32
"So… we just left you two to fight it out?" I look to the wall for a second, trying to hide a few sad tears that are springing forth from my eyes.
"Yes. You all had left in a different direction than Rachamim, which is quite lucky-"
"He's really dead?" I ask.
"Yeah. You care?"
"Well…"
"According to your journal here, all he ever did was annoy the fuck out of you." Dark starts tapping his foot on the ground as if impatient, with Alexis sitting on the ground next to him, she looking around the room as if curiously looking for something.
"Sure, he was annoying. But he was part of the group, and our friend… and I don't like losing my friends…" I clench a fist that's against my side. "So, Draxik started the fight with dad, what happened next?"
"Well…"
My father brushes off Draxik's attack with one single swipe, sending him across the room against the wall. He hits the wall with his back, hard, he falls to the floor hard, not even taking the fall right. Dad hasn't even unleashed second level of his zanpakto; it's just some wimpy 3-foot katana.
Draxik gets off the floor and to his feet slowly. "Okay, that wasn't a good idea."
I keep my eyes glued on dad. I watch him. I keep watching. There's something…
I see it right away. Right then. "Damnit, GET AWAY FROM HIM!" I unleash second level, the sword taking on the heart-shape at the tip of the sword, almost like an Axe. I slash at Dad, and he doesn't move. For the better, as I slashed to his right. I jump back away, and he doesn't even react. He's still smirking at me.
"The hell was that for?" Asks Draxik, standing up now. "That was useless!"
"Just watch." I had dark energy around my sword, and it dissipates. It takes only a few seconds, but father begins to scream. He drops his sword and clutches his head, falling to his knees and swinging his body. Draxik instinctively jumps forward but I stop him. "Watch." Is all I say to get him to stand still. After a few seconds, I notice a grin come over his face.
A black blob of energy is coming out of dad. It can't form yet, and it falls to the floor, leaving father on the ground unconscious.
"IT IS!" Exclaims Draxik, almost laughing. "Not sure this is a good thing though."
"That Ninetails curse is a bitch, isn't it?"
"Is that the original curse… from Raizu?" He asks me.
"I have no idea, but it seems like the same thing. You didn't kill it and only exorcised, it didn't you?"
"So sue me, I didn't know the thing could even exist outside of a body!"
We both shut up as it starts to take a form. The blob is making sounds, indescribable squeaks and hisses, steam coming out, and the air growing cold around us. It keeps the same dark color, now tinted purple. It positions itself upright, and starts to form two arms, and legs. Ears pop up, and eyes start to form. Bright red eyes.
A gengar.
"The fuck-" is all I get out, as it rushes forward toward me, not even running so much as flying. I can't react fast enough, and just stand there completely open to anything it'll do.
When Draxik jumps in front of me.
The gengar hits him dead on in the chest, pouring itself into his body, through his skin, infesting his soul and taking over his body. I use a special kind of vision, my power, to watch it as it happens. I can't remove it now. I have to kill him.
"Ugh… Darkles…" His voice is raspy and ragged. He is smiling.
"My pet name? This isn't the time! I… have to kill you… I don't want-"
"Dude, we've been cool for a month, even if it was slightly forced… I did come to a realization."
"Okay, you're saying 'Dude,' what's wrong man?" I'm concerned for him, with reason. He's normally so formal; I can't get a grip on what he's thinking.
"This whole family feud thing… it never gets resolved. My dad only managed to kill a few of your uncles on your father's side, my parents are all dead, and any other relatives, and for what? Because some guy was an ass to a gengar and got raped by a girl? This has to end. This isn't how I wanted it to happen…"
I give him an inquisitive look. "Dark, I wanted to fight you one last time, for our families, which is why I charged at your father. I can take out Raizu-" I glare at him the instant he says that. "- and if your father was gone, it'd just be us two left. But now we have to fight like this, my body completely taken over by this… THING… but we're still having this fight. I can kill you, then your dad, then Raizu…"
"It won't come to that." I say. He stops talking, listening to me. "I won't let you do any more. I don't hate you, you were a brave comrade, but my family always will deserve my protection, despite what they may have done!"
He starts to chuckle, and I just watch him intently. "I have a few minutes of power left, I can hold off this thing from taking control, but tell me why you are doing this. What makes you want to just… be a good guy?"
"Why? Originally I hated Raizu. But then I saw his potential. He saved Veera from falling so many stories, I doubt I could have done something on that scale. He wants to disband Team Rocket, not try to achieve some twisted 'right' through it. He wants to avenge, and dad wanted Utopia. If there's one thing I learned in school…" I take a fighting stance and points my sword at him. "… is that you never side with someone who wants a Utopia. I couldn't do anything remotely 'good' until I got around that little vow that I couldn't break without potential killing myself."
"I like that. This fight shall be one to remember." He pings, and his eyes go white. I can tell he still sees me though, the spirit merged with his bent on killing me and all on-comers. He will fight me, then kill dad, and Raizu, that much I know, as he goes with Draxik's most pure convictions, and he just made it clear he wants to end this feud, this curse on both our families.
--
Draxik charges forward with his sword hilt toward and close to his body. He stops about 10 feet away though, and I shift my position to a normal stance, the sword pointing diagonally up from my waist, right foot pointed at him. He takes the same stance and looks at me with those bright white eyes. I keep my eyes on him though, until I notice a stance change in his feet. He wants me to charge. I oblige and shuffle my steps as I scoot forward, covering the 10 feet in less than a second. He keeps still, but shoot's off a shadow ball at me, the sphere of dark energy hurled at my face. I hardly have the time to swing my sword at it, cutting it and making it vanish, and aim a stab at his thigh. He jumps back out of the way and swings his sword at me from above. I go up to meet him, and we find each other at a stale mate. We start walking in circles, keeping our swords pinned against each other between us, keeping the other from pushing through and slashing the other's chest.
"Give… up…" I manage to squeeze out.
He chuckles at me, and he jumps back, my sword staying in the same position, up and ready for another attack. I start to lower it, and he charges at me, this time using a shadow claw from a horizontal strike, to gain a few extra feet of range. I hit his sword away, but the shadow claw rips through my thigh. If he had aimed any higher…
I focus on stopping the bleeding while he looks at me, circling to find a weak point. I keep a defensive stance though, my sword still down. He makes a crucial mistake though, and runs at me with his sword up in the air. I step toward my right, or his left, and simply put up my sword, impaling him through the stomach.
"This wasn't a fight, you can't fight for shit. It should have been Draxik." I aim my free palm at him and activate a magic. Eventually, Draxik begins screaming like dad did, and he falls down, bleeding heavily and coughing only a little. What little strength he has must be taken by the curse spirit… he isn't going to make it. I swear at the spirit, the blob now floating in the air again, and glare at it. "Now you're gone from this world. Hopefully, you'll stop existing as is. OVERHEAT!" I call out, as I focus all the energy of the powerful fire attack into the tip of my sword, and stab the blob. It starts to simply disintegrate, vanishing in mere seconds. I then turn my attention to Draxik, who's managed to get himself on his back.
"Wow, that was really pathetic." I say to him.
"Well, I knew I couldn't let myself win; I held back my own knowledge of sword from the thing…" He tries to grin, and gives me a thumbs up.
"Huh." Is all I can say. I can't think of much more to say at such a moment. Enemies become slight friends over about a month, then having to fight each other to the death? Not much can be said, truly.
"You know… I could do one more thing. For Raizu, as I have enough life to do something. Please, hold my hand, I need a little bit of energy."
"Anything." I grab it, and he closes his eyes to concentrate. I can feel him draining some energy, but the amount is miniscule. He opens his eyes and looks at me.
"I can change my body, into something that Raizu will want. I'll die, but I think he'll care more about this." He closes his eyes one last time, and I feel his grip vanish. I can't cry, it wasn't something I do. But I do feel some kind of loss. His body slowly vanishes, disintegrating, looking almost incorporeal before vanishing completely. I look around, and wait a few seconds.
Then, after those few seconds, I can see something forming. It isn't solid right away, but I can already recognize it's form. I smile. Suddenly, a voice sounds in my head, and it's Draxik. I know he isn't speaking to me, so I just listen.
Sorry it took me so long to find this spirit… he seemed to have found someone, but he'll prefer being alive. Once he evolves back up, he'll have all his memory. Until then, he's only a child. Good-bye…
I nod, not knowing whether or not he could have seen, and walk off, the package in hand.
I look away sadly. "God-damnit."
"What's up?" He says. Dark sounds like he cares.
"All this bullshit hardly makes sense, and why'd you leave off right there? What did he do?"
"Cool it."
"NO! Where is Serena? And I just realized I have none of my pokéballs with me! All I have is my sword… Hell, why am I here with you?"
"Oh, Serena left, with all of your pokémon."
I raise my eyebrow at him. "Why would she-"
"She was scared Raizu. Our family isn't one to be trifled with, and she probably realized that. Knowing her, she wanted to keep them safe to, so she took off with them. I found you in my room, don't ask why or how she got you here. I haven't a clue."
"But… she knows how close Veera and I are, why would she-"
"I'm only guessing Raizu, I'm not sure at all." He looks at Alexis and holds out a pokéball. "We never formally caught you, would you like to go with Raizu?"
Of course I would. As if I would go with anyone else. Before she goes into it for me to keep, she looks at me with serious eyes. I almost want to fall over. Please though, we must find Veera again. I never got to formally speak with her, and I got separated in our escape from the chamber. If I agree to go, then we must work toward finding them.
"Duh, I'll do my best. Serena is my girl-friend, I can't just let her go and steal my pokémon because she thinks she knows what's best for me."
She nods, and enters herself into the pokéball. I put it on my waist, pick up my backpack, and head out the door, but Dark stops me. "You forgot your sword."
"I don't want that thing."
"Why not?"
"Pfft. It is the only thing I have that Draxik gave me. He's dead, and you killed him. I see that, and that's all I can remember; I don't want anything to do with it." I reach for the door, but he actually cuts me off this time instead of just grabbing me, and holds me back.
"What now?"
"You aren't curious as to what Draxik left you?"
"I could care less."
"Are you sure?" He reaches into his robe ever so casually and pulls out an egg. Not an egg for eating, that could fit in your hand, but a much larger one with some random colored pattern on in. A pokémon egg.
"Is that-"
"What Draxik left you, yes. I think I know who it is too."
I nod, and tears well up. Real ones. "Markus…"
"I'm coming with you. Dad will awaken soon, and members will fill him in on what he was doing if he for some reason can't remember, but Draxik remembered fine. I'm sure he'll work toward the right thing again. I'll be more useful traveling with you. After all, I can't learn everything about my brother from a little book."
"Get rid of it." I say brashly.
He's caught off guard. "Say what?"
"My journal. Burn it. What if authorities somehow come to suspect me? I'm a minor, and they can just search me as they please, and I'm fucked if they see what I've done in there."
"If you say so." He walks over to the desk, picks up the black journal, edges worn, metal rings of the 300 page book bend and hardly holding, and burns it.
"Good. You sure you want to come?"
"Yes, and I'll leave the sword here for dad." He pats it as if it were an animal. "You know, I don't think Draxik will appreciate what he's done for you if you just leave his one memento behind."
I sigh. "Fine, I'll take it. But I do so not liking it."
"Ha!" He picks up the scabbard, the sword sheathed inside, and tosses it to me. I catch it and put it on my left waist, opposite where Alexis now rests.
"Let's go." I say. I open the door, and look outside. It was downtown Celadon City. "Wait, your home is outside the base?"
"Dad comes to it every once in a while. He likes getting away from his job." He walks out and looks around. A few people stare at the two, seemingly twins albeit the hair color, both with swords at their side, and one wearing a large, black, majestic robe.
"First order of business?" I ask. I'm not sure what to expect, I've never had free time like this, I was always busy or worrying. And I was never with my brother either.
"Food, I'm damned hungry."
--
Two days later. Quite a jump right? And you thought you were reading my journal.
Anyway, we're just camping out a few days short of Vermillion City. Through some hacking skills that Dark has (god knows where he learned that), we actually found that she bought some boat tickets to Sinnoh. Why she was going there I have no idea, but I intend to follow her. I will get Veera back, and the rest of my team as well. She doesn't have the right to do this to me.
I am not entirely angry at her. She panicked, it isn't a big deal, but I will confront her on it. I just hope everyone is doing fine, and not hating her much.
It's in the middle of the night. Dark is alone, and Alexis is sleeping next to me. I'm lying on my back and staring up at the night sky, when my phone rings. I hardly remembered I had a phone, so it took me 4 rings to actually pick it up. "Y'ello?" I have become so informal nowadays, as the only person I talk to really is Dark, and he can be so fun loving and unserious, that I've picked up on the habits.
"Ah, hello Raizu… I'm glad I can call you."
I sigh. The voice isn't familiar, and the cough in between the comments implies illness. "Who is this? Hell, I still don't know this number."
"I am… the Jenny that cursed you."
I go wide-eyed. I remember this exact conversation. Jenny… was dead, what the hell is this? The voice is different, but the coughing is at the same intervals.
"I need to say something. Before you get angry with me, I wasn't told you were just a pokémon abuser. What I was told was far worse. That made me go to extreme lengths and now you may die a lot sooner than was intended by god."
"Hey, shut the fuck up and tell me who you are, and why you're doing this."
"Oh god, Raizu, I don't know, just help me… This is Da-" I hear the voice muffled, some yelling, then the phone goes off.
Wait… DAWN!?
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