Sylvia confronts the Darkness. But what is the Darkness? And can Sylvia hope to overcome it? Or will she find herself trapped in sleep like all others who enter the Forest of Darkness? Can such a thing as this be reasoned with?

Also, thank you to everyone who read my story "The Heir to the Dragon". I would appreciate if you continue to read and support it in the future! You can get there through my profile!

The votes for the Elimination Round have begun to pick up, that's pretty good! Hope we can start getting them to role in! I've been very surprised by the results of this poll so far, some people are leading that I never would have expected, and some people are trailing behind who I thought would be frontrunners. Just goes to show how much things have changed since last year!

Nominated: Alcea, Ayame, Carrie, Caelia, Cynthia, Dakota, Darla, Elaina, Elizabeth, Julia, Kate, Kitty, Lila, Maddi, Marion, Nikita, Olivia, Sango, Sylvia

Rowlets and Oshawotts: It definitely is going to be something interesting to see, I promise you that. The question is, what will it amount to?

JoshGamerV: Who can say? Maybe the Darkness is that sensation that you feel. That fear when you're sitting alone at night, and the lights are out, that primal fear of the dark that all of humanity instinctively possesses. Or maybe not. I dunno yet.

KedharS: All of Sylvia's gambits are crazy lol.

Aquahaze675: Interesting, why would you think that?

Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings

Chapter 644

The Darkness tilted her head to the side, her face nearly slipping off in confusion, in a way that unnerved Sylvia. A crooked smile stretched across the Darkness's face, and she began to giggle, her body shaking as she burst into laughter.

Well. That was not the response Sylvia had expected to get.

"Escape? Escape? There. Is. No. Hope. Of. Es. Cape." The Darkness laughed, throwing her head back and shaking with a wicked cackle. "Never never never never never. Never. A. Gain. No. One. Who. Sleeps. Es. Capes."

"Well, like you said, I'm not asleep, am I?" Sylvia asked mockingly, not letting her uneasiness at the sight of the cackling duplicate get the better. A smirk pulled its way up her lips. "Just the opposite, in fact, you've said it yourself. You can't do anything to me."

"But I won't help you, either," the Darkness said, immediately sobering up. "True, you are…" She inhaled, stepping close to Sylvia, pressing her chest up against the other girl's, "…difficult. An annoyance. An. IR. I. TANT." She sucked in air, and pulled away from Sylvia, moving fluidly as her fingers danced across Sylvia's cheek. "But still no. Not. Poss. I. Ble."

Sylvia's eye twitched in irritation. "Now why do I get the feeling that what you're telling me isn't the truth?"

A wicked smile crossed the Darkness's face, and she gave a strange, droopy shrug.

"It's just the way it is, I'm afraid. There is no escape from sleep. But you are right. This is not sleep. And I can't stand it. The silence, the free thoughts, they dig and dig and dig and dig and dig and dig it's so noisy so painful, WHERE IS THE SCREAMING? Where where where?!"

Sylvia took a step back as the Darkness broke down into a crazed ran, scraping at herself and pulling at her hair and skin so violently Sylvia thought she was going to tear her face off. It was quite a sight. Except she soon composed herself, straightening up and adjusting her crooked smile like there was nothing wrong.

"It looks like I'm driving you a little crazy, aren't I?" Sylvia smirked, stroking her chin in contemplation. "I wonder why that would be… could it be, that my mind is actually causing you stress? I must say, you wouldn't be the first, but still-"

"BUT WHY?!" The Darkness growled, lunging at her and shoving her down to the ground. Sylvia realized when she hit that it wasn't sand she was lying on, but smoothness. The Darkness straddled her, staring down at her with a wildness in her blue eyes. Sylvia had never remembered making THAT expression before.

It was rather interesting, to see her own face panicking like this. Panic wasn't something she was accustomed to seeing, after all. But Sylvia didn't have the time to contemplate her duplicate's visage, because the Darkness was still ranting at her like a lunatic.

"Where are the screams? The screams?! I feel no love from you, only silence, will! Sleep! Just sleep! Sleep so that I can become part of you, if you stay awake then I just can't sleep, and I long to sleep, I need to sleep. If you're still awake, then I'm still awake, so… GO. TO. SLEEP!" The Darkness howled, thrashing above Sylvia as Sylvia held her tongue.

The Darkness's rants revealed quite a lot, actually.

"So that's it. Tell me, what would you want from me, if I were to go to sleep?" Sylvia asked. "Because I agree, me being awake like this, mostly asleep but not able to dream, that's not normal at all, now is it, Darkness?"

The Darkness's only response was a growl of anger. She pulled herself off Sylvia, slithering away like a shadow, circling the edges of the chamber of fog.

The anger then slid from her face, much to Sylvia's surprise.

"Let me explain to you, how. This. Usu. All. Y. Goes," the Darkness said, her voice a venomous whisper that dug into Sylvia's ear, much to her irritation. Sylvia winced, pulling away from the Darkness, and narrowed her eyes suspiciously. The way this thing acted…

Sylvia was quickly reconsidering her doubts that this creature wasn't an eldritch abomination of some sort. Because while she wasn't acting like how Sylvia would have expected one to act, she wasn't acting entirely sane, either.

Then again… I don't exactly have much experience with eldritch deities, so maybe I'm completely wrong on this, she admitted to herself. Maybe an eldritch abomination like the Darkness didn't even operate under basic human thoughts and attitudes. For all she knew, this thing operated beyond her human sensibilities.

Well, I never thought I'd encounter something whose level of thinking was even more inscrutable than mine, Sylvia mused, suppressing her smirk. "Well now, I'm waiting," she purred, batting her eyelashes flirtatiously at her duplicate. "Tell me, how does this… 'usually' go?"

"Oh, nothing to complicated, you come in here, you go to sleep, and then I step in and, mmm, yes, take control, give you a little bit of a show," the Darkness mused. "Then we have some fun, you scream, cry, wail, rip out your own eyes at the horrors as your body burns itself up from within, you know, all the fun things as I let your mind bathe in horror, BUT. Unfortunately, we can't play that game right now. I can enter your dream, see juuuuuuusst on the surface of your thoughts, but I. Can. Not. Do. A. Damn. Thing!"

Sylvia cracked a smirk. "Well, sorry to disappoint. But I will say, if you want into my head, you better tread lightly. My brain's not a very nice place to be."

"Oh, I know, I just peeled back the outer layers, and I found soooooo much to work with, mmm, yes, quite interesting," the Darkness hummed. "But still, we. Stll. Have. A. Pro. Blem." She raised her hand to her chin and stroked it, circling Sylvia. "What do I do with you? Because I can't have you here, I simply can't. Not like this. I need to sleep, you see. But if you can't sleep, then I can't sleep, because I can only sleep in the darkness, with the screams of your nightmares sustaining me. But like this? In your present condition, no no no no no."

"Like I said. Let me go." Sylvia raised her shoulders in a shrug, pulling a broken grin over her face that mimicked the Darkness's. "Because right now, I'm not seeing that you have very many other options, personally."

"You TASK me, Sylvia Driscoll, are you aware of that?" The Darkness asked, and Sylvia could just HEAR the seething in her voice. "Letting you humans escape from me, that's just not in my nature, no no no, I need to keep you here, in this sleep, forever. So just. Tell Me. How. You. Did. It." Her voice dropped to a menacing hiss.

Sylvia wasn't intimidated. The Darkness was raging, hissing, and screeching at her, but right now, Sylvia held all the cards.

She was getting a better feeling for the way this… creature operated. If she (it, they, etc.) was going to actually try and raise a hand against her, strike out at her, try to do anything to her, it just would have done so.

But the Darkness had come here for a chat.

Simply by the fact that a creature like this would come to her, to try and talk with her instead of just DOING, that meant that it had no choice. What was in front of her was a helpless little child. A child that was capable of putting humans, pokemon, and who knows what else to sleep for an eternity, certainly, a child whose origins were completely unknown to Sylvia and may be beyond definition, definitely, a child whose level of thinking was beyond the scope of human consciousness, maybe.

But a child who could do nothing to hurt her. Simply raging and screaming, but powerless to affect her mind, since she was not currently asleep.

Sylvia momentarily felt a bit of pity for the Darkness, but cloaked it behind a mask of smug supremacy as she stared at her own glowering face. She smirked.

"The way I see it, it's still exactly like I said. You have a very limited range of options," she explained, shrugging her shoulders. "You can continue on like this, trying to get me to fall into a 'real' sleep, and then you and I can dance around like this for the rest of eternity with you not being able to get any peace at all, no 'real sleep' for you, miss madness of shadows. Does that sound like an appealing idea for you?"

The Darkness growled at her, and Sylvia saw what real hatred looked like on her face for the first time ever. It was quite an interesting sight to see. She was getting all sorts of interesting ideas about how she was supposed to act today.

"This existence is intolerable!" The Darkness roared, thrashing around. She disappeared and reappeared in puffs of shadows, the fog swirling and thickening around Sylvia as the Darkness appeared before her, face flushed with rage.

Sylvia's smirk widened. She had seen frustration before, though never to this extent. The Darkness was certainly an interesting model for an exaggeration of her emotional states. How fascinating. But right now, it meant something far more important.

"Well now, I agree, this situation is quite intolerable," Sylvia mused. "But you see, that only leaves one option remaining for us, doesn't it?"

The Darkness growled again.

"Come now," Sylvia said, her tone a mocking croon. "I know aaaaaaaaaalll the thoughts in that cute little head of yours. I know that you know what the other option I'm going to say is, so let's not play games now."

Sylvia relished in the look of frustration that crossed the Darkness's face as she had her own words throw back at her. It was just delicious.

"…Or maybe you just want to hear me say it," Sylvia purred as a finish. The Darkness couldn't look more like she wanted to rip Sylvia apart if she tried.

"You blasted human," the Darkness rasped. "Humans like you, who violate my territory, disturb my peace, bring me nothing but pain! I'll kill you, drive you crazy, kill you all, make you suffer!" She spat out helplessly.

Sylvia grinned. She really was a child throwing a temper tantrum. It felt wrong to be excited by her own look of frustration, but Sylvia was the kind of girl who relished in feeling wrong. "Well, that's all nice and sweet and good," she continued. "But I think I should get down to business. Don't you agree? We both know what I'm going to say, so let's just get it over with."

"I WILL NOT LET YOU GO!" The Darkness roared. She slumped down, slamming her hands against the ground in frustration as her eyes burned up at Sylvia with contemptuous hatred. It was a sight to see, certainly, one that actually surprised Sylvia for an instant.

Sylvia narrowed her eyes. She couldn't believe this thing could be so stubborn. Even knowing that the alternative was an eternity of torment, she still wouldn't let Sylvia go free? Wait… Maybe Sylvia had this wrong from the start. She "would" not? Or...

"Are you… not capable of freeing me?" Sylvia asked. The Darkness glared up at her. That would take Sylvia some reconsidering.

"I am the Darkness. I trap life in sleep, to feed upon your souls and make you suffer!" The Darkness roared.

"Now nice. Let me out now please," Sylvia scowled.

"I… will… not…" The Darkness hissed. "I. Will. Not."

"You CAN not," Sylvia corrected her. "For all your boast and bluster, could it be that you're as much of a prisoner here as I? That's it, isn't it? Your real body, this Darkness… you're just the shadows themselves. You only exist in my mind. You only have form in the dreams of others."

"I… have a real body…" the Darkness hissed. "I was… sealed here. Altered. That monster! Stole me, sealed me, trapped me here, how?! Freedom, need freedom, pain, suffering, nightmares, nothing but pain, need my pain! Need your pain and madness!"

"So you were sealed here… just like the Valdette said," Sylvia mused. "I wonder, were you sealed here from the start? Are you what this dimension was designed to trap here, is that it? Because that sounds to me like it could be-"

"NO!" The Darkness roared, springing to her feet. The crooked smile she wore was at odds with the fury in her voice. "No no no, no… yes. Yes! But… not. What. You. See."

"Oh. Well, I figured it wasn't me that was trapped here," Sylvia said, raising her eyebrow. The Valdette had said that the Darkness had been sealed here by the Traveler. Logically, that would make her think that that would mean that the Darkness was NOT what this dimension was designed to imprison. But Sylvia did not trust in the Traveler. It seemed a little too suspicious that someone had directly sealed away this "Darkness". So she just had to ask.

And there was something else that the Darkness had said that had made her suspicious, as well. "But you say you do have a real body?"

"Shall I show him to you?" The Darkness asked, her smile spreading even wider, so wide it nearly split Sylvia's face in half. "If we're going to be here for an eternity of torment, I might as well make it a little bit enjoyable for you!"

Sylvia felt like the Darkness didn't really mean that.

The Darkness began to stretch herself, Sylvia's figure shifting and scraping back, her skin darkening until there was no trace of her in the creature before her. The fog widened, an imposing aura exerting itself as the Darkness grew, towering over Sylvia like a hulking mountain of shadow. Sylvia stared at the slowly-expanding bulge with a rather nonplussed reaction.

The creature towered over three times her height, staring down at her with glowing blue eyes. Its body was oily, covered in dark scales, claws and blades stretching out of its rotund form.

The thing was almost entirely mouth. A giant void in the center of the beast, deep and yawning and bottomless. Two large clawed appendages jutted out of the yawning chasm, gnashing hungrily towards Sylvia from behind golden fangs. Another blue set of eyes rested atop the mouth, as though the creature had not just a head, but a second half, as well.

Sylvia raised her eyebrow. That was quite a show, alright.

"What do you thiiiiiiink?" The creature rumbled, ravenous tongues reaching towards Sylvia as it stepped closer to her. "Do you liiiiiiike my true foooorm?"

"So this is what you really look like, huh?" Sylvia smiled. "I have to agree, it's definitely the appropriate guise for one who would claim to be king of the 'Realm of the Ravenous'." She took a deep breath, and sighed.

"But, no," she said, shaking her head. "No no no, we both know that's not you. Not really. Come now, Darkness, let's not play games."

"What do yoooou meeeaaaan?" The hulking figure rasped. "Do yooooou not see this beaaast befoooorre you?! I am the Darkness! Devourer of all! The shadow that devours in the dark, the all-consuming void, I am-"

"I don't know what Halloween store you found this costume in, and honestly, I don't really care," Sylvia said, waving her hand back and forth dismissively. "But if that was what you really looked like, then you wouldn't have wasted your time coming here looking like me, now would you? No, I think appearing like that must be rather taxing, no?" Sylvia strolled back and forth, circling the large creature with a discerning eye.

"Rrrraaoorrrrgh!" The Darkness roared.

"I'm thinking that since I'm not sleeping normally, you can only comfortably take forms I'm aware of. You do have a true form, do you not? But it wouldn't be an intimidating figure like this. If it was, then you would have come to me like this, would you not? So I hypothesize that you cannot show me your true form at all," Sylvia reasoned, tapping her chin with her finger. She stopped walking, pulling back and stretching, flinging her arms out in presentation. "Well? What do you think of my answer, Darkness?"

"How cleverrr," the Darkness rumbled, making a shaking sound like she was laughing. Sylvia joined with a light chuckle.

"And, finally… I don't see something with a mouth like that needing to resort to putting people to sleep," Sylvia finished with a smirk.

"Ha ha ha…" The Darkness rumbled. "You speak with great wit, Sylvia Driscoll… and you're right, you know. This form, it is no more than another disguise." She shrunk down and returned to Sylvia's form, wearing a smirk on her face.

"That was quite a fascinating disguise," Sylvia admitted. "You certainly have a flare for the dramatic, I will say."

"As one who places the darkness of dreams in the thoughts of others, of course I am such a thing," the Darkness cackled. "NOW. Then. Syl. Vi. A. We. Shall. Talk. More."

"That thing, what was it?" Sylvia mused. "I'm assuming that's what this dimension was originally designed to keep imprisoned? Considering what you were saying earlier."

"I sensed something like that in its mind," the Darkness agreed. Her eyes twinkled with a savage gleam. "Something or other about a devourer, sealed away somewhere with nothing to consume. But it no longer matters. It joins me in the sleep, like so many others."

"Enough posturing," Sylvia said, narrowing her eyes. "You wanted to talk more? Another scare tactic? I don't think that'll work, you should know that well enough."

"I. Do. Not. Wish. To. Let. You. Go." The Darkness spoke with such surety, that Sylvia wondered why her words were so desperate. Then, she let out a sigh. Ancient and filled with malice, the sort of sigh that Sylvia could not believe came from her own lips. "But. I. Have. No. Choice. Go. Do. Not. Re. Turn. To. This. Place."

The fog lifted and Sylvia blinked, the darkness disappearing with the Darkness herself. The trees were clear, now, and the forest was bared before her. The Darkness had let her awaken.

A smile crossed Sylvia's lips.

Well now, she mused. That wasn't so bad at all.

In the end, not even an eldritch abomination is capable of halting Sylvia's progress when she wants something. Hopefully, she'll be able to get out of this place intact and return to Blake. Maybe they can finally go home.