"Yunyi?" Starlight asked, surprised to see her at their door, her partner, still a Kirlia, standing by her side. The young woman smiled, tucking some of her black hair behind her ear, though her shyness that she seemed to keep from her childhood showed through slightly.
"Hi." she offered.
"Um, hi." Starlight smiled, happy to see her again, though slightly confused. What was she doing here so late?
"Yunyi!" Nysa-Eon smiled, hugging the girl she considered an older sister around the legs. "Are you moving back in yet?" Yunyi smiled, patting her head.
"Was that your plan all along?" Yunyi giggled. Nysa-Eon stepped back, smiling.
"Who was at the door?" Eclipse asked as he glanced around the corner. Nysa-Eon beamed at her father. Eclipse raised an eyebrow, staring at Yunyi.
"Hey Yunyi." he said, completely unfazed by her late arrival.
"Nysa-Eon invited me." Yunyi said as Starlight stepped aside, inviting her inside. "She said Eclipse was going to read her a story, and that he was really good at it."
"Meaning he said it in a tone other than deadpan." Starlight joked. Yunyi smiled.
"Yeah. So to speak, I had to see it to believe it."
Though initially surprised that Nysa-Eon had called Yunyi, Starlight couldn't say she was initially surprised. Yunyi had become a part of their family when she was a child with her and Eclipse being teenagers. Once big adventure later, the orphaned Yunyi was, to say the least, a part of her family, becoming something akin to a little sister to her and Eclipse, even though she had a feeling that Yunyi saw them as surrogate parents.
Yunyi was a pretty important member of the family now. Starlight made her a bridesmaid in her and Eclipse's wedding, was dutifully supportive of any event that they partook in, and basically watched Nysa-Eon grow up. Only recently had she moved out, still visiting regularly, though travelled throughout Hoenn, trying to find something to do with her life.
The duo made it to the living room, were Nysa-Eon was basically being dragged around by Eclipse, holding onto his arm.
"Daddy, you promised!" Nysa-Eon giggled, pulling at her father's arm again. Eclipse grunted, pretending to be annoyed.
"Yeah, Daddy," Starlight teased as Yunyi giggled. "You promised." Eclipse shot her a small glare, but shook himself free and began climbing the stairs to her room.
"C'mon!" Nysa-Eon exclaimed, turning to Yunyi. "Everyone's waiting!"
Purposefully slow, Eclipse sauntered down the hallway, into Nysa-Eon's room that she was sharing, currently, with Celina. The other three were happily sitting around the room dark room. Eclipse could barely see Iri staring in awe at the little stars that glowed in the dark on Nysa-Eon's ceiling. Celina was pointing out different shapes while Aini seemed less interested.
Eclipse flicked on the light, catching the attention of the three children.
"Your ceiling looks like the sky!" Iri exclaimed.
"It took a lot of work." Nysa-Eon boasted proudly. "Daddy and Mommy had to do a lot of research to get it right!" she looked up at her father. "But it looks so pretty!"
"Yeah. Pretty." Eclipse echoed, going into the room and settling at the foot of the bed, on the floor in front of the children. Celina dutifully passed him the book.
"Who're you?" Aini asked as Yunyi kneeled beside them.
"This is my big sis, Yunyi!" Nysa-Eon smiled. "She met my Mommy and Daddy when she was a kid too, and now she got adopted into the family!" she pouted. "But she left to go on her own journey."
"So why's she here?" Aini asked. Nysa-Eon smiled.
"I asked her to come." the girl turned to her father. "Is Yunyi going to be in the story?"
"It wouldn't be a story of how your mother and I came to be if Yunyi wasn't in it." Eclipse muttered, flicking through the book.
"It's that story again?" Yunyi asked, sounding a little exasperated. Nysa-Eon insisted on having her parents tell that story every time she came over, and what with practically experiencing half the story, Yunyi was quite tired of it.
"Aren't you a little old for stories?" Aini asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Not at all!" Celina exclaimed, sounding flabbergasted by such an accusation. "No one is to old for a good story!"
"This story is different!" Iri grinned, falling over Yunyi's lap. "Mr. Eclipse made it actiony!"
Yunyi smiled at his excitement, though wondered what he meant by 'actiony'. Wasn't the tale actiony enough?
o.0.o.0.o
Starlight and the Kidnapper, Part Three
"Come on." Starlight heard the man currently dragging her around hiss at her. Starlight let out a gasping breath as she stumbled over more tree roots. She's never been much of a runner or a fighter, and she was suddenly very regretful for being so lazy. Without her powers, all she really had was her looks, and looking pretty only got one so far. This had to be either some sick punishment from the pokémon gods above, or she was suddenly getting dealt one whammy of a karma card from her past life.
And if the latter was the case, she wanted to know what the heck past her did to freaking deserve getting almost assassinated and then kidnapped by some random pokésoul man.
"Seriously," she huffed, falling to her knees. Eclipse nearly wrenched her arm off at her sudden stop, but kept a firm grip on her wrist as he turned to look at her. "I can't run anymore."
"Would you rather die?" he asked bluntly.
"They aren't following us." Starlight shook her head. "This is called the Forbidden Forest for a reason. We're both doomed. No one goes into this forest and come out alive."
He scoffed.
"You don't believe me?" Starlight said, looking up at him. "I know for a fact that a couple from my very own town, both with prominent fathers, went into this forest and they never came out. A group of men went in to search for them, and all they got was the girls bandana and the boys glasses. And another time, a foreigner couple, a nobles daughter and her bodyguard, went in under the insistence of the male and neither came out! On top of that, in another town, an entire family, the man a noble, the woman married to him, with an infant girl, all went in as the man wanted to research the forest and the woman thought it would be a 'fun family outing' and no one came out!"
Eclipse seemed to not care or didn't believe her, as he continued his blank stare.
"And if that's not enough, rumor has it that a little girl went in about two years ago. A child! Now tell me where they went and why you thought it was a good idea to just frolic in here!"
"You're loud." he commented. "And you shouldn't believe such silly tales."
"Tales?!" he shot her a glare that demanded she be quieter. Not willing to anger her kidnapper, she obliged. "What do you mean, tales?"
"The first couple probably went to the next town over for protection from the king, as their parents are both prominent, and they went through this rumored 'forbidden' forest to make it look like they died. Same reasoning for the second couple, only they were probably want to elope or something. Again, same reasoning for the nobles family. He packed up his family and took them into the forest for protection from the king."
"And the little girl?"
"A silly rumor made up by children."
"You can't just brush it off like that."
"I can do as I please." Eclipse responded, yanking her up again. "Now get up. Break time is over."
"No." Starlight shook her head. "I'm going home. Those people saw what house I came out of. What if they attack my family?"
"If they wanted to attack your family, don't you think they would have snuck into the house and slaughtered all of you? No doubt they have the ability to do so."
"Don't talk like that." Starlight muttered trying to twist her wrist free. He was gripping her wrist so tight she was pretty sure that there would be bruises the next morning. "I'm going home."
"You can't go home." he stated, refusing to relinquish his grip.
"And why not?" Starlight snapped at him.
"A lot of reasons." the man shrugged. "The assassins could come back and kill you, the king could send better assassins, you could put a huge target on your family's back simply for being there, and that's all if you manage to find your way out of the forest in the dark without killing yourself or getting killed by something else."
Starlight winced, but hope that he didn't see it.
"And if I do leave and I do make it back to my hometown and no one kills me, what will you do?"
"I'll kill your partner."
Starlight opened her mouth in shock, though didn't dare to speak. This guy was a soul as well, so he should know the bond that Pokésouls and their designated partner share. Harm upon the pokémon usually reciprocates with mental harm on the human. To mentally have to die, especially for a psychic soul like herself...
She didn't even want to think about having to loose Gardevoir, let alone the feeling of dying and living the rest of her life without her 'other half'.
"And if I save Gardevoir?"
"You're delusional in and of itself, but lets say you get away, back to your family, completely unharmed in this forest, where assassins won't attack you, and the corrupted king will ignore your obviously powerful psychic presence, with your partner." Eclipse said, every word making Starlight feel even stupider than before. "I'll come after you again, drag you into this forest again, and keep doing so until I get what I want."
Starlight lowered her gaze to the ground. She was really in a pickle now, wasn't she? This man took every idea of having things working in her favor and mercilessly shot it down. It felt as if he was already several steps ahead of her.
What does he want so badly? The question kept mulling in her head, but she didn't want to ask this guy something and make him lash out. She'd consult with Gardevoir when she woke up, but until then, it became painfully obvious that she was on her own.
"Lets keep moving." he stated, turning, finally relinquishing the grip on her wrist, knowing she wouldn't be going anywhere. Starlight tightened her grip on the shawl around her shoulders, thankful that she hadn't lost it in the action of being kidnapped and almost assassinated.
The only sound was their scuffling feet against dead leaves, all of which had fallen from the trees. That was the odd thing about the forest. It was full of life on the outskirts, but once they got closer to the center, it became dead and baron, the trees gray and lifeless, twisted oddly like someone took great joy in knotting them up. Roots sprouted from the ground, threatening to trip anyone who dared to not look closely. A gloomy fog seemed to linger around them, as if trying to engulf them into the smokey darkness.
Starlight blinked, suddenly feeling extremely... off. Like she was under a hypnosis attack or something. The world was foggy and unusual, colors and shapes twisting here and there.
"Hey..." Starlight muttered, staggering into a tree. The kidnapper turned, looking back at her. "I'm not feelin' to well..." Funny, her words seemed slurred.
"... Lady?" he asked after a moment. Starlight blinked, trying to figure out what was going on, slowly slumping off to the side and loosing consciousness.
o.0.o.0.o
The next afternoon proved to be a good one for Razan.
True, those two spies had escaped, but he managed to pick up the location of Starlight, and by the time lunch rolled around, Sky and Lucinda had returned with the box. Judging by the new weight in it, they've done their job successfully.
So confident was he that he took the time to eat a fine lunch in celebration for once again being the strongest psychic soul, and when he was finished, he sauntered back to the room with the magic mirror, holding the box in his hand. This time around, he didn't even care about having to say the annoying rhyme to summon the mirror, he said it quite happily, watching as the mirrors face formed in the reflective glass.
"Someone's in a good mood." the mirror commented.
"Magic mirror on the wall," Razan said, holding open the box. "Who is the strongest psychic soul of them all?"
The mirrors face glazed over.
"Past her town and in the Forbidden forest, snatched into the night by a zoroark soul with unusual powers, is the strongest psychic soul."
Razan raised an eyebrow at this.
"Starlight lies dead in her home." Razan said. "I've sent two of my best assassins after her, and they've yet to fail me." As if to prove his point, he opened the box containing the heart. "They've even brought me proof. Behold," he thrust the box towards the mirror. "Her heart."
"Starlight still lives, the strongest psychic soul in the land." the mirror responded, the image glazing over, showing Starlight unconscious, laying next to a purple-haired young man. Two pokémon were around them, the gardevoir frantically flitting around her partner while the zoroark seemingly impassive. "That's the heart of a pignite you hold in your hands."
It took a moment for Razan to process that information.
"Razan?" Hypno asked. Razan had his head bowed, hands gripping the box so tightly that the pokémon was sure that he was going to break it.
Suddenly, the entire thing was crushed under the weight of Razan's powerful psychic energy.
"The heart of a pignite." Razan repeated as the splintered box and now crushed heart fell from his grasp, creating a rather unsightly mess on the floor. "Those sly little... To be fooled by mere girls..." he trailed off. "The heart of a pignite."
"Should we rally troops to hunt them down, sir?" Hypno asked. Razan shook his head.
"What's the point? Those two are slyer than zorua's." he responded.
"Then an army for the girl?"
"Why would I need to send an army when I could send only a person?" Razan said, his eyes suddenly lighting up with an truly horrible idea. "Go fetch me Altair."
o.0.o.0.o
Red hurried through the hallways of the castle, the mercenary trying to keep his composure though he was internally freaking out. Razan very rarely called upon Altair, which means that he needed to find this girl and warn her, fast.
"Red." the mercenary froze mid-step at the voice, then slowly turned, seeing Razan's notorious, most favored assassin standing behind him. Altair smirked, casually tucking some of her short black hair behind her ear, dark violet eyes flashing menacingly as she sauntered up to them. "So. You want to know what I heard recently?"
Red swallowed, eyeing the menacing daggers at her waist, then smiled.
"What, Altair?"
"I heard there were some ratatta sneaking about the castle." she said, lowering her voice to a violently quiet level. Red hid his shudder. He was not one to get scared easily, but Altair wasn't exactly... mentally stable. To put it lightly.
Honestly, Altair was a strange one. She was a pokésoul with a rare partner, a Victini, but rumor says something happened the day they were meant to meet. He didn't know too many of the details, but her parents had sent her here with hopes that their pokésoul king would be able to help her. She would switch, very suddenly, between almost two different people; a shy and respectful young lady to a violent and vengeful woman. It was almost hard to keep up with it.
But then one day her partner disappeared, and the violent part of her was there to stay. Very rarely did this shy side that was there when she first arrived came out, and Red had a feeling that, possibly, the lack of her partner was the cause of this.
Now she was a near-expert assassin and fiercely loyal to Razan, and would kill anyone... whether she was ordered to or not.
"That so?" he said. "I'll keep an eye out."
He brushed by her, trying to ignore her piercing look.
"You know," she said clearly. "I'd keep an eye on that blond nurse." Red came to a dead stop, continuing to listen. "It's always the quiet one's, right? And she was pretty close to those two who recently abandoned ship."
Red felt a jolt of fear go down his spine. Yellow...!
"But then again," he could almost see her smirk. "You were pretty close to them too, weren't you?"
o.0.o.0.o
Eclipse was suddenly very aware that he was conscious, though had yet to open his uncovered eye. He took a moment to try to regain his bearings.
"You feeling okay, Eclipse?"
Eclipse grunted something at Zoroark, slowly pushing himself onto his elbows.
"What happened?" he muttered, coming to his knees as he tried to force the fog clogging his mind away.
"What do you remember?" Zoroark asked.
"I remember running into the woods, the woman stopping, threatening to kill her partner, then..." he trailed off, suddenly jolting up and whipping around. "Where's the girl?!"
"Over there, wise*bleep*." Zoroark said, nodding to the left. Eclipse turned, and true to the dark-types word, the woman was laying on her side, unconscious. Her Gardevoir, whom he assumed had somehow regained consciousness while they were passed out, was kneeling beside her human partner, keeping a protective eye on her. "Are you going to keep referring to her as 'the woman'? She has a name, you know. It's Starlight"
"I don't care." Eclipse responded, sitting up and looking at the Gardevoir. "Why are you here?" he spoke aloud.
"I prefer not to abandon my partner, thank you." the Gardevoir responded telepathically.
"You couldn't teleport out?"
Gardevoir narrowed her eyes. Zoroark snickered.
"I kept her in line."
"Again, don't care." Eclipse said. "You still didn't tell me what happened."
"It's this fog." Zoroark said, waving his paw through the air. "These trees produce them on their own, and they have an odd affect on humans."
"Explain."
"They give you weird side effects." Gardevoir spoke. "Hallucinations, effects similar to those of drunkenness, and eventual unconsciousness."
"Understand why it's called 'forbidden'?" Zoroark grinned. "Everyone's scared of these side effects of the fog. They just don't know it's the fog! They think it's spirits or demons or something!"
"Hn." Eclipse muttered, not really responding to that as he tore off the end of his cloak, wrapping it over his nose and mouth to keep from breathing in the toxic fumes. He glanced at Starlight "Is she going to be okay?"
"She'll be fine." Gardevoir responded, glancing worriedly at her. "I don't know when she'll wake up though. She's a heavy sleeper, even without the influence of a mysterious fog."
Eclipse resisted the urge to facepalm.
o.0.o.0.o
Starlight internally smirked as she continued to fake her unconsciousness.
With her eyes closed, she couldn't exactly discern how long they were moving or how long Eclipse had been carrying her over his shoulder, similar to like how one would carry a sack of potatoes, but she wasn't going to walk if she didn't have too.
"When are you going to tell him you're awake?" Gardevoir asked.
"When we're at civilization." she responded. "Though his shoulder is really starting to dig into my stomach."
"Then tell him you're awake if it hurts."
"Nope. I'm not walking till I have to."
"So lazy." Gardevoir sighed. Starlight rolled her eyes. "There's something off about this guy, though."
"Outside of kidnapping me from my village? I'm sure he's normal." Starlight mused sarcastically.
"Eclipse also saved you remember."
"By kidnapping me."
"... That's fair." Gardevoir sighed. "That's not what I meant, though."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean, there's something with him and his Zoroark."
"Of course there is, he's a Pokésoul. It's natural for the feeling to be off."
"You need to stop interrupting me." Gardevoir said. "I mean that the bond feels off. Like it was tampered with."
"Tampered with?" Starlight furrowed her brow. "How so?"
"I have no clue." Gardevoir responded. "But it's like... It's stronger than normal, but also suppressed." a pause. "It's very complicated."
Starlight didn't really respond to that, slowly digesting the information. She's never heard to a bond being tampered with. Not even in a legend, or even a childhood story. A pokésouls bond was something that was absolute, like how the sun always rose in the morning and set at night. It wasn't something that changed or could be forced to change.
But judging from what Gardevoir was saying someone, or something, had attempted to mess with the bond that Eclipse and Zoroark had, whether or not to make his powers stronger or completely sever the bond, she didn't know.
Suddenly, she landed on the ground, eliciting a yelp as pain blossomed in her hip.
"Ow!" she whined at Eclipse as she rolled into a sitting position. The young man was rolling his shoulder, glaring at her. Zoroark snickered.
"I knew you were awake." Eclipse responded. "You're heavy."
Starlight fumed slightly.
"What are you implying?!"
"That you're heavy."
"Are you saying I'm fat?!"
"No, I'm saying you're heavy." Eclipse stretched his arms above his head. "Now shut up and start walking. I don't think we're in the vicinity of the fog anymore, but we aren't out of these *bleep*ed woods yet."
"I'm not going anywhere with you until you tell me what's going on." Starlight said, stubbornly crossing her arms and shooting him a pointed glare. He said nothing, but narrowed his eye. Starlight tried to hide her shudder. The eyepatch and the perpetual glare he always wore made him scary, but he looked ready to strangle her into submission. "Why would King Razan want me dead and why do you need me all of a sudden?"
At this, he scowled, averting his gaze.
"Razan is a dirty bastard." he said simply. "Anyone who's support he can't buy, he brainwashes them." he glanced at her. "I'll even give you three guesses. What type of pokésoul can break Razan's brainwashing?"
"... Razan is not the type of person who would do that."
"Arceus, you really are an idiot." Eclipse sighed. "Believe what you will. I honestly don't care."
"This still doesn't explain why you need me." Starlight said, shaking her head. "What's with the sudden kidnapping? I know you're not some knight in shining armor saving me from assassins."
"If you didn't have a use to me, I would have let the assassins kill you." Eclipse muttered under his breath. Starlight narrowed her eyes.
"You have an underlying motive. I don't know what it is, but there's a reason you haven't killed me yet."
Eclipse groaned, pushing his bangs off his forehead.
"I have a problem that my mother used to help me with. She was a strong psychic soul too." his hand fell back to his side as he spoke the next sentence. "Now she's dead so I need another psychic soul."
Starlight felt a shiver go up her spine. That sentence sounded so... so cold...
"Is he some sort of sociopath?" Starlight asked in a slightly panicked tone to Gardevoir in her mind. "There was no emotion in that sentence, and he was referring to his dead mother!"
"I think... I think he's just tired of explaining it." Gardevoir mused, looking at him. "Sense his emotions, Starlight. He doesn't want to bring up old memories. Just roll with it, okay?"
Starlight warily glanced at him. Faintly, she could sense an underlying sense of regret and sorrow, but he was doing a good job at hiding it.
"So you found me." Starlight said. "And you need me because...?"
"I need you to fix my problem."
"It has something to do with your weird bond, doesn't it?"
Eclipse said nothing for a moment.
"So what's wrong with it?"
"..." again, nothing. Slowly, he turned away from her.
"Just watch this." he stated stoically. Starlight cocked her head in curiosity, watching as he reached behind his head and slowly unclasped the eyepatch. Starlight expected the eye underneath to be damaged or maybe even missing, but in fact, it seemed normal, if not unusual for the odd amber color that seemed so similar to his Zoroarks, yet contrasted greatly to his other onyx black eye. There was a moment of nothing happening.
Then there was an explosion.
Starlight hardly had a chance to scream. The path of trees in front of him exploded under the pressure of a beam of darkness, the ground scorched under the intensity of the overwhelming power.
Eclipse had quickly re-covered his eye by literally shoving the eyepatch over it. And like that, the darkness was gone.
But the damage was done. A literal pathway had been plowed down, destroyed under the power of his eye. He turned to look at her, and she tried not to look absolutely terrified. Something must have peeked through though, as he scowled, looking away.
"You flinched." Gardevoir murmured telepathically. Starlight didn't respond, eyes flicking back and forth between Eclipse and the swath of land he destroyed.
"What was that?" she finally asked, her voice coming out in a high-squeaked pitch of fear and shock.
"That is my problem." Eclipse said, eyepatch secured, nodding towards the destruction. "It's a permanent link to Zoroark's powers. A permanent link set to a dangerous level. I can't turn them off or control them. Thankfully, it only manifests in my one eye."
"And that eyepatch...?"
"Charmed by my mother." Eclipse stated. "It's supposed to contain the energy. Anything else, as you can see," his eye shot to the destruction, then back to her. "Immediately gets incinerated."
"And what do you expect me to do?" Starlight exclaimed, getting up.
"Anything." Eclipse stated. Starlight blinked in surprise. He sounded... desperate. "I honestly don't care what you do. I need this fixed though."
"What did your mother do?"
"I'm not to sure myself." Eclipse said. "I know she used some spellbooks and I know she worked a lot with Musharna to limit the bond. This," he touched the eyepatch. "Is simply a temporary fix."
"... What happens if the temporary fix is gone? Can't you just keep your eye closed?"
"I told you, it was spelled." Eclipse scowled. "I can't just smack a bandage on it and expect it to be fine."
"And what will happen if the fix is gone?"
Eclipse averted his gaze, glancing upwards.
"How do I explain it in terms that you'd understand?" he mused. Starlight opened her mouth to retort that, but got cut off by Eclipse spoke again. "Remember when you reached ten or eleven, and your powers got all out of whack?"
Starlight paused at that.
"Yeah." she responded.
Oh, did Starlight remember. Gardevior had recently evolved from a Ralts to Kirlia at that point in time, and her powers were going from simple levitation of cookies to near poltergeist activity and an onslaught of voices from everyone's mind. She thought she was going crazy from the voices, and every time she so much as blinked, something was flying across the room or breaking on it's own.
It was scary. But eventually, she managed to get proper training from Kirlia to control the powers, and she moved on.
"Well, the same thing happens to all Pokésouls." Eclipse continued. "It's a natural part of our life so that we need to learn to deal with using and controlling our powers." he looked at her again. "If we don't, then the elements flow into our bodies, corrupting us."
"I know that." Starlight nodded. "Gardevoir said that psychic souls usually go mad if they can't control their powers, what with hearing voices all the time and whatnot. Their mental stability just snaps." she mimed breaking a stick in front of her to punctuate her point. Eclipse ignored her.
"What do you think will happen if I can't get this properly fixed?" Eclipse asked, glaring at her. "I'll be corrupted by the darkness I was born with. Without the eyepatch, it burns behind my eyelid. This thing suppresses the powers, but suppression can only do so much."
"Then we'll fix the bond." Starlight said, standing up. Eclipse sighed.
"You don't get it, do you?"
"Get what? The quickest way to get rid of the problem is to fix the bond!" Starlight insisted.
"I don't want the bond fixed." Eclipse hissed. "I want it gone."
o.0.o.0.o
Not many words were exchanged after the conversation earlier that day. Starlight tried to start up a few conversations, feeling awkward, but Eclipse hardly responded with more than a grunt or small, blunt, to the point answers. She glanced at him, and decided to try again.
"What's your family like?"
Starlight quickly realized her mistake. His mother was killed! How could she have been so callous?
"I'm-"
"Dad sold everything we had and I was forced to live out my lives on the street, motherless."
"But didn't King Razan-"
"What?" Eclipse snorted. "Do you think your precious king sent supplies to help me? Do you thing he's an almighty saint of the poor?"
"Of course! It's his sworn duty to protect the people!"
Eclipse shook his head.
"Sworn duty, you say? Then how come he hasn't helped me with this, then?" Eclipse pointed to his eyepatch covered eye.
"I'm sure if you asked him-"
"You don't get it. You just don't get it, do you?" Eclipse said, shaking his head.
"I think-"
He shot her a fierce glare.
"Just stop talking."
Starlight did, deciding instead to review over what she's learned about him so far.
"So he's motherless, presumably fatherless, and is suffering from a destructive bond which he refuses to tell me the history of." Starlight mused silently.
"Don't forget that he has the personality of a rock." Gardevoir added. Starlight smiled.
"True." an internal sigh. "How long have we been walking? I'm exhausted."
"For a few hours now." Gardevoir mused.
Another long silence.
"Wanna hear about my family?" Starlight offered.
"No."
Starlight sighed, glancing up as the forest suddenly became a field of reeds and tall grass.
"Finally." Starlight sighed. "Out of that wretched forest." As she took a few steps forward, she stopped.
"What is it?" Eclipse grunted at her sudden halt.
"There's someone here." Starlight said.
"A person?"
"A pokésoul." she clarified, pushing through the reeds. She heard some soft humming, sounding like a young child.
"Seriously?" Eclipse muttered, watching as she continued through the reeds. Pushing one final bunch aide, the two humans and two pokémon saw a little, ten-year-old girl wearing a light blue dress that was humorously to big for her, a blue ribbon holding long black hair back, little brown boots on her feet. Dark brown eyes were dazed as she stared up at the clouds above her, a Kirlia beside her.
"Hey." Starlight said to get the girls attention. The girl startled, jolting up and staring at them with wide eyes. "What are you doing way out here, little one?"
Suddenly, the girl jumped up, scooping up Kirlia and darting into the reeds.
"Hey, wait a minute!" Starlight exclaimed, chasing after the girl.
"Hold on." Eclipse ordered, snatching her bicep as she neared a body of water, presumably a river or a lake. Starlight blinked up at him, slowly following his gaze to the waters concealed by the fog.
"Who goes there?" they heard a cold female voice say. From the fog they could barely make out three small boats, led by a woman with her head concealed by a cloak. The other members were also cloaked, all of them wielding some sort of weapon with the exception of the little girl, who was cowering in one of the boats.
"Two per a boat." she heard Eclipse mutter. "All armed with some weapon."
"We can't fight them!" Starlight muttered harshly. "There's a child with them!"
"I said," the woman repeated. "Who goes there." this was a demand, rather than a question. "Only demons and spirits come from the forest. Which are you?"
"We're fugitives." Eclipse answered.
"Or spies." the lead woman muttered suspiciously.
"Jade," one of the other members of the boat said, hopping off. She was more petite than the other woman. "I think they're pokésouls." The leader, Jade, turned to them.
"Is that true?"
"Yes." Starlight blurted, desperate for a bed or something to sleep in. "I'm psychic and he's dark."
"Starlight." Eclipse hissed.
"Huh." Jade slowly pushed her hood down, revealing pale blond hair, misted over green eyes, and... glaceon ears? "No doubt you're on the run from the king, correct?"
"From the king." Starlight confirmed, deciding to ignore the ears. After all, who was she to judge. Eclipse, however, kept a pointed gaze on the woman. "Can you offer us some shelter for a little while?"
Jade seemed to muse over that for a moment.
"I think we should." a male voice from the boats said. "After all, Yunyi-"
"I'm aware." Jade said, cutting him off. She turned back to them. "Fortunately for you, we have use for a psychic soul."
"Hold on a moment." Eclipse said, stepping forward. There was a pause, everyone glancing at him. "Are you the resistance?"
A long silence.
"The resistance?" Starlight echoed.
"There's rumor flitting through the country that there's a resistance army led by a group of gijinka's." Eclipse briefly explained. Starlight furrowed her brow.
"Gijinka's?"
"Arceus, you're stupid." Eclipse sighed. Starlight shot him a pointed glare. "Half-human, half-pokémon? It's not that hard." he turned back to Jade, ignoring Starlight. "Well? Are you?"
"Smart lad!" laughed the female next to Jade. Starlight blinked. This girl sounded younger than Jade, and seemed like it too. She thought back to Sky calling him a 'kid'. What was it with girls referring to Eclipse as younger than he is? He didn't even look like a kid! "Yeah, we're the resistance."
Starlight nearly feel over when Eclipse smiled. Well, more like a smirk, but close enough to being a smile for him.
"Then we've got a lot to discuss."
o.0.o.0.o
All was silent as the began crossing the lake. Starlight chose to sit in the boat with the little girl and the glaceon-eared woman, a double edged sword, it seemed. She was curious about the little girl, who she now deduced was indeed a pokésoul like herself, and wanted to talk to her. But Jade wasn't letting anything go unchecked. Starlight had a feeling that the girl wouldn't say much to them, but with Jade's commanding presence that essentially demanded silence, she wasn't going to get so much as a peep.
Eclipse was sitting beside her, keeping a steady glare on his face which, much like Jade's, demanded that no one try anything.
"You can practically see the tension between the two." Gardevoir muttered.
"They're just struggling over who's going to be the alpha mightyena." Starlight responded. "Once Eclipse realizes that he's not going to take the lead, he'll back down, I'm sure."
"Or he'll blow everything up with his eye."
"... Just stop talking, Gardevoir."
Slowly, the made their way to a small little peer, where a very small group of people greeted them. Outside of the seven resistant members on the boat, including Yunyi, there were eight other adults and some children.
"Mom!" two kids exclaimed, obviously twins with their brown hair and green eyes, though the boy had umbreon ears and the girl had espeon ears. Next to them was a brunette man with flareon ears.
"Onyx, what have I told you about letting Pine and Olive play on the peer?" Jade demanded, standing up as the man, Onyx, offered her a hand.
"Not too." Onyx grinned. "Without supervision. But they have the supervision of eight adults, so it's all good."
"This is the resistance?" Eclipse asked, glancing over the little wooden huts and the small number of people. "I thought it was an army."
"Eclipse!" Starlight scolded.
"It's okay." someone else said. Starlight turned her head, mouth dropping as she saw Crystal approach them. "Hey. Didn't think I'd see you again."
"You...!"
"Yeah, we're part of the resistance." Gold grinned, coming up behind Crystal. There was a silence. "We lost a lot of good men, fighting Razan. Almost lost our lives as well."
"So Razan put a hit on you." Eclipse stated, climbing out of the boat.
"Yeah." a long silence after the statement from Gold.
"We're going to regroup." Jade stated as a young woman with jolteon ears helped pull the little girl from the boat. "We'll introduce you to everyone then."
Eclipse and the little girl stayed behind as the others went back to a little hut. The girl glanced at Starlight, then held out her hand. Starlight smiled at her, taking her tiny hand and standing. The little girl stumbled a bit, trying to pull her out. Eclipse rolled his eye, then reached out his own hand. Starlight shot him a smaller smile, and with the help of both of them, she got out of the boat.
"So what's your name?" Starlight asked once they were on the tiny peer. The girl looked up at them.
"Y-Yunyi." she smiled shyly. Starlight found herself straining to hear the girls words. She pointed to the Kirlia beside her. "That's Devoir."
"I'm Starlight and this is Eclipse." Starlight responded. "These are our partners, Gardevoir and Zoroark."
o.0.o.0.o
Eclipse stared over the small town with a protective eye, glowering.
He didn't like being wrong.
And he was wrong.
All those silly stories and superstitions Starlight believed about the forest was true.
The couple with prominent fathers that disappeared from her hometown? They were Ruby Senri and Sapphire Birch, the son of Norman Senri and Professor Birch, both which were instructed to flee as children.
The nobles daughter and her bodyguard? None other than White and Black, a wealthy young woman with a love of theatre and her bodyguard, Black, a skilled swordsman who's set on being the best. Both hail from Unova, but after getting attacked by some of Razan's guards, they fled here.
The noble man and his family was really Sir Green Oak, his wife Blue, and his daughter Turquoise, now six. Razan had attacked their affluent family home to arrest them, though he and his family ran into the night on the insistence of his grandfather. Green didn't know the fate of his grandfather, who was living with them, but he was sure that his sister was being sought out or seeking out him and his family.
Even the little girl getting lost was true. That was Yunyi.
It was all to insane to be true, but it was all staring him in the face.
The others shared similar stories.
Platinum Berlitz ran here with her bodyguards, Diamond and Pearl. Topaz discovered the place in search of the trio. Silver and Soul stumbled across the place while the former was searching for Blue, his sister. Crystal and Gold, engaged at the time, ran after Crystals home was torched with a younger orphan boy who followed them, named Emerald. Finally, Jade, Onyx, his younger sister, Opal, and her boyfriend, Carnelian, fled to the forest and actually began the resistance. More and more people joined, and soon, they had enough to actually be proven a threat to Razan.
Then it all went to hell in a heartbeat.
Somehow, Razan figured out their location, similarly to how he had somehow figured out Starlight's location, and attacked. Practically the whole resistance was wiped out in a single attack, seemingly led by a madwoman who liked to rain down destruction on any who crossed her path.
Unknown to him, however, a small amount of people survived, and they managed to move away from the attack site, escape, and built up what they had left. With that, they sent four of their members, Red, their most gifted knight, Yellow, their sage, and Gold and Crystal, both assumed dead by the king, and had them infiltrate the castle to gain information.
He kept his gaze on Starlight, now wearing clothes provided by Blue, was happily playing with Greens daughter, Jade's twins, Olive the girl and Pine the boy, and Yunyi.
He pushed himself up, walking along the peer until he reached the small group. The kids glanced up at the, unnerved, maybe by his appearance.
"Your parents want to see you." Eclipse stated simply.
"Aaw." the younger ones whined, though obediently ran off the peer. Eclipse stared down at Yunyi.
"You too." he said coldly. Yunyi gripped the skirt of her dress.
"I haven't got any parents." she responded. Eclipse raised an eyebrow. An orphan?
"What do you want?" Starlight asked, standing.
"I want you to help me with my problem." Eclipse said. Starlight huffed as she started helping Yunyi up.
"I can't help you unless I know where the source of the problem."
Eclipse raised an eyebrow.
"Source?"
"Yunyi, would you mind if we use your hut for a little while?" Starlight asked. Yunyi blinked, then shook her head.
"No, it's fine."
"Okay, I need you to go tell the others that what I'm going to do is going to require some extreme concentration, so they can't bother us, okay?"
Yunyi nodded dutifully, running off to spread the message.
o.0.o.0.o
"What are you going to do?" Eclipse asked warily as Starlight closed the door behind them.
"I'm going to figure out what's wrong with your bond." Starlight said cheekily, sitting across from him. Gardevoir was by her side and Eclipse was sitting on the floor.
"And how do you plan on doing that, huh?" Eclipse countered, narrowing his eye.
"I'm just going to take a peek into your mind." she said casually.
"No." Eclipse said, quickly standing up. Starlight stood up with him, placing her hands on his shoulders.
"Don't start freaking out." she said calmly. "Listen. Your mother did something to fix the bond, right?"
"I'm not going to let you go poking through my memories or my mind. Those are certain lines I'm not willing to cross." Eclipse said, reaching up to shove her back. Starlight tightened her grip.
"I'm not!" Starlight insisted. "I'm going to just look at your bond and see what I can do to fix it." She tried to look as sincere as possible when she looked up at him. He seemed to weigh his options in his head for a moment.
"No." he stated simply. Starlight narrowed her eyes.
"How do expect me to help you then?"
"Find a different way, that's not-" he was cut off as Starlight suddenly lunged at him, trying to reach for his head. "Hey! What the-"
"Just let me look! I don't want to poke through your past or anything!"
"I don't trust you!"
"You should!" Starlight argued as they continued to struggle. "How do you expect me to help you," Starlight continued, giving him a good shove. "When you won't even give me a chance?!"
Somehow, in the midst of the struggle, Starlight found herself sitting on top of him. Victoriously, she grinned, quickly pressing her fingers to his temples, falling into the depths of his mind.
o.0.o.0.o
"Zoroark!" Eclipse growled. "Get her off!" Zoroark raised his head.
"No way. This is way to funny." Zoroark snickered. Eclipse thought of a thousand painful deaths for his partner, only to feel Starlight flinch on top of him. Had she read into that?
"Don't!" Gardevoir exclaimed as Eclipse gripped her wrists, prepared to shove her off. "Don't break the connection."
"Why?" Eclipse growled.
"I don't know what it will do if you do break it." Gardevoir said, worriedly glancing at her partner. Eclipse shot a glance to her, seeing that she had a completely blank look on her face, eyes fogged over and faded, as if she had gone into a daze. "She might hurt you mentally from the shock, or hurt herself. Just ride it out and think about... a blank piece of paper or something."
Eclipse attempted that, but found it hard. Being a quiet and lonely person, he didn't have much to entertain himself with outside of his thoughts. So he thought about a blank piece of paper, as Gardevoir suggested.
o.0.o.0.o
Starlight knew the layers of the mind well.
First was the initial thoughts, what the person was thinking about at the time. Eclipse was thinking about a blank piece of paper, as if trying to use it as a defense mechanism. She went past this, suddenly surrounded by his deeper memories. They tempted her, appearing as small orbs of light in a void of darkness, begging to be touched, to show her his past.
"No." she said, reprimanding herself. How horrible of her to even consider it. Psychic pokésouls probably were the most respectful of the privacy of others, as they could so easily invade it, sometimes without even trying. She didn't want to. She shouldn't.
But maybe one...
"Starlight."
She blinked at Gardevoir's warning, retracting her hand. She was already forcing herself into his mind, she wasn't going to push it any farther. She pushed aside the orbs and his memories, going for her target.
His bond with Zoroark.
The pokésoul bond between a human and pokémon was an organic thing. It usually shone brightly with the person's aura, specks of their partner winding around it, solidifying the bond.
But Eclipse's was different.
Sure, she could see his aura color. Black, indicating his negative feelings, his unwillingness to forgive. Mixed with it was gray, showing his lack of trust and, deep, deep under the black and gray, was dark red, showing how he is self-sufficient and has a strong will to survive. Flitting around it was Zoroarks mischievous aura.
But she could barely see it behind the large, blackened scars holding it together. It wasn't holding it together, though, as if it were about to fall apart, but rather, as if protecting it, growing more strongly in places it was damaged. But where did the damage come from? How did it happen?
It didn't really matter, though she was curious. All she had to do was to figure out how to fix it.
"Why are you so protective?" she murmured aloud, gently reaching out a hand to touch the bond. It seemed to give a backlash, mentally striking her, a warning to not come closer. "I'm trying to help you." she stated clearly, slowly laying her hand against one.
Suddenly, a searing pain went through her mind, wracking her skull and feeling as if it would split her head in two. W... What was this?! It felt like something was trying to sever something in her head!
She let out a shuddery gasp as she suddenly slammed back into her mind. Gardevoir was yelling in her mind, asking what happened, if everything was okay.
"What did you do?" Eclipse asked, sitting up, though she was still sitting on his legs. He rubbed his head as if he had a headache. "It felt weird." Starlight was still backpedaling from the sudden attack. Had the bond attacked her? Or was it using one of Eclipse's memories as a defense mechanism?
"Starlight?" she heard Gardevoir ask, concerned.
"Did it hurt?" Starlight murmured. Eclipse raised an eyebrow.
"I told you it felt weird. What did you find?"
"What happened to your bond?" she asked, glancing at him. "It's all scarred and... and weird. I think it might have attacked me."
"Attacked?"
"It felt like something was trying to split something in my mind." Starlight said, pressing a head to her forehead. "I don't know what it was, but it hurt. Badly."
Eclipse glanced at her.
"Are you okay?" he asked as she rolled off him, curling into a ball on the bed.
"I'm tired." she muttered.
"Starlight? Eclipse?" Eclipse glanced up, seeing Yunyi shyly peeking in. "Can I come in? Miss Blue said I shouldn't bother you, but it's getting late and I don't have anywhere to sleep."
"You're fine." Eclipse said, standing up. "Though I think Starlight stole your bed."
"I don't mind sharing." Yunyi said, climbing up next to the young woman. "Are you going to come to sleep too?"
"No." Eclipse stood up, seeing through the door that it was, indeed, nighttime. "I'm going for a walk. Zoroark, are you coming?"
"*Bleep*, no." Zoroark responded. "I'm exhausted. Go on your little nighttime adventure by yourself."
Eclipse shrugged of his partners sarcasm, preparing to leave. He glanced back at Starlight and Yunyi, both already sleeping peacefully.
"That was quick." he muttered, opening the door, only to get blasted by cold air. He glared out the door, annoyed by the cold then scolding himself for forgetting how cold the nights got in the forest. Being by a body of water wasn't helping.
He stepped out of the house, shutting the door behind him.
"They're going to get cold, you know."
Eclipse raised an eyebrow.
"Shut up, Zoroark."
"Whatever you say. Just remember you're screwed if she dies of hypothermia."
Eclipse paused, rationalizing with himself. Then he turned around, opened the door and grabbed one of the spare blankets, draping it over the two.
It was only until he reached the outskirts of the little village that he sensed Zoroark's emotions again. He narrowed his eyes, speaking in his mind.
"Stop smirking, you idiotic pain."
o.0.o.0.o
"Miss Starlight?"
Starlight blinked as she saw Aini standing in the doorway, an angry pout on her face.
"Aini?" she asked, not understanding why the child was up so late. After the story had finished, Eclipse essentially collapsed into bed, while Starlight chose to stay up later. It was nearly ten at night. Why was the little girl awake?
"That's the name, don't wear it out." Aini snapped back. Starlight rolled her eyes.
"What is it?" she asked gently. The little girl averted her gaze, muttering something. "Can you repeat that? I didn't hear."
"I want..." she trailed off. "I wanna call my Mom."
o.0.o.0.o
So this is taking up more of Snow White and the Huntsmen. Wonderful!
Yeah, I know it's a week late. I'm sorry. Lifes been hectic as hell with school and volunteer crap.
Anyways, Yunyi is owned by HakaiElementalVocaloid. All rights go to their owners.
Amy47101 signing off! ^.^