All credit for Rio should go to a friend of mine from Neopets, Laputa9. Yet another character I've borrowed.

Chapter 16

"Finally," The fiend himself said in a voice of pure jubilation. Rio didn't think it was possible for Dominus to sound so happy, knowing the Lord of Darkness. The teen wanted to erase the smirk on his face, but did not dare when he was still in Dominus's circle of trust.

"Finally what sir?" He asked politely, instead of the rude comment he had bitten back. The young teen bowed his head in respect as Dominus stood from the large stone throne he was sitting on to pace past Rio.

"Finally my most loyal servant has awakened." Was the reply as he swept from the room, leaving Rio alone in his room, an incredibly stupid mistake.

"Loyal! Oh yes, quite! That dragon has the brain capacity of a Slakoth!" But luckily Dominus didn't hear him. Wounded pride had turned Rio and Dominus from blood buddies to bitter enemies. Wounded pride and anger, which didn't mix well at all.

A voice inside of him, like the ray of light that dimly shined through the single window in Dominus's tower room, called out for him to stop. Dominus would flay him alive for even touching any of the things in his room, and that wouldn't be good if he was planning to double-cross the strongest dark creature that had ever come into existence, other than Nekroquaza.

Dominus had 'blessed' Rio with a special power, one that he had barely any use for, the one that let him control what was basically the earth's rotation. In doing so, he could make the day night, and the night day, with a simple one hundred-eighty degree turn of the earth. How did everyone think Dominus could make it night everywhere he goes? He brings along his not-so-faithful servant to do it for him.

But that had all changed. Dominus must have caught some rumor of Rio's plans of treachery, because he had banned the teen from using his powers anymore. As Rio paced the room, he stopped to look at the ray of sunlight. One dim ray of sun had survived its trip through space, just to end up in the darkest place possible. But it had survived, which strangely gave Rio a boost of hope. He was to be that light, he would save the world from Dominus with the inside information he has. Because wherever there is darkness, there has to be a sparkle of light.

(Meanwhile...)

It had been four days since the trio and all their Pokemon had been sucked into Nekroquaza's orb. They had eaten all the food in Elvina and Drake's backpacks in the first two days, but their stomachs were rumbling for more. "I think Dominus is trying to kill us from starvation." Sara groaned as she searched her pockets for any sign of a morsel of food.

"More likely our smell will kill us first." Elvina replied sourly, wrinkling her nose. She was right though, not having a shower in four days really worked up a good strong stench.

Drake didn't contribute to their conversation though, he was digging through his own backpack in the hopes of finding food. "I got some!" He yelled, though it was muted a bit from the folds of his backpack. Moments later he pulled his head out of the backpack with a shiny metal something in his hand. He held it up to wave it both the girls' faces as Sara gave a snort of laughter.

"Idiot." Star cheeped, but it was half-hearted compared to the comments that she could make when her stomach was full.

"Uh Drake… that's not edible!" Elvina exclaimed as she grabbed for it.

"You're just jealous!" Drake said instead as he whipped away from her just in time, "That I have such a good meal now, and you don't!"

"I think this long stay in here has gotten to his brain." Sara said quietly as she stroked Star's soft feathers, as the Swellow had settled in her trainer's lap.

"I agree." The Swellow muttered, nipping Sara's fingers.

"But that's not even close to being eatable!" Elvina was saying as she continued to try to get it away from the ten-year old trainer, who was on the verge of eating his Pokemap 2000.

"Jealous, jealous I say!" He was exclaiming as Elvina finally stopped following him around. Drake cuddled the Pokemap 2000 before taking a big bite and nearly breaking all his teeth. "OUCH! What in the world am I doing?"

"Trying to eat your stupid Pokemap 2000, which belongs in the trashcan, like I've told you a thousand times." Sara responded promptly, earning herself a glare.

"Dung brained." Star grumbled.

"No, just hungry. Like all of us." Elvina replied.

Mellow suddenly chirped loudly, causing all of them to focus their attention on him. He was staring at what looked to be a very small hole, except it was getting larger. Air was being sucked into the hole, and when it got big enough, Mellow fell through it.

"An exit?" Sara asked softly, but watched as Drake jumped eagerly into it. "Or maybe a pit of no return." She continued bitterly, glaring at it.

The hole was still getting bigger, also sucking in air so much that it pulled the rest of the Pokemon through it, and eventually Elvina and Sara. Another wave of icy cold air rushed into Sara's face as her feet met solid ground, solid muddy ground. "Greetings." Growled a very icy, very familiar voice that made Sara's skin crawl slightly, "Welcome to my personal abode."

Standing just a couple of feet away was Dominus, his icy blue eyes glimmering with triumph. There was nowhere to run, Nekroquaza had curled his body around them and was snorting hot breath into the otherwise cold day. The sun was beginning to set by now. "You don't scare me." Sara growled instead at Dominus, who didn't look taken aback at all. He must have heard the slight waver in her voice when she had said that.

"Is that so? Well, I think my loyal servant Nekroquaza," Dominus waved to the massive Nekroquaza, "Is enough to get you scared."

Nekroquaza, is it? Sara thought to herself as she glanced at the snakelike dragon creature. Dominus snapped his fingers at that point, causing a small group of men to appear around them. "My building army." He supplied cruelly, "It's not so big now, but just you wait, little lady."

Sara quickly recalled Sandsinger, Karen, and Star as Dominus's 'army' began to approach them with widened Pokeballs. Elvina and Drake did the same, then the three of them huddled together at the heart of the small space that had nothing on it. They were trapped, with Nekroquaza on one side, and Dominus on the other. There was no escape from that.

A day later, Sara found herself chained to the wall of a very cramped cell, awaiting something horrible to come and get her. She knew if she didn't do something soon, her days of living were over for good. Dominus had made sure that Sara had all her Pokeballs pulled away from her, probably he was placing those horrid bands around her Pokemon's necks as she thought to herself now. They had offered her food, but she dared not eat, lest they had poisoned the red 'cranberry juice' that they'd placed close to her side.

Footsteps signaled someone coming. Someone who wouldn't be friendly, since her friends were both tied up somewhere else. It wasn't a big surprise when a teen entered, his face covered by a mask that was half moon and half sun. The mask was interesting, but Sara didn't look at the teen for very long, so he wouldn't know she was interested in him.

"Hello." He said, a voice that was oddly comforting, "How are you, Sara?"

"What does it look like?" She growled instead, still refusing to look at the teen.

"I'm sorry about this. You see, I can't get you down from there yet, but I do have a plan. Dominus is going to want you to alive, but he'll kill you tomorrow if things go as he plans. Your heart is what he wants."

Sara wrinkled her nose in disgust, "And why are you telling me this? I really don't want to know my heart's going to be ripped out…"

"Because, just because." Was the reply.

"Who are you?" She continued.

"The name's Rio. Now then, here are your Pokemon." Rio said as he slipped three Pokeballs into Sara's pocket.

"Did Dominus tell you to do this?" Sara continued, but was happy to have the familiar feel of Pokeballs in her pocket. Rio shook his head and held a finger to his lips.

"Shush, someone will hear you." He growled, lowering his voice. "Look, Dominus will have a very important visitor tomorrow, in which he'll attempt to summon a very powerful Pokemon for. Kyogre, if I heard correctly. Listen to me Sara, if he does summon Kyogre, that Pokemon will go nuts without something to calm it down. That's where you're going to come in, if we can't stop him, Dominus will want to sacrifice you to the mighty Kyogre to gain control of it."

Sara let this chunk of information clunk around in her mind for a while before asking, "Why are you telling me this? Do I really need to know how I'm going to die before I really do?"

"That's where my plan comes in." Rio responded with a wink of his blue eyes, "If Dominus is distracted long enough after he summons Kyogre, it will go nuts before he has the time to sacrifice you to it. I'll get you away after it flies away, or whatever it'll do, and we can escape."

He was beginning to back away, but was smiling slightly at Sara, "Rest up well, and I'll see you tomorrow, Lady."