"I think they want something from you."
"What?"
"I don't know, do something though, the staring's getting creepy."
Eclipse stared at the four pairs of eyes staring at him. His Zoroark was sitting beside his chair, talking telepathically as both staring at the three pairs of pale blue eyes, the youngest a shade grayer than his sisters, and bright amber covered by choppy bangs.
"What?" he finally asked, putting his laptop aside.
"Read us the next part of the story!" Nysa-Eon exclaimed, scrambling onto his lap and holding up the book. "Please Daddy! Tell it like Mommy did!"
Eclipse grunted something, setting his daughter on the knee and flicking through the book. Damn, this was an old thing. He glanced at the inside cover. Inside was two scribbled names, obviously done by children with a date, maybe when he had received it? Next to that was another date, a name written in choppy letters, maybe of that of a three-year-old, with the year 2020 next to it. Squinting his eyes, Eclipse could barely make out the name; Celina.
"This was my Daddy's book." Celina grinned, gently putting her hands over the name. "And before that, he said that it belonged to his Mama!" she put her hands proudly on her hips. "He said the first born kid gets the book, and I'm the third to get it!"
"Quaint." he stated, now understanding. Celina had added her name to the book when she turned three, probably a little after Aini was born.
"Are you going to read it or what?" Aini spat. Eclipse shot her a glare, pointing his finger.
"Watch the tone, missy." he scolded. Aini snapped her mouth shut, stewing silently for a moment, before glancing back at him with a calmer look on her face.
"You gonna keep going?" Iri asked, cocking his head. Eclipse was silent for a moment, flipping to the story Snow White. He had been listening the night before to Starlight's retelling, and figured he could do a decent job at part two.
"Eight years passed since Eclipse's mother was assassinated by Razan's assassins. Starlight, now eighteen, had grown into a very beautiful young woman and powerful psychic pokésoul, even though her powers were squandered," he put emphasis on that word, recalling how lazy his wife was when he had first met her, way back when they were teenagers. "She lived a happy life in town, basically mooching off her parents, not paying mind to her powers or abilities. Every once in a while, people would come with family members or friends, begging her to break some spell put over said person. Little did Starlight know, she was breaking Razan's brainwashing.
"In his castle, Razan constantly consulted his magic mirror to see who was the strongest psychic pokésoul of them all. Now, it was pretty well suspected that Razan was carrying out the assassinations of these psychic souls, but no one dared to speak word of it or believe those who screamed it to the world, as Razan was a kind ruler to the poor villages, and provided medicine, food, and necessities to them. Starlight hardly realized that her power was growing and she was painting a target on her back, but so long as the mirror told Razan "No one is more powerful than you, milord.", then Starlight was safe from the kings wrath..."
o.0.o.0.o
Starlight and the Kidnapper, Part Two
Razan angrily bored his eyes into the mirror on the wall.
Ever since he had become king a decade ago, Razan kept his title as 'strongest pokésoul' in his back pocket, safe and sound. He didn't really care much for the other Souls, as he could just brainwash them into becoming servants, but psychic souls were such a bother. Most of the time, they were hard to brainwash, if not immune to it, what with their partners constantly pulling them back to reality. He's even encountered some psychic souls who could figure out ways to break his brainwashing.
And that simply would not do.
Rare as it was, Razan was not about to take any chances with having a psychic soul pop up and overthrow his power. So he constantly consulted his magic mirror to see if there was anyone who was powerful enough to break his spell. He didn't need to assassinate anyone since that woman about eight years ago, but he had this sinking feeling for a couple months now.
And his damned magic mirror was being stubborn.
"Either tell me what I want to know, or so help me I will smash that mirror of yours."
"Please do!" the mirror responded. "Put me out of my misery!"
"Mirror..." Razan growled out.
"Geez, are you PMSing or something? Just say the damned rhyme and I'll tell you what you want." the mirror said. Razan narrowed his eyes.
"You would be better off to just say it." Hypno said. Razan sighed, crossing his arms.
"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the most powerful psychic soul of them all?" he demanded. He watched as the eyes on the face in the mirror went blank, waiting for the words in which he always spoke.
"Famed is she for her beauty and power, but equally notorious for her lack of ambition. A maiden has come of age. She lives far away from the castle, in a little town, where she is sought out far and wide to break your spell. Yet, so ignorant is she that she hardly even knows that her powers steadily increase every day."
Razan smirked at her stupidity, temporarily overthrowing his worry of this girl. He had nothing to worry about! If he planned this correctly, he could have her disposed of in a few days.
"What does she look like?"
There was a pause.
"Hair black as ebony, eyes like those of amethysts, with skin of porcelain." Slowly, an image appeared, replacing the mirrors spiritual face, showing a young woman with long hair, wearing a dark violet dress. She was walking through the town with a Gardevoir at her side. "The lights that twinkle in the night sky her namesake."
And like that, the image slowly disappeared.
"You got her face, correct, Hypno?" Razan asked, glancing at his partner. The pokémon smirked.
"Of course." a pause. "The mirror didn't give us a location, though."
"Yes, but we could simply-" Razan felt a sudden jolt go down his spine, cutting his train of thought short. Slowly, he turned his head towards the door, narrowing his eyes.
"Someone's out there." he said in his head. Hypno simply nodded, watching as Razan took steps across the room so quiet that Hypno doubted that pokémon with the best hearing could catch onto them.
Razan wrenched the door open, seeing no one. He stuck his head out, glancing down the hall, only to hear the sound of frantic footsteps and see the flash of a skirt.
"Guards!" he roared, several guards suddenly appearing out of no where. "Seize that girl!"
The chase was fairly quick as the girl was quickly outmatched by the well trained guards. Before long, the guards were dragging back a young woman with dark blue hair in gravity defying pigtails. She was glaring at them, eyes cold and reminding him of crystal, though he caught the faintest hints of underlying fear in the orbs, afraid of what was to come. Razan simply stood, practically towering over her hunched form, studying the maid.
"It's rude to eavesdrop on your superiors, young lady." he stated casually. The girl barely moved, not even blinking.
"What should we do?" Hypno asked. "Nightmares?"
"I don't see the point in that." Razan responded. A sudden idea popped into his head. This Starlight girl was catching the attention of people wanting to help those being brainwashed. He knew full well that no one would willingly give up her location as she was apparently such an asset. He also had an inkling that rebel forces have infiltrated his castle, and this girl had to be connected to them. If not, they will feel so bad for the girl they'll seek out the girl just to help her. So maybe if he simply...
"That's perfect, Razan." Hypno smirked.
"Someone secure her head." he ordered. One of the guards clamped his hand on her head, keeping it in a vice like grip so that she would be unable to move. She let out a terrified gasp, the first sound she made thus far, as Razan stood off to the side, his Hypno, eyes glowing blue, swinging his pendulum back and forth... back and forth... back and forth...
o.0.o.0.o
"Crys!" Gold called, grinning at his pigtailed wife. She continued walking, as if not hearing him. "Super Serious Gal?" he tried again, catching up to her and grabbing her shoulder. "Crystal!"
"Good evening, friend!" she exclaimed, finally responding with a bright grin on her face. "Isn't today glorious?"
"Uh..." Gold didn't know how to respond to that, exactly. Usually she always responded to him when he called her by one of her nicknames, and she was, essentially, a worrywart who probably would describe the current time as being anything but 'glorious'. Now that he really thought about it, he never, ever recalled Crystal calling anything glorious. And her cheerfully greeting him as friend? She'd rather call him idiot or something along the lines, despite the fact they were married. "Okay, then. Were you practicing alchemy with some strange mushrooms or something?"
"Oh, no, friend!" she grinned. "I'm just basking in the wondrous joy of working under our great king, Razan!"
Yep, something happened.
"Okay, then, Crystal..." he trailed off, unsure if she would respond to anything other than her full name. "Um, lets go talk to some people."
"More friends?!" she exclaimed.
"Yeah." Gold muttered, now officially creeped out. "More friends, Crystal."
"Oh, joyous day!" she clapped her hands, hardly phased as he took her hand and began to lead her down the hallways. Yep, she definitely wasn't Crystal. She would've kicked him upside the head by now. It didn't take long to get to the medical wing, seeing their friend, Yellow, happily flicking through medical books, practicing her herbal remedies.
"Yellow, we've got a problem." Gold said, approaching her. Yellow blinked, shutting the book and standing.
"Did you drink to much again, Gold?" she asked. Gold glared at her for the accusation.
"That was once!" he exclaimed. Yellow stared flatly at him. "Okay, maybe five times, but don't bring it up!" Yellow giggled.
"So what's the problem?"
"Crystal," Gold stepped aside, allowing Crystal to look at Yellow. "This is your friend, Yellow."
"Good evening, friend!" she chirped. "Isn't today glorious?"
Yellow sat there gaping for a good ten seconds before she regained her composure and turned to Gold.
"Razan brainwashed her." she stated simply. "I've seen it before from some of the guards that Red's brought in."
"So how do we fix it?" Gold asked frantically.
"We can't." Yellow said, shaking her head. "We need to find another psychic pokésoul to break the spell."
"Are you kidding?" Gold exclaimed. "Razan killed all the ones worth *bleep*, you know that!"
"Not entirely." Yellow said gently, holding up a letter. "Look at what I got from Ruby."
Gold took the letter, unfolding the paper and seeing an odd mix of letters making up 'words' that make no sense at all. But he knew it was a code that the resistance had set up. His eyes flew over the paper, his worried expression suddenly becoming that of hope.
"His hometown?" he asked, glancing at Yellow to confirm it. She nodded.
"Straight from the lips of Blue."
Gold figured the information had to have been pretty legit at that point. When it came to finding information, Blue was the best.
"When do you plan to leave?" Yellow asked.
"Tonight." Gold said. "I'm not going to risk this. I'm afraid that the longer that Crys is like this, the less likely we are to get her back completely. Or at least..." he glanced at the young woman, still standing off to the side, grinning like an idiot. "With her sanity still intact."
"That's probably for the best." Yellow said. "I'll send word to Red."
o.0.o.0.o
Razan smirked into the mirror, watching the hazy image of Gold, Crystal, and Yellow fade out.
"So do you want us to kill them or what?" the snarky voice of a girl said from beside him. Though her short stature and young age of fourteen(and a half) may seem innocent to some people, they were not to underestimate the notorious Sky Mayfly. Like him, she was also a pokésoul, only her partner was a bug type, a Scyther named Locke. Her occupation? An assassin.
Now one could be wondering, what kind of parents would allow their young girl to become an assassin at such a young age? Sky didn't know, as she was without parents. She didn't know if they were killed or she was abandoned, but she honestly didn't care. She had Locke and Locke was all she needed.
That, and Lucinda.
Lucinda was quite the contrast, height wise, to her young companion. She stood at a full six feet, making her seem quite menacing when she stood at her full height. Unlike her witty, sarcastic compadre, who had some odd thing for assassination missions, she generally did anything for money. Need a lost pokémon to found? Done. Robbing a bride of her ring on her wedding day? Not a problem. She'll do anything for money. One could say they only thing they shared was their hair color, black.
No one was really sure how the two came to be friends, or who they worked for, or much else for the matter, but everyone knew they existed. Everyone knew that if word came of them visiting the town, they better give them what they want, less the entire town goes up in flames. Dubbed only as the Little Assassinator and the Red Neck, for Sky's height and Lucinda's well known red scarf around her neck. No one dared to call them by these names, though. After all, Sky was very, very sensitive about her height.
Lucinda stood silently in the corner, uncaring of whatever the mission was, only waiting for a price to be named. The king hasn't called on an assassination mission in quite some time, and her ears yearned to hear the large sum they were guaranteed to get paid.
"No, those aren't your targets." Razan explained. The image shifted again, showing them a picture of Starlight's face. "She's your target."
"Another psychic soul, eh?" Sky mused, taking in her features. "Sounds fun. I've always liked these missions."
"I know." Razan nodded knowingly.
"We're getting paid the same as the other times, right?" Lucinda demanded, the first word she spoke since they had been called upon.
"Of course." Razan glanced over his shoulder at the twenty-two year old. "A deal is a deal, Lucinda."
Lucinda sat back into her corner, satisfied with the answer.
"Seems like an easy enough job." Sky grinned. "And the traitors?"
"Keep them alive." Razan said. "It's fun to watch them run around, trying to overthrow me. Once I get tired of them, though, I'll take care of them myself."
Sky pouted for a minute, obviously unhappy with not getting a chance to knock off a couple more people, but regardless, she remained firm in her stance.
"What do you want us to bring back?" Sky asked, recalling the last assassinations, in which the assassinators brought back a single body part. A hand, the eyes, something of the sort. Razan, in response, held up a small box.
"Bring me back her heart."
o.0.o.0.o
Starlight pouted as she kneeled in the dirt, pulling at a rather stubborn weed.
"I hate gardening!" she exclaimed with a frustrated sigh, throwing her hands in the air. Her Gardevoir, standing dutifully beside her, rolled her eyes.
"You hate all forms of work." she responded.
"Well, all forms of work is stupid." Starlight grumbled, grabbing the weed again and giving it a sharp yank. With a cry of victory, the weed came up, only for her to tumble onto her back.
To say the least, the victorious feeling was gone.
"Stupid weed!" she shouted, throwing it in some random direction.
"Ow!"
Starlight blinked in surprise as a voice echoed through the air. Had... the weed talked?
"Crap, if you're gonna throw weeds at customers, then at least give fair warning that that's your greeting!"
Starlight turned her head, and saw a male get off a typholsion, an explosion of spiky black hair coming from his head. Still sitting on the pokémon was a young woman with gravity-defying pigtails, happily humming to herself.
"A customer?" Starlight asked, standing up, wondering if they were travelers searching for a place to find food. It was, after all, very early in the morning.
"Yeah." the man said. "I'm Gold. I was told there was a Starlight Sūta here?"
"That's me." Starlight said, crossing the yard and holding out her hand in greeting. He hesitantly shook it. Starlight cocked her head as he dropped her hand as quickly as possible. "What do you need?"
"Crystal," he turned to the woman. She blinked, staring at him. "This is Starlight. She's going to help you."
"Good morning, friend!" she grinned. "Isn't today glorious?"
Starlight could feel her face fall.
"Come on." she said, gesturing them around the house. Gold led Crystal after her until the reached a small shed. Starlight opened the door and hustled them inside.
"Get her to sit down."
"What are you going to do?" Gold asked, sounding worried and a bit apprehensive.
"I'm just going to delve into her mind and ward off the brainwashing." Starlight said. "You're not the first one to bring someone like this."
"I can imagine." Gold muttered, gently pushing Crystal down on the floor. Starlight ignored him, gingerly placing her hands to Crystals temples, closing her eyes.
Almost immediately, she was plunged into a world of darkness.
You will follow the orders of Razan.
Razan is wonderful! Razan will lead this world to light!
No more war, no more sickness, no more hate.
The rich will perish.
We will rise above them.
Good morning, friend! Isn't today glorious? It's all thanks to Razan!
Starlight recognized the monotonous chant. Thoughts like this always echoed in the minds of those brainwashed. She always assumed that some over-enthusiastic subject to Razan who had done this. After all, the man who provided medical care and jobs and money to villages like her own wouldn't mercilessly brainwash innocent people.
Right?
She pushed those aside, delving deeper into her mind. She caught flashes of the girls memories; her as a little girl with broken arms, wrapped and bandaged, training with fighting with her feet, people she assumed were her parents, her growing up lavishly, then flames... fear... panic...!
"I'm here." she heard Gardevoir say. Starlight sighed, the reminder of her partner by her side calming her, and refocused on the problem at hand, pushing the memories aside as she delved past the memories, though voices of the past still drifted to her ears.
She suddenly came upon a door, seemingly padlocked shut. Starlight simply raised her hand, imagining the lock clattering to the ground. With her thoughts, the padlock fell, allowing Starlight access to the door.
Inside, she saw Crystal, though with a much different expression. She had a serious look on her face, pacing back and forth between the room, as if trying to figure out how to escape the prison in her own mind.
"Crystal?" Starlight asked. The woman whipped around, glaring coldly.
"Who are you? How do you know who I am?" she demanded, taking a fighting stance.
"I'm Starlight." she introduced herself, holding out a hand. "I'm here to bring you back to your senses."
"I don't trust you." Crystal said. "You could be Razan, trying to trick me." she narrowed her eyes. "You've already taken so much away from me. Did you have to take away my sense of self too?"
"I'm not Razan!" Starlight exclaimed, not fully understanding her accusation or her words. "I'm Starlight! Gold is waiting on the other side for you!"
Her face flickered at Golds name. Starlight held out a hand again.
"He's waiting, Crystal. Lets go back to reality."
Crystal glanced at her again, then slowly grasped her hand.
"This better not be a trick." she stated.
"It's not." Starlight responded, the walls suddenly crumbling around them. Starlight felt herself being pushed out of Crystals mind, indicating that the woman was done with the intrusion of the psychic soul, so she retreated. When Starlight opened her eyes, Gold was staring at her with an expectant look on his face.
"Well?" he asked. "Did ya fix my wife?"
"I believe so." Starlight said, moving her fingers from Crystals temples. The woman blinked her eyes, glancing around.
"Gold?" she asked, standing up. "Where are we?"
Gold let out a relieved sigh, then a happy chuckle, wrapping his arms around the woman and lifting her clear off the ground. Starlight smiled as Crystal began pounding her fists into his head.
"Seriously, you idiot?! We're in front of someone!"
"Details, details, Super Serious Gal." Gold responded, though set her down. "But *bleep* it's good to see you back to normal. You were starting to freak me out."
"Normal? Was I acting... odd?"
"You were brainwashed." Starlight offered helpfully. "Your husband, I guess, brought you here for me to break out out of it."
"Oh." Crystal muttered. "Well, thank you. Sincerely."
"Hey, it's not problem." Starlight smiled. "Do you need anything else?"
"No," Gold shook his head. "But watch your back from now on. No doubt that, if you can break the brainwashing, Razan already has a target on your back."
Starlight simply laughed.
"Me? What would a person like me do against the king? And why would he want a target on my back? Razan is a good person!"
Both shared a long glance before turning their gaze back to Starlight.
"Listen lady," Gold said, crossing his arms. "Here's a word of advice. Psychological damage was far worse than any beating, as beatings only last an hour, tops. Psychological damage is a thing that affects you for life."
"Remember that, okay?" Crystal offered. Starlight blinked at them, confused by their statement, but nodded regardless.
o.0.o.0.o
"So were the rumors true?" Eclipse asked from his perch on the tree branches as his Zoroark partner as he changed his appearance from that of a simple Pidgey to his true form.
"True as Razan is a *bleep*." Zoroak responded. "That girl is almost as powerful as your mother. I just watched her break a brainwashing spell over some woman. That's impressive in and of itself."
"I could care less if she could fix the brainwashing." Eclipse glared. "Is she capable enough to fix my problem?"
"She probably is, but she's so incompetent that she doesn't even know she could fix it." Zoroark crossed his arms and rolled his eyes. "Maybe if you had your mothers books..."
"They burned in the fire, you know that." Eclipse hissed at him. Zoroark winced internally at his partners boiling rage, but fell silent as his words.
"What are we going to do?" he asked after a moment of silence.
"We're going to make our move tonight." Eclipse said, leaning his head back on the tree. "Whether she wants to come willingly or not isn't my problem." he said, as if sensing Zoroarks retort. "All that matters to me is if she can continue to spell the eyepatch."
o.0.o.0.o
"People are confusing." Starlight stated as night fell, running a brush through her hair with more force than necessary.
"You're just annoyed that they didn't explain what they meant by that advice." Gardevoir said, standing in the corner with her hands folded politely. "You're used to everyone spilling their secrets to you and begging for advice. That was a challenge you weren't prepared for." Starlight sent a full wave of her annoyance at her partner, though said nothing as she knew she was right.
"They looked at me strange when I said Razan was a good person." Starlight said as she flopped on her bed. "What do you think that was about?"
"I don't know." Gardevoir said. "Maybe he did something that wronged them in the past? That guy kept thinking perverted things."
"About me? Better not tell Daddy." Starlight chuckled.
"About his wife, stupid." Gardevoir said, rolling her eyes. "He's obviously wary of psychic souls, so he probably thought that to steer me clear of reading his mind."
"Really? 'Cause he didn't seem all that intelligent." Starlight giggled, rolling over to look at her partner. Gardevoir laughed herself.
"Perhaps." a pause. "Did you get anything from the woman?"
Flashes of her memories went through Starlights mind, but she pushed those aside. Pointless, as Gardevoir immediately picked up on the memories.
"He's gotta be a good person." Starlight said more firmly. "If he wasn't a good person, he wouldn't have taken Millennium to help her with her problem. And Daddy wouldn't have let him take her if he was't a good person."
"Starlight..." Gardevoir murmured.
"Case closed!" Starlight said, flipping over and feigning sleep. She could hear Gardevoirs disapproving thoughts in her head, trying to get her to discuss the subject further, but Starlight ignored her, closing her eyes and waiting for sleep to claim her.
o.0.o.0.o
Starlight shuddered in her sleep, then jolted awake.
"Gardevoir?" she whispered, shivering in her nightgown.
"Do you feel it too?" Gardevoir asked, already awake. Starlight grimly nodded, kicking off her blankets and standing up. She was still shivering, but decided to wrap a knitted shawl around her shoulders to maybe ease the cold. It hardly helped.
Slowly, she eased through the house with Gardevoir at her side, first checking on her younger sisters, Luna and Sunny, chuckling slightly as she saw that Luna had snuck into Sunny's bed again. Even at the age of twelve, the two still hated being separated. It was cute.
She went down the hall to her parents room, the one closest to the staircase so that, if someone broke into the house, her father would be the first to jump up and hit the intruder with a punch. Through the wood, she could hear her mother snoring loudly, causing her to giggle softly.
"At least we know mom's okay." she said in her mind. In response, she hear Gardevoirs telepathic laughter. Starlight turned to the staircase, then walked downstairs. Once she was at the front door, she pulled on her black boots tying the laces tight around her shins.
"What are you doing?!" Gardevoir cried out. Starlight rolled her eyes.
"I'm just going to do a little parole then I'll come back in."
"What if someone tries to kill you? Or kidnap you? Or... Or...!"
Starlight rolled her eyes again.
"What's with you and the worst case scenario?"
"..."
Starlight grinned, thinking she won.
"What if your dad wakes up? He'll make you bake the bread again."
Starlight shuddered. She hated that job. One might think it was an easy job, but it took a lot of work. A lot of kneading the dough and mixing ingredients and having to slave over a steaming hot oven just to get a single loaf of bread ready. By the time the batch for the bakery was done, she had sore arms and hair drenched and sticking to her neck from sweat. She liked eating the baked goods, but making them...
She shuddered at the thought.
But something was really compelling her to go outside.
"I'll just tell him I started sleepwalking." Starlight shrugged.
"And you sleep-put-your-boots-on?" Gardevoir responded dryly. Starlight said nothing, tightening her grip on her shawl and walking outside.
Almost immediately upon walking outside, Starlight could hear Gardevoir's worried thoughts. She sighed, rolling her eyes at her companions worry. She swore she was like a mother.
"Lets go back inside." Gardevoir insisted as Starlight turned, looking over her shoulder.
"Where's your sense of adventure?" Starlight asked.
"I have a bad feeling..."
Starlight ignored that, finding nothing around her house. Now, she could have simply turned around and went back inside, but she knew she sensed something. Not anything could simply wake her up in the middle of the night.
"Do you sense it now?" Gardevoir asked. Starlight closed her eyes for a moment, then nodded grimly. She sensed two, maybe three people. Two of those wanted to cause her harm and the other... well, she couldn't place it. But the last one definitely wanted something from her.
"We can't exactly go back to the house now." Starlight thought grimly. "They might hurt Mom, Dad, and the twins."
"Then what should we do?!"
"Who's there?!" Starlight shouted.
"Don't announce yourself!" Gardevoir screamed.
"They already know where we are, so why bother hiding?"
"..."
Gardevoir didn't respond, taking up a battle ready stance.
"You're Starlight, right?" a younger voice asked. Starlight took a hesitant step back as a short girl with odd white eyes stepped out of the shadows, wielding knives in her hand and a menacing scyther at her side.
"... And what if I am?"
"Under orders of King Razan," she whipped around and saw a taller woman, also wielding a knife a Ditto at her side. "You must be executed."
"E-Executed?!" Starlight squeaked, utterly surprised at hearing such an order from the very man whom she saw, nearly, as a saintly person who helped the poor. "Why? I haven't done anything wrong!" she paused. "King Razan is a good man! He... He would never order something like that! You've got to be lying!"
"Did you seriously think all those assassinations of strong psychic pokésouls was purely coincidentally?" she whipped back around to the younger girl, Gardevoir keeping an eye on the taller woman. Starlight could feel the wheels turning in her head. The girl in front of her was to young to have committed the last reported murder, that one was eight years ago. Did that mean that Razan actually...?
"Truth hurts, doesn't it?" she heard the taller woman say behind her.
"Gardevoir, what do we do?!" Starlight practically shrieked to her partner.
"Fight?" Gardevoir offered weakly.
"Fighting is pointless, really." the taller one said.
"I'm Sky and that tall one is Lucinda." the smaller one grinned maliciously. "Perhaps you heard of us?"
Starlight swallowed.
"Doesn't matter." Sky shrugged. "We haven't failed an assassination mission yet."
"I'm not loosing any profits on this." Lucinda muttered behind her.
"Locke, get rid of her partner!" Sky grinned maliciously. Starlight gasped as the scyther bolted forward, bladed arms glinting as he aimed for Gardevoir. Before she even had a chance to order an attack, a shiny Zoroark lashed out, throwing the pokémon off course.
"Sorry to interrupt your little 'assassination' attempt," a male voice said, walking onto the scene, saying the word assassination mockingly. "But I need the girl."
"Are you mocking us, eyepatch kid?!" Sky exclaimed. Starlight took a closer look at him, seeing that he did, indeed, have an eyepatch over his right eye, layered purple hair falling to his shoulders. Starlight found it odd that Sky called him 'eyepatch kid' considering he looked to be nearly nineteen. Starlight just barely caught hold of the fact that he was, indeed, a pokésoul before he turned to his Zoroark. "Dark Pulse."
"Gardevoir-!" Starlight barely managed to scream before the attack was unleashed, a burst of pain going through her skull as Gardevoir fainted from the super effective attack. Starlight clutched her head, nearly falling to her knees as her connection to her powers were suddenly cut off. She knew the attack wouldn't be enough to knock her out, but she would be lying if she said that it didn't hurt...!
"Come on!" the man hissed, roughly grabbing her wrist and dragging her through the town.
"Wait!" Starlight exclaimed, looking over her shoulder. "Gardevoir...!" She let out a quiet sigh of relief as she saw the Zoroark following with her partner on his back. "Who are you?!"
"Are you planning on waking the whole *bleep* down?" the man hissed. "If it helps, my name is Eclipse and I don't want to kill you, they obviously do, so what's the better choice?"
Starlight mused over that for a moment. If he wanted her dead, he could have had the capability to do so, right?
Starlight suddenly felt something skim her cheek and squeaked as a knife clattered to the ground. Eclipse glanced at it.
"Persistent little *bleep*." he muttered as they reached the edge of the town.
"Eclipse, we can't go in there!" Starlight exclaimed as they approached the edge of the Forbidden Forest. "Anyone who-!"
"You don't get a choice!" Eclipse hissed at her, dragging her into the darkness of the trees.
"He's getting away with our bounty!" she heard Sky shriek. Lucinda let out a groan. Starlight assumed she was unhappy about loosing her profit from her death. "Listen here, Eyepatch Kid!" Sky yelled. "If I wanted you dead, you'd be dead, understand?!"
Eclipse scoffed.
"Same here." he muttered.
Starlight suddenly felt very, very worried that she made a terrible mistake.
o.0.o.0.o
"Well, this is just great." Lucinda grumbled. "All that profit, lost."
"You're worried about profit?" Sky snapped. "I'm more worried about becoming a brainless slave, thank you very much!"
"As if he could get close enough to you." Lucinda grumbled.
A pause.
"They're both good as dead in that forest, anyways." Sky scowled. "I'd like to have killed her myself, but no one came out of the Forbidden Forest alive."
"Thus the name." Lucinda scoffed. "But we need her heart in order to get paid."
"Are you serious?! I'm not going to go and get poisoned by Arceus-knows-what in that forest for some money, Red!" Sky hissed. Lucinda thoughtfully twirled her knife in her hand.
"What if we could still make a profit?"
"Oh, Arceus, did you not-!"
Lucinda slapped her hand over her mouth. Sky glared at her. If it was anyone else, sky would have sawed their hand off.
"I never said we had to go into the forest." Lucinda stated calmly. "Lets just kill some pokémon and put its heart into the box. Once we get paid, we run like *bleep*. It's a win-win."
Sky paused.
"Except for Razan." Sky snickered. Lucinda smirked.
"Except for Razan."
o.0.o.0.o
"I can't believe it..." Iri trailed off, looking up at Eclipse in awe. "He did it! He made Snow White actiony!"
"That's 'cause that's how it actually happened!" Nysa-Eon beamed. "My Daddy really did save my Mama from assassins!"
"Your Dad is cool!" Iri beamed.
"If you're satisfied," Eclipse said, snapping the book closed and holding it to Celina. "Go to bed."
"Will you tell the next part tomorrow?" Iri asked. Eclipse glared at him.
"N-"
"Please Daddy?" Nysa-Eon begged. Eclipse glanced at her, and felt the word die on his lips.
"Fine." he grunted out, pointing to the stairs. "Go to bed."
Nysa-Eon and Iri grinned, happily chattering up the stairs to get to their rooms. Once the children were soundly in bed, Starlight came into the room.
"So that's all it takes now, huh?" she teased. Eclipse glanced at her as her face went to a simpering look, similar to that which her daughter donned. "'Please Daddy?'"
"Don't look at me like that." Eclipse huffed.
"She has you wrapped around her little finger." Starlight commented. Eclipse shot her an almost playful glance.
"She got it from her mother."
o.0.o.0.o
So, disclaimer time! Lucinda, Sky, and Razan belong to StattStatt, PokeSpeBanette, and KiwiWizard respectfully. The idea of Pokésouls belongs to KiwiWizard respectfully.
I had to write a chapter where I could tease Eclipse. He's such a fun character to tease! While I was writing the parts of him reading the story, i just saw him sitting in a suit and tie with a pipe in his mouth and a monocle over his eye. I'm sure if his little girl asked him nicely, he'd do it too.
XD
So yeah. I watched both Snow White and the Huntsmen and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, and I was like... neither plot lines really fit the characters. So we're taking a different approach, but I'm going to make it as similar to the original story as possible.
And with this, it seems that Red, Yellow, Crystal, and Gold are in a rebel force against the king! What could they be planning?
Amy47101 signing off! ^.^