too much, and due to the damn door being left open, the vulpix ended up escaping." She must not be fond of whoever let that happen. "Anyway, this is relevant because it turns out that vulpix is alive and well, and we were going to take her back, but thanks to Blacky, she managed to slip away from us again. We still don't know if that vulpix will have side-effects or not, and it would be nice to know, but other pokemon won't stop getting in the way of that." Grace said with an annoyed tone.
"Alright, this relates to what I wanted to pull you aside for. Question; you hate Blacky, don't you?" I assumed that 'Blacky' was that umbreon. I thought back to the events that transpired yesterday, and created a fist. I thought back to the day before that, the first time I ran into him, and my grip tightened.
"With a burning passion." I told Grace, who put her devious smile back on.
"Good. I had nothing against the guy before yesterday, and nothing against him while we were fighting, it was just the last move he pulled, turning my own poison against me… that wasn't cool! I've never felt so useless before! I could barely move until a few hours ago, and even now, I feel unsteady, so I hate Blacky too!" She yelled angrily. "Now, for my offer, we've finally perfected a drug that will greatly enhance all of your physical attributes with no drawbacks whatsoever. We recently tested it on a mawile that we captured. He was on the brink of death, and the drug we gave him not only saved his life, but also greatly improved his strength. With this tested, we finally finalized a way for the Void to eat away at the Nest! How would you like to be our next candidate for this drug?" Grace put on and excited smile and leaned over me, right in front of my face. "Come on! The Void could always use more members, and you'd be able to get your revenge! So do you accept? Do you?" She seemed way more excited than she should have been over a random recruit, her tail was quickly swaying back and forth and she looked as if she was about to jump out of her skin.
I took a second to think about the offer presented before me. I didn't know what the Nest was, and I had barely any knowledge of the Void, or what might happen to me if I accept. Logically, I shouldn't have any reason to accept this offer. Plus, this leafeon gave me my first broken bones, along with nearly killing me. Trusting her didn't seem logical, but one sentence had me nearly hooked on the decision. You'd be able to get your revenge…
I hated that umbreon. I hated him with a burning passion. I wanted to see him in pain, to see him suffer, along with anyone he holds close to him. I obtained all of these thoughts over the span of two days, and I didn't bother resisting them. Not to mention, he seemed to be friends with Naru, or at least acquaintances. Going after him could lead me to her as well, so I had another reason to accept. These reasons outweighed whatever doubt I still had in my mind very quickly.
"I accept." I told Grace. Her smile grew as she stared down at me.
"All right!" She shouted excitedly. "Now that you've accepted, I can take you to the Void, but, ummm… how do I explain this? We have certain secrets that need to be kept secret, so I'm going to have to do this." Grace placed one of her forepaws on my head, and I felt a small prick. "Hopefully this won't immobilize you like it did to me and Blacky, but it'll knock you out for a bit. Nighty night!"
I couldn't react to what Grace was saying to me, I barely heard her in the first place. I just felt a calm feeling flood over my body, and I closed my eyes, accepting it.
Kuro
It's been a few hours since I started to consistently stand again, and my movements were beginning to feel fluent. Cole and Aria were both giving me space to move around. The two of them understood why I couldn't walk in a straight line after I explained the encounter Naru and I had the previous day, so they stood by the entrance of the alleyway, making sure no strange pokemon tried to approach.
Naru was still lying down on the ground, asleep. I looked over to her every now and then to make sure she was doing okay, and she hadn't even changed her position since she'd woken up for the first time. I hadn't needed to change the bandage on her head again, so her main wound seemed to be healing, which was good. It didn't say anything for the head trauma she took from Grace, but at least I had one good thing to latch onto. I had no idea what her condition was like outside of the wound on her head, so I tried to focus on any positive I could find in order to soothe my thoughts, and not let them travel in the wrong direction. I had to be optimistic here, pessimism would only hold everyone back. Naru will be okay, I know she will. I repeated to myself mentally.
Thinking about injuries wasn't going to do me any good, I would just constantly worry, which isn't what we needed right now. It was a bit hard to resist thinking about the glaceon that was sleeping close to me, but I knew that sitting here, locked in my thoughts, was not going to accomplish anything. I noticed that I got hung up on one subject intently pretty often, which was a trait that wasn't very welcome in my mind. It's not like I was ever great at balancing multiple tasks, but focusing on one thing and one thing only wasn't the solution, it was just another hinderance. I took a deep breath and cleared my mind. What exactly do I need to do in order to help with the situation?
"Silent Umbreon! We forgot to tell you something!" Aria flew over and landed right in front of me, Cole landing next to her, nearly taking up all of the space between the two walls of the alleyway we were in. "We weren't actually the only ones who came here, there was a third pokemon with us who finished up the last thing you two had to do here." I tilted my head. Why did that get organized? I decided to just assume the leaders at the Nest thought Naru and I were in some kind of danger, so more than just Cole and Aria were sent. Well, one more pokemon at least.
"That's probably for the best, considering her condition." I glanced becak at Naru for a second, but then shook my head. I said I'd stop getting hung up on it… "Do you know what they found there?"
"She walked into a rather... macabre sight." Cole said while looking down. "Inside of the structure the two of you were meant to investigate," He hesitated for a moment. "The place looked like a bloody warzone."
"What do you mean?" I asked. I was curious, despite the fact that I might not like what I was about to hear.
"It was massacred, about twenty-five pokemon were maimed beyond recognition." Cole shuddered and shook his head. "More than half of them were children, but they were mutilated all the same. According to the Raven that investigated, there was also one part of the wall that had been nearly coated in blood completely, as well as a trail that led up to it. I don't know what happened there, but it clearly wasn't pretty."
I tried to picture what Cole had just described to me in my head, and he was right, it wasn't pretty. I was suddenly glad that Naru and I weren't the ones to have walked in on that, but subsequently felt bad for the Raven who ended up being the unlucky soul to traverse into that building. Whoever she was, she ended up being presented with that image, which couldn't have been a good experience. Question after question flowed into my head revolving this event. Who would do that in the first place? Stupid question. Probably someone from the Void, but was it Grace, before she came to Naru and I? Or was there more than one Void member right beside us during our time at Myriad? And who were the ones that ended up being killed?
I looked down at the ground, unsure how to process this information, or if I should even think about the newfound questions in my head. In the past, over thinking questions I had about one topic or another did nothing but give me a lasting headache for the rest of the day. But, for some reason, this felt different. I felt like one of the questions I just asked myself could be answered from my thoughts alone, but I couldn't pinpoint it. It was strange, like I knew something for a fact but still couldn't bring the point up in my mind. Why do I even feel like this in the first place? I know next to nothing about this massacre, so why do I feel like I have information? Why do I feel like I have answers?
I mentally backtracked and thought about my main questions again. Could Grace have been the one to do this? I couldn't be completely sure, but I sort of doubted it. By the way she interacted with Naru and I, it seemed like she prioritized the battle itself and capturing us rather than outright killing us. If that's the case, then why would she straight-up massacre this place without taking them all back to the Void? It didn't make sense to me. The possibility that there was another Void member in Myriad somewhere actually seemed probable. It wouldn't be too hard to hide your identity as a Void member if you pleased, the only thing keeping them from being completely shrouded in mist was the odd sense of pride they seem to feel when it comes to the organization they work for. If this pride was thrown away by a Void member, it wouldn't be too farfetched for another Void member to be hiding out somewhere. However, like with my previous question, I couldn't be positive.
The last question I had, who ended up being killed? Who were the many victims of this attack? I felt like, somewhere in my mind, I knew possible candidates. The question is, who exactly? If I feel so strongly that I know who might have been killed, then why can't I pinpoint it? Why can't I think of it? I closed my eyes and entered my thoughts, remembering anything new I may have learned since Naru and I arrived in Myriad. There was really only one place where I learned something new, but I didn't think it was relevant. Was that really it though? Did I believe it wasn't relevant? Or did I not want it to be relevant? Was there a thought I had been purposely avoiding because I didn't want it to be the truth that badly?
"Not too long ago, we got attacked by a really weird pokemon, they reminded me a lot of the ones that were on the ship. We were split up again, me and the rest of the pokemon here were with our grandfather, but he brought us to this place because he said he was afraid of not being able to protect us if we get attacked again. After that, he left to try and find the other pokemon that we were with."
I grit my teeth at my memories.
"But I know everyone else is safe, and I know that I'll meet up with all of them again, even if I have to make it happen myself!"
That can't be it… There's no way…
Of course I didn't want to acknowledge it as a possibility. It laid in the furthest reaches of my mind, existing, but not prevalent. I didn't let the thought get far in my mind, I subconsciously rejected it. A group of innocent pokemon, all very young, along with their caretakers.
"There's no way that I can give up, that's what I took from you after you helped everyone at the old camp."
"I want to be able to help too, so I can't give up on them!"
I felt my emotions start to surface on my face. A group of kids, having done nothing wrong, could they really be the ones that were killed? That wasn't even the entire body count, if there was somewhere around twenty-five bodies, then they weren't the only ones who had their lives taken. Of course, nothing was set in stone yet, but considering the situation of all of the kids who resided in that camp a month ago, it was way too likely for me to be comfortable with. They may have gotten separated, but if one group made it here, than the other couldn't have been too far away. It was all too likely that they also found their way here, but ended up being intercepted before they made it to the town. Intercepted by a monster. I may have not been one-hundred percent sure of my theory, but I treated it as if it was true. Please… Please let me be wrong…
My focus on the thoughts rushing through my head was interrupted when I realized the the rings around my two front legs were letting out a very faint, pulsing light. By assuming that my theory was right, I spiked my emotions in a rather negative way, enough for me to lose a hold on controlling the rings all over my body. Not to mention, I was standing in front of two of my teammates, who haven't seen them glow before, or even know about their connotations with my emotions. A quick glance upwards revealed that the two of them didn't really know what was happening to me, and were unaware that it was caused by emotional distress. Showing myself like this in front of someone other than Naru gave me a great feeling of discomfort, or maybe embarrassment. I couldn't tell, but either way, I told myself mentally that I could suck it up for now.
I took a deep breath and calmed my mind down of any semblance of my train of thought, turning it into an empty space. I blinked away any tears that were threatening to leave my eyelids and shook my head.
"Hey, are you okay..?" Aria asked me without her usual tone. It was weird to hear her talk at normal volume.
"I'm fine, just picturing what happened in that place." I half-lied. I was indeed just picturing the event, but that's not what triggered my distress. I didn't like lying to others, but I figured it was better than throwing my theory at them right here. "If it's okay for me to ask, who came here with you two?"
"Oh! She's a pidgeot who didn't talk too much, or even give us her name, but apparently, she's been a Raven for years, and is training to become a Nest leader right now. I'm pretty sure she already left after giving us the info about that task." Aria paused for a second, seemingly thinking about something. "You can definitely tell she's a veteran, I mean, she had almost no reaction to walking in on that massacre, it was almost like she wasn't bothered by it at all." At least the pokemon taking our place wasn't scarred by the experience.
"I see. If I ever see her in the Nest I'll have to give my thanks." I looked back at the ground for a few seconds, contemplating a request for Cole and Aria. I almost backed out of asking, but my mouth moved before I can stop myself. "Do you know if you can take me to that massacred building before we leave?" Cole and Aria both stared at me with a dumbfounded gaze.
"W-What? Why would you want to go there?" Cole asked me.
"There's something I need to confirm about the victims. It may end up being important, especially to someone who lives in this town." I firmly said. I wanted more than anything for me to be wrong, but if I end up being correct in my assumptions, than I need to let Cyan know about it. Telling Shine directly wasn't something I had the will to do right now. Maybe if I hadn't ever gone to the orphanage and heard him preach about wanting to see them again, I'd be able to tell him, but that's not the case. I wouldn't be able to get the sentence out. Or am I just too scared to see his reaction?
"I can take you, but are you really sure you want to go? You just paused at the thought of the place, do you really think you'd be able to see it with your own eyes?" Aria asked me with a similar tone to the one she used earlier. Lying really gets you nowhere…
"I'm sure. It's important." Aria nodded her head.
"If you say so, then I'll take you. However, we may want to leave soon then, I'm supposed to bring you two back to the Nest after this, and it would probably be better to leave sooner rather than later." I nodded in response and turned around. I walked over to Naru, who was still sleeping lightly in the same position as before. She looked peaceful resting there, and I knew that if I woke her up, I'd be bringing her back to the pain in her head, but I sadly didn't have a choice. I took one of my forepaws and nudged Naru's shoulder a few times, making her twitch a little bit. I repeated my actions a few more times, and then Naru's eyes slowly opened.
"Naru, we have to get going now, how are you feeling?" I asked her quietly. I had no idea what her tolerance for noise was when her head felt like it was smashed with a boulder, so I didn't want to be loud. She lifted her head off of her bag and turned onto the side of her body in order to push off of the ground.
"Ugh… It still hurts, but definitely not as bad as when I first woke up." Naru fully stood up, and then took a step forward, before flinching and grunting in pain. "Never mind… definitely just as bad…" Now I really felt bad for making her move, but it needed to be done regardless.
"Cole and Aria are both here now, and our last task to complete here has been taken care of, so after making a small pit stop, it looks like we'll be going back to the Nest." Naru glanced passed me and looked at Cole and Aria before slowly raising a forepaw and waving it up and down. The two of them both waved back with one of their wings. Once Naru put her paws on the ground again, she flinched, letting out another pained groan. Listening to the sounds coming from Naru when she was in this state put me in dismay. It seemed like the best option was to get her back home as soon as possible, so I figured it was a good idea to split off for now. I turned around back to Cole and Aria.
"Do both of you know how to get back to the Nest easily?" I received a nod from the two of them, much to my relief. "Then, do you mind if one of you takes Naru back to the Nest while the other stays here with me to further check out that building?" Cole and Aria seemed to look at each other for a second and began to quietly converse. I felt a tap on my back from Naru, and I turned around to look at her.
"What are you talking about? Didn't you say that our tasks here were already finished?" Naru stumbled on her paws a bit after finishing her sentence, but managed to balance herself before falling down.
"I'll tell you about it when the two of us are both back at the Nest, and after you rest more. The best thing for you to do now is go back and recover." Considering that she was having a hard time standing upright, I didn't want to drag her around Myriad more when she could go back and rest.
"But, are you sure? I mean, what if something happens while you're there?" I guess it was true that some unexpected events have taken place in the past, the previous day being no exception, but that didn't change my opinion. Even if I acknowledged the possibility that there may be another Void member lurking around here somewhere, I needed to investigate. I want to figure out that I'm wrong, and if it happens that I'm not, then Cyan needs to know. Staying here to figure this out was worth the risk.
"Like I said, this is important. I'll fill you in on all of the details once I get back, but I'd feel way better if I knew you were resting off your injuries instead of me taking you there. It's not like I'll be alone either, if we need to retreat, then we will, simple as that. Nothing bad is going to happen." [Yeah sure. That's what they all say.] I assured her the best that I could, leaving out another reason I didn't want her to come to this place. After all, it wasn't a pleasant sight.
"Well… I trust you. Plus, even if something does happen, I guess I'd be useless in a fight right now anyway, so I'll go back and rest while you do what you need to." Naru smiled. "Just… don't overdo it. You may not be in as bad of a condition as I am, but you're not exactly moving at full throttle."
"Got it. I'll make sure to stay safe." I nodded with a smile. I turned my head around to see Cole and Aria glide over to the two of us. Both of them touched down right in front of us.
"Alright, I'll take Naru back to the Nest, and Cole is going to stay here with Silent Umbreon to escort him after he's done here. Are you guys okay with this?" Aria asked us, to which we both nodded in affirmation. "Sounds good! I'll fly slow to minimize your pain, Naru."
" I appreciate it…" Naru said with another groan. She then walked over to Aria and climbed up onto her back just as we did when we flew here in the first place. Aria began to lightly, but quickly moved her wings to raise off of the ground again. Naru almost instantly put her head down onto Aria's back, probably trying to fall asleep again. I would have done the same thing if I was dealing with that kind of pain.
"Well, I'll see you two when you get back, bye!" Aria flew high up into the sky, and then began flying over Myriad at a steady pace, although she wasn't going nearly as fast as she flew when taking us here. I just looked up at them for bit until the two of them were out of sight, disappearing into the blue sky.
"So, do you want to leave now? I can show you where the building is." Cole asked from in front of me.
"Yes, I think that would be best. I… really just want to get this over with." I confessed. I let out a small sigh involuntarily.
"What exactly has you interested in checking out this place? I mean, you know what you're going to find, and you know it's not going to be pretty."
"Something more… personal. Like I said before, I just need to confirm something, and I can't do that if I don't see the corpses themselves with my own eyes." I hated thinking about what I was about to see, but it was going to happen either way, so it didn't make much of a difference.
"If you say so. I won't stop you if you really want to investigate, but just be prepared to look at some gruesome things." I nodded to Cole, and he flew a small distance into the air. "I can lead you there, it's only a few miles down the road adjacent to this one, so it won't be too long." Cole began to fly over the crowds of pokemon, and I followed him at ground level.
It was a little bit difficult to weave around the pokemon crowding the streets, but I managed. My body was still sore from the previous day, but my numbness was slowly but surely leaving me. Most of it was gone at this point, and it was hardly affecting my movement anymore. Thinking about it, that poison really did a number on me, despite my usual resistance to poison. After ingesting a variety of poisonous plants and berries due to my young ignorance, the effects of normal poisonous compounds began to affect me less and less as time went on. I've even been injected with toxins that feral pokemon sometimes carry, and gained a decent resistance to that as well.
Whatever Grace hit me with, it was clearly artificial, considering her species. My dad was a leafeon after all, so I knew that they didn't possess natural poison inside of their bodies. More than it being artificial, the poison was pretty potent, potent enough to practically paralyze me, despite my resistance. If the Void was able to embed this kind of ability into their members, then this just added onto the already threatening nature of the Void. They had pokemon that could beat me in their sleep, and also had the ability to artificially make them even more dangerous. Although, I suppose it sort of saved us in the long run. If I wasn't able to poison Grace via my ability, then I really don't know how yesterday would have ended. Probably a lot less pleasant, and involving a lot more pain for both Naru and I. Hopefully that poison did just as much to her as it did to me.
After about a half-hour of following Cole, we had left Myriad, and were passing the outskirts that Naru and I explored yesterday. All of the plants were still here, and the grass looked as if it had been freshly cut overnight, which interested me. The residents of Myriad made sure their town was well-kept, even a mile or two away from the town. Whoever works like that must have some dedication.
Another ten minutes passed, and I made out a large, barn-like structure in the distance. It had a wooden exterior, and it looked like age was beginning to take its toll on its stability. I had a large feeling of dread pass through me as soon as I closed in on the building. I knew exactly why, but I still hated the feeling, even know I was about to willingly walk into it. Cole landed a small distance away from the structure and I walked over to him.
"Well, here it is. The place even looks dreadful from the outside." Cole said to me. I just stared at the nearly-collapsed structure, feeling more tense as time passed. "I'll wait for you out here. I think I'll sit this out, don't really have the strongest stomach…" Cole chuckled lightly, and I gave a small smile which was just a little bit forced.
"Alright… see you soon." I walked away from Cole and stood in front of the wooden barn. Without even entering the building, an absolutely putrid smell immediately invaded my nostrils, making me gag. The smell included a very large amount of blood, which I was more or less used to at this point, but what really got to me was what I assumed to be decomposition. I had never really smelled death like this since my parents were killed, and even then, two and twenty-five are very different numbers. I shook my head harshly, trying not to focus on the scent of the place. I prepared myself mentally for a few seconds, and then took my first step through the rectangular entrance to the structure.
Visually, I would never be scarred more than I was on my eighth birthday, but what I layed my eyes on as soon as I walked into this place evoked the same feeling of horror that I had that day, coming closer than anything else since then to replicating my disturbance and fear.
I immediately saw a pokemon right by the front door, their face slashed repeatedly to the point that I didn't see any features. No eyes, no nose, not even their mouth. The lower parts of their body looked mostly decomposed, so I couldn't decipher the species. After this first sight, I nearly passed out on the ground, and I felt so tempted to just turn around and walk out of this place. I had seen one body, and I was already wavering. Regardless, I pushed on into the deeper parts of the structure, only to be horrified again to a higher degree.
The next room of this place looked like the only other one, just a large open space made up of wood. Inside of this open area, I found a pile in the middle of the room. A giant pile of dead pokemon. I gagged again at the strong smell, and nearly vomited, bringing one of my forepaws up to my mouth to prevent myself from doing so. The aspect of a giant pile of dead bodies was enough to be horrifying, but what made it worse was their condition. All of them were completely maimed. I couldn't decipher any of their species from the position I was standing in. All of them had their faces mutilated, and many other piercings all over them. Some were even missing limbs, and those limbs were scattered across the floor around the pile of death. These bodies didn't look as bad as the first one though, so I should be able to decipher what kind of pokemon they belong to, I just needed to get closer. Calm down… you just need to verify their species, then you can leave this awful place.
I slowly but surely took a few steps closer to the pile of corpses, my muscles decreasing in speed with every step. My body began to uncomfortably shake, but I pushed towards the pile. Once I was about a foot away, I was able to further analyze the bodies in order to place their species. The first one I looked at didn't seem to have much damage other than a single piercing in their stomach, other than the fact that they had been decapitated. I recognized the body as a prinplup, and then started to walk around the pile, observing all of the corpses as closely as I could without making myself sick. I still gagged every now and then, but I managed to keep myself from going any further than that. Once I made my way around about half of the pile, I couldn't recognize a single pokemon species other than the first one. Although, most of them looked like adults, and I was told that a bunch of children were also killed. Right as I was hoping that the information was just a fluke, I laid my eyes on the other half of the pile.
Most of the pokemon on this side had recognizable species, meaning they weren't mutilated as badly as a lot of the other pokemon who died here. I wanted to just assume that whoever did this inflicted injuries at random, but a certain 'what-if' question popped in my head, and it was a distressing one. What if these ones didn't put up as much of a fight..?
I took another step closer, looking at the bodies in front of me. Examining more closely, I realized that they were indeed children. I grit my teeth through the realization, but that wasn't the only thing I found out from looking at these bodies. I was able to recognize four pokemon's species, four pokemon that nearly made me break down in the middle of this place. Three children, and one adult.
A darumaka.
A turtwig.
A pidgey.
A wigglytuff.
All four of these… all four of them were matched with species from pokemon at the camp. Three of them being the children that resided there, and one of them being a caretaker for the kids. There was no way this was a coincidence. I was looking at the second group of children from the camp, and their caretakers. I was staring at their grave.
I nearly lost control of myself and screamed, but I managed to hold back. I still backed up very quickly and started to take in quick, heavy breaths, no longer caring about the smell of the bodies. I needed to compose myself, otherwise, I wouldn't be able to stay calm for much longer. I stood in place, shaking like a leaf, not moving. I wanted to be wrong, I wanted to be wrong so badly, but it looked like my original theory was correct. I was staring at the bodies of pokemon I once protected, pokemon that did nothing wrong, pokemon who were friends with Shine.
It took everything I had within me to not have a mental breakdown. I turned my head away, refusing to look at the bodies any more. I looked at the ground instead, and I would keep looking at the ground until I found the will to move again. I wanted to focus on composure, but my eyes found a trail of blood that led to the wall behind me. Nervous, but intrigued, I turned my body around without looking up, not wanting to even glance at the pile of bodies again. Right in front of me was a large section of the wooden wall, nearly covered completely in blood. I was surprised at myself for not noticing it when I first walked in, but I suppose my attention was focused elsewhere. The blood looked as if it had been spread there intentionally, not off of killing one of the pokemon that was here at the time. It almost looked like it was trying to cover something up.
After further investigation, I realized that there was a letter, written in blood, on the far left of the wall, just beside the massive stain in the center. It was a simple 'N' on the wall. There was another odd shape next to it, looking a bit like another letter, but I couldn't decipher it. This told me that not every pokemon here died instantly. A few of them may have struggled, or even fought back, but ultimately couldn't stop whoever did this. Regardless, they really didn't give up until the very end…
I thought about all of the pokemon who died here, just living their lives like they were supposed to, but then massacred by a monster. I dug my claws into the floor out of anger. I couldn't grasp how someone could do something like this. It was disgusting, despicable, and it infuriated me to no end. Just being here upset me, and the longer I stayed, the more my emotions stood out to me. My rings began to glow intensely, and I don't know what caused it. My fear, my disturbance, my sadness, my anger. It could have been any of these, or a combination, but it didn't really matter.
In the past, I've felt plenty of anger towards the Void, but I never really had any sort of bloodlust towards them. I've never had any bloodlust, period. The ideology my parents passed onto me was a peaceful one, and one that made me cherish any sort of life. To me, killing was the worst thing you could do to a pokemon. You are single handedly taking away someone's existence, leaving nothing but memories behind. Because of my ideology, I never even thought about taking someone else's life, it seemed like the worst thing I could possibly do.
The feelings I had while standing in this barn… they were the closest thing I felt to bloodlust. I was angry, more so than I had been in a long time. I felt like… I wanted to hurt whoever did this, I wanted to make sure they payed for what they did here. Was this bloodlust? Feeling like someone needed to be hurt because of their actions?
I shook my head heavily, wanting to get these thoughts out of my head as soon as possible. I took one last glance at the pile of bodies in the center of the room, and with a blank expression, left the barn.
Hello Readers!
I don't really have anything to say in this author's note, so… I hope all of you are well!
Thank everyone who had sent me a review, a PM, or other miscellaneous things that make me a happy person, and thank you to my beta reader cleaning up my mistakes! (8-BitUmbreon)
See You Next Chapter!