Chapter 6

Sylveon's Confession and Cure

Sylveon was frozen in shock. "D-D-Demons?"

"Yes," said Darkrai. "I must talk to Froakie. Alone." Darkrai made a room appear. I saw stuffed toys through the doorframe. "You two must go in that room for a bit while I talk to Froakie."

Sylveon and Oshawott went to the room and closed the door.

"So, why do you need to talk to me?" I asked.

"First, give me that satchel of yours. You'll get it later," he commanded. I did as told.

"Is that it?" I asked.

"No. Froakie, the parts of Sylveon and Oshawott's minds that are responsible for their sanity is being held together quite precariously," explained Darkrai. "They could snap at any moment. They could be shell-shocked, ripping things to pieces, or very bushed. The only way I can tell you this is bluntly, but your life is at a huge risk. If they get out of control and you make one wrong move, and you'll be either mangled, disemboweled, mutilated, and other words that define a cruel death. If one of their mind's snaps to evil, then their teeth will get as sharp as a sword. Their attacks will become either super swift or super powerful. Their eyes will also glow red. If they snap into a shell shock, then they will have hazy, neon-green eyes. If they snap into exhaustion, then you might have to lug them around. When they are cured, you will see light coming from them and their colors will return."

I was staring at him not knowing what emotion to feel, taking in all of this information with a gaping mouth and unblinking eyes.

"But there is also a good side to all of this!" said Darkrai.

I immediately perked my head up. "What? Tell me! Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me!"

"Once you uncorrupt one of their minds, all of the Pokémon that they possibly murdered will be revived!"

I stood there gawking at him trying to decide if that was a good thing or not.

"So, are you ready to take on this challenge?" asked Darkrai.

I shook myself out of my trance-like state. "Y-Yes," I stammered.

"Good luck, Froakie." Darkrai used Psychic to open up the door that kept Sylveon and Oshawott in the room. Sylveon looked scared out of her mind, and Oshawott was shredding some of the stuffed toys with just his teeth. Oshawott noticed that I was staring at him puzzled and then tried to hide all of the shreds behind him with a guilty smile.

"They also try to act innocent when they do something bad," said Darkrai.

"I can tell," I replied.

"Now go. You must repair their minds," said Darkrai.

A huge chill went through my spine.

Oshawott walked over to me slyly. "Hey, Froakie. What are you doing? What were you and Darkrai doing, huh?"

"Darkrai just wanted to say something to me," I told him.

"What'd he tell ya?"

"Just… stuff."

"What kinda stuff?" His question was immediately after I said 'stuff.'

"Just stuff about the legend, why do you ask?"

"Just wondering. But if it's about curing me, then forget about it."

"What?"

"If saving the island means that I don't get to be like this, then count me out! I'm super powerful now. I can take down any enemy. Just don't try to cure me. I'm perfect now, and I don't need any of you." He walked defiantly to and down the stairs.

"Good luck, Froakie," said Darkrai.

I ignored him and went over to Sylveon. She had the hazy, neon-green eyes like Darkrai had explained. She was in a trance.

"Sylveon," I called to her. "Sylveon! You there? I need to talk to you!"

She blinked. Without turning to me, she said, "Who's that? Is that you, Arceus, taking me from this distorted world into the heavens?"

"No!" I shouted. "It's me, Froakie!"

She slowly turned her head and recognized me. "Oh, hi Froakie."

"You don't look very… okay."

"It's just…" she paused for a moment. "I don't like this. I hate being a demon! I hear all of these voices in my head! So many emotions are rushing through me and it's nearly unbearable! I feel light-headed, tired, angry, sad…"

Darkrai drew closer to us. "May I interrupt for a moment?"

"It probably won't do us any harm…" said Sylveon depressingly.

"Sylveon, you'll get through this. All of the other Pokémon thrown into the legend have made it through."

"I know, but I overheard your conversation with Froakie. You said I might kill people, and that isn't right! I'm probably going through that shell shock thing you were talking about, and it feels scary!" She began to bawl her eyes out.

I tried to think of things to make her feel better. What did she like to do when she was younger? I asked myself. She loves yoga and walking, but that wouldn't be enough… it'd be worth to try, though…

I kept thinking about it for a few moments. "Hey Sylveon, why don't we take a walk?" I asked her kindly.

She sighed. "It'll probably get my mind off of things…" She slowly rose. "Let's go…"

We got over to the stairs. "Have a nice walk," called Darkrai. "And when you've done your duty, Froakie, don't forget to report back to me!"

"I won't forget," I called back less excitedly. Sylveon and I went down the stairs and exited the tower and began our walk.

I was trying to think of topics to talk about to try to cheer up Sylveon, but her head was still drooped and she frowned. "So…" I began. "When we fix this evolution and time mess, what do you want to do?"

She tipped her head a bit, and then lifted it. "You know that Sylveon we met at the smoothie shop?"

"Yes," I replied. "What about him?"

"I really like him," she confessed. "He was just so nice. He was like a beautiful light in a terrible storm! I… I…"

"You… what?" I asked. I could see something coming.

"I think when I get older," said Sylveon, "I think I want him to be my mate! No, I know I want him to be my mate! Just thinking about him now is making me happy! Once we get time and evolution going again, I might want to move out here, and help him run his smoothie shop. We could redo the whole town and make it nice. We could maybe convince Darkrai to move out in the town. Just think of all of the possibilities!"

Sylveon was much happier now. Her face was beaming. "All of this sounds plausible," I said.

"No, to me it sounds like reality! When we're done here, I'm going to ask him out!"

"Well, you can do that! Nothing is stopping you," I said.

Sylveon jumped in the air with joy. In spite of her joyous state, there was a dark-colored orb coming from dark-colored particles coming out of Sylveon. She didn't take notice, but the ball kept getting bigger. Her colors began to come back and light began to emit from her. The dark particles stopped coming out of her, and the dark orb floated over to the tower.

"Sylveon!" I shrieked in delight. "Your colors came back! Light is shining from you! You're cured!"

Sylveon looked at herself. She saw her colors were back and she couldn't stop smiling. "Thank you for curing me!" she exclaimed.

"No problem," I said. "Just doing what I gotta do."

"Don't we still have to cure Oshawott though?" asked Sylveon

"I know," I said with dismay. "Taming him is going to be hard, though."

"Yea, he was really violent with all of those stuffed toys. He ripped one to shreds like it was a piece of paper!"

This is going to be tough, I thought to myself. How was I going to be able to cure that monster?