Chapter 3: The Deal

Everyone in the room looks right at Riolu with a look of shock on their faces after they heard Riolu say, "I'm not a Pokemon if that's what you're wondering." Zorua looks right into Riolu's eyes from where he stands and he asks with a serious expression on his face, "Are you saying that you're one of those demons from the Underworld?"

Riolu shakes his head and he replies, "If that were the case, than why would I be trying to flee from those demons and fight against them?" Zorua has the same expression on his face as he asks, "Darkrai was going to tell me what you really are. But he backed off for some reason. I'm assuming it's because of this exact reason. So what are you, Riolu?"

Riolu closes his eyes and takes a deep breath. When he opens his eyes, he replies, "I'm actually a human," Mienfoo's eyes widen with shock and she asks, "Y-you're a human? No way!" Zorua looks right at Mienfoo with a confused expression on his face and he asks, "What's a human?"

Maractus and Audino join in with Zorua's question and they ask, "Yeah… what is a human?" Mienfoo looks at everyone as she answers, "I've been studying about this kind of subject. Besides this galaxy, there are millions of other galaxies in the universe. Since Riolu says he's a human, I'm guessing he must be from the Milky Way Galaxy."

Zorua has an uninterested look on his face while Maractus and Audino have a look of mesmerize in their eyes. Zorua asks with a serious look on his face, "Than mind explaining to us how you got to our world?" Riolu has a troubled look on his face as he replies, "I'm afraid I've lost my memory on that subject…"

Mienfoo, Audino, and Maractus looks right at Riolu with a concerned look on their faces and Audino asks, "You mean like amnesia?" Riolu nods his head and he replies, "I suppose so. The only thing I can remember is waking up in the Underworld, being chased down by those demons."

Audino has a look of worry in her eyes as she asks, "How long have you been in the Underworld?" Riolu replies with a weak look on his face and his eyes strangely closing slowly, "About … two…" Riolu shuts his eyes and falls into instant sleep.

Audino places her hand on Riolu's forehead and has a concerned look on her face when she feels the heat radiating off of Riolu's forehead. "Oh dear… Riolu has a high fever!" Mienfoo, Maractus, and Zorua rush to Audino's side.

The two girls have concerned looks on their faces, but Zorua has a serious expression in his eyes. Audino looks at everyone and says, "We need to get Riolu's fever down as fast as we can. Mienfoo, I need you, Maractus, and Zorua to head back out into the forest and see if you can find any Rawst Berries. I need at least ten to bring down the fever."

Mienfoo and Maractus nod their heads in agreement, but Zorua just closes his eyes and sighs. The three girls look right at Zorua with confused expression on their faces and Audino asks, "What's with the sigh, Zorua?" Zorua opens his eyes and he replies, "Do I really need to go out there and find the Rawst Berries? I'm still pretty exhausted after fighting against those demons today."

Audino has a calm look on her face as she tells Zorua, "I see what you mean, but we need at least three Pokemon to find the Rawst Berries. Since its winter time, the Rawst Berries will be hard to find, so there'll have to be at least three Pokemon searching, "Audino looks down at Riolu, "I can't come along, for I need to try to keep Riolu's fever down long enough while healing his right arm,"

Audino looks back at Zorua with a serious look in her eyes, "and with the short amount of time we have, there'll not be enough time for us to find a third Pokemon to join Mienfoo and Maractus. Since you're here Zorua, you're the only one I can count on to take my place in the search."

Zorua closes his eyes and sighs again. When he opens his eyes, Zorua replies to Audino's request, "I guess I have no other choice than to join the search," Zorua looks right at Mienfoo and Maractus, "Well I guess we better get going and search for those berries."

While the three girl smile at him, Zorua thinks in his head, "How the hell did that happen?" Audino replies to Zorua, "I appreciate it, Zorua." Zorua turns his back on Audino and faces the door way and he replies, "Yeah, yeah…"

After Zorua leaves the cabin and closes the door from behind, Audino says to Mienfoo and Maractus with a concerned look on her face, "You all might have to split up for this mission if we wish to help Riolu quickly. Plus, if you sense anything wrong with Zorua, make sure you get to him and bring him back to the cabin."

Mienfoo and Maractus nod their heads with serious expressions on their faces and Mienfoo says, "I'll be sure to bring him back here if he collapses again," Mienfoo looks directly at Maractus, "I'll be sure to respond to Zorua's deal if it happens again. Maractus, you just keep on searching for as much berries as you possibly can."

Maractus nods her head in agreement and they both face the doorway. They both exit the cabin and close the door from behind. After they left the cabin, Audino once again focuses her Heal Pulse on Riolu.

Mienfoo, Maractus, and Zorua are standing right by the snow covered forest, the two girls looking at it uneasily. Zorua looks right at Mienfoo with a serious expression on his face and he asks, "What's wrong with you two?" Maractus looks right at Zorua with the same expression on her face and she replies, "For this mission, we all need to split up. However,"

Maractus looks back at the forest, "I'm detecting a lot of activity from within the forest. A dark activity…" Zorua looks back at the forest with a concerned expression on his face and he asks, "So you're saying that those demons are wandering the forest now?"

Mienfoo and Maractus nod their heads in seriousness. Zorua sighs deeply with his eyes closed. When he opens his eyes, he says while transforming into Riolu, "Well now, I guess we better get going and get this over with."

Maractus looks right at Zorua with a confused expression on her face and she asks, "Why did you just transform into Riolu? Don't you remember that the demons were after Riolu before?" Zorua nods his head with a confident grin on his face and he replies, "Of course I know that. I'm going to have some fun out there while searching for the Rawst Berries."

Zorua runs into the forest before Maractus can say her next sentence. After he left the two girls behind, Maractus looks right at Mienfoo and asks, "What do you see in Zorua, anyway?" Mienfoo doesn't reply but just blushes.

She enters the forest in a different direction without answering Maractus. Maractus sighs deeply as she thought, "Oh sure… I have to be the last one to enter…" Maractus calms herself down and runs into the forest in a different direction.

While Zorua runs through the forest in search for the Rawst Berries, he has black aura in the shape of two blades forming out of each spike on the top of the hands in case of any demon attacks. Zorua has a troubled expression on his face, "This is such a pain… why do I have to sacrifice my life just to save the life of someone who could be a threat?"

The snow starts to fall thicker as Zorua starts to rush through the forest, his breath showing in the air as he breathes. Zorua has a shocked expression in his eyes as he feels the presence of darkness all around him.

He stops running and gets himself into the battle position. While Zorua looks around at his surroundings, he hears a voice say from behind him, "Why did you transform into Riolu, Zorua?" Zorua quickly looks back and sees a demon slowly walking towards him. Zorua faces the demon and crosses his arms as if in the defensive position.

Zorua asks with a serious expression on his face, "So you've already known that it's me, huh? And since when can you demons talk?" The demon walks up to Zorua without showing any signs of attacking and says to Zorua,

"You're the only one that can understand what we say not, Zorua, for Lord Darkrai sent you to the Underworld for a reason. Since you were in the Underworld, you can understand how we talk." Zorua transforms back into his original form and he asks, "What are you all doing here?"

The demon gives the other four demons a hand signal to come out and they all walk out slowly, surrounding Zorua. The demon puts his hand back behind his back and he replies, "We are here to find Riolu. But, he is no longer in the forest. Do you by any chance know where he is?"

Zorua closes his eyes as he replies, "I actually have no idea," Zorua opens his eyes, "Perhaps he's escaped from the forest." The demon has a disappointed expression on his face as he says, "Zorua… you failed to gain our trust,"

the demons gives the other four demons the signal to attack, "We have no other choice but to knock you out!" Zorua quickly transforms into Riolu again as the four demons form in the demon that talked to Zorua.

As the demons formed together and grew, Zorua quickly makes a run for it deeper into the forest. The massive sized demon lets out a calling roar as it grows taller than twelve foot trees and starts to chase down Zorua.

Zorua looks back with a shocked expression on his face as he sees the giant demon catching up to him with its right hand reaching down. Zorua looks straight ahead and he thought with a frightened look in his eyes, "This is not good… I don't have enough power to destroy this demon. Mienfoo and Maractus are far away from where I am,"

Zorua looks back at the giant demon as he ran, "And this bastard has more power than the last fusion of three!" Zorua looks straight ahead and sees the same huge open circle that's in the center of the forest. Zorua has a worried expression on his face as he thought, "Oh no! It's the opening of the forest! This is not,"

Zorua runs out into the opening and sees the mob of demons up in the sky, looking down at Zorua with malevolent looks on their faces. Zorua looks around at his surroundings and his eyes widen with fear as he sees the trees surrounding him turn into black fire like they did before. Zorua looks down at the ground and watches as the snow melts away and reveals the same dried land as in the Underworld.

Zorua keeps on running as fast as he can as the giant demon appears from the fire behind Zorua and continues to chase him down. The giant demon stops running and stands there as the flying demons fly down straight towards Zorua all at once. Zorua stops running and looks at the demons with a frightened look on his face.

All of the demons flying down straight towards Zorua open their mouths widely with blood thirsty looks in their eyes. Zorua closes his eyes with fear and ducks down on the ground with his paws over his head. After Zorua ducks with a frightening shiver flowing throughout his entire body, all of the demons stopped in their place.

Zorua opens his eyes and looks up at the frozen demons. Zorua has a confused expression in his eyes as he thought, "What the hell happened to them? Why are they just frozen there?" A voice replies ten feet behind Zorua, "I did this, Zorua…" Zorua looks back with a shocked expression on his face and he sees Darkrai just standing there with a serious expression in his eyes.

Zorua stands back up with a scared look on his face and he asks, "Why have you taken me back into the Underworld?" Darkrai replies while looking to his right, "This is not the Underworld. We are still in the living world."

Zorua looks to where Darkrai is looking and his eyes widen as he sees a lonely dead tree just standing there with a shadow black sheath hanging from the branch with a sword in it. Zorua and Darkrai look back eye to eye and Darkrai says with a serious expression on his face, "These demons all disobeyed my orders. I need your help eliminating them all."

Zorua asks with a confused expression on his face, "Wh-what do you mean they disobeyed your orders? Why are they here?" Darkrai replies while looking back at the lonely tree, "All in good time, Zorua. Just grab that sword there and I'll grant you the strength to destroy these demons that will try to kill you."

Zorua looks back at the sheath with a worried expression on his face and he says, "Yeah… but why are you doing this for me?" Darkrai looks back at Zorua and says, "Never mind that now. Just grab the sword. If you don't then I'll allow the demons to kill you and everyone else on this island."

Zorua looks back at the tree with a worried expression on his face and he starts to slowly walk towards the lonely dead tree. As Zorua walks toward the tree he thought, "Darkrai must be serious about this. But," Zorua stands right in front of the sheath, staring at it with a worried expression on his face, "What will happen if I grab a hold of the sword? Will I just become a…!"

Before he can finish his sentence, he has a shocked expression on his face as he sees his hand grab a hold of the hilt and removing the sheath from the branch. Zorua has a frightened expression on his face as he feels a surge of black aura explode from out of his entire body, completely canceling his transformation and turning him back to his original form.

After his body became normal, Zorua screams in pure agony as the sheath and sword form into his body like a spirit. Zorua's fangs steadily grew sharper, his claws grew sharper, the pupils of his eyes went into a vertical diamond shape, and two small horns grow out from the top of Zorua's head.

As the black aura grew larger like a wild fire, Zorua looks up at Darkrai with a painful look on his face and he asks with his voice becoming like a demon voice, "What have you done to me?"

Darkrai just looks down at Zorua with a malevolent look on his face, "You have signed the deal, Zorua. You will do what I tell you and I shall give you ultimate power. Your first task," Darkrai vanishes from the area, followed by the tree and he finishes before the demons regained mobility, "is to kill all of the demons in this area."

As the demons all flew straight down towards him, Zorua lets you a menacing howl that causes a massive shockwave of black aura to rip through the area. The demons surrounding Zorua have shocked expressions on their faces as they felt the powerful impact of Zorua's howl, causing them to have holes pierce through their stomachs and backs.

As all of the flying demons turned into black dust, Zorua looks back at the giant demons with a malevolent look on his face and he says to the giant demon, "Your Lord is very displeased with your actions. You have failed your true mission and for disobeying Lord Darkrai,"

Zorua transforms into Darkrai with shadow black hair and blood red eyes, "you shall be eliminated!" The giant demon has a shocked expression on its face as it sees Zorua up in the air, staring it straight in the eyes. Zorua pierces his claws into the demon's face to hold himself in place.

The demon's eyes widen as it asks, "L-lord Darkrai? What have we done wrong?" Zorua replies with tears of blood rolling down his cheeks, "For trying to kill me." The demon's eyes widen with fear as it sees its own nightmares from within Zorua's glowing red eyes.

As the demon stares into Zorua's eyes, its whole body catches black fire with red glowing cracks forming all over its body. Zorua lets go of the demon's face and drops to the ground on one foot and knee with his back turned on the giant demon.

As Zorua transformed back into its original body, the demon shatters like glass with blood pooling and exploding out of its body like a giant tidal wave. When Zorua looks back at the black fire engulfed blood, he hears Darkrai's voice say, "Very good, Zorua. You're first job is complete."

After the black aura vanishes from Zorua's body and he turns back to normal, Zorua collapses and is knocked out completely. After Zorua collapses, Darkrai's voice continues on while the black fire slowly vanishes, "You'll be forever my apprentice, Zorua. Since the sword has actually accepted your soul, you are the…"

Darkrai's voice vanishes completely and the black fire vanishes completely. Zorua opens his eyes weakly and he thought, "Darkrai…" Zorua closes his eyes and is knocked out in the snow.