Chapter XVI: Psychosis
October 9, 2061 1:10 a.m.
(No, we have to stay to help everyone else!)
(Raika, it's not safe here! We have to leave now!)
(We can't just-) (Do you honestly think we're going to have a better chance of living if we just stay here? Those…those THINGS don't have mercy! Regardless of if we leave or not everyone who stays behind is likely going to end up dead anyway!)
(Raisen, what about…what about our parents?)
(…I'm sorry Raika…but they've been dead for some time now. What we see in the old burrow…isn't really there, you know that. I'm sure they don't have to worry about being harmed…besides, I think they'd want us to run, the way things are now.)
…
Somewhere, Shadow could hear another Pokémon screaming. A screech, an abominable sound broke the air along with the continued screaming, punctuated by pauses where it sounded like bones were being snapped. Another unearthly screech followed the near-inaudible sound of bone cracking and flesh ripping. A final distant scream filled the air before silence took the atmosphere once more. The sound did not make him jump, but it still did make a foreboding feeling invade his thoughts.
How many times had he heard something similar this night? Perhaps about five times now?
His tail stood erect with uneasiness, its lightning-bolt form unmoving. Behind him, his lone companion in this night slept, one of his triangular ears twitching in his slumber above his head. Despite the gut-wrenching sound that had just passed through, Zero continued to sleep next to the rough-barked trunk of one of the many trees in the forest.
A breeze swayed the light green blades of grass in waves resembling those of the sea. Shadow found his long ears swaying slightly with the wind, hearing a faint whistling sound from the wind hitting the inside of them. They perked up, a small gasp emerging from his lips.
He could've sworn he just heard…even if it was just a whisper…
At the very top of his field of vision, he could see what appeared to be a bright spark, floating gently down until it was in front of him, floating in front of him and giving off a light that managed to dully illuminate his face. Another whisper crossed his mind:
"Shadow."
…
(Just keep going, don't look back.)
(Raisen they need or help!)
(Raika, they're too far gone, you know that.)
(…Fine.)
(What, you really think we can help them now? Sure, with their guts spilling out like that…)
(Wait up, what's that?)
(…Raisen, they don't look too…Oh dear God…)
(What…? How is that Arbok still…with its…)
(…Raisen, I think one of these demons is possessing its body.) (No wonder, otherwise he probably wouldn't be moving with its brains exposed like that…)
…
Shadow looked down to his paw for a moment, slowly lifting it with its palm up, watching as the spark drifted down to float directly over his dull yellow fur. The tiny light expanded into a sphere in his palm, about the size of a marble. He blinked rapidly, eyes adjusting to the sudden brightness that pierced the night. Through squinted eyelids, he saw the sphere take on small appendages, first arms, legs, and a head with ears that curved back on its transparent white head. Bright, glowing eyes looked up at Shadow as a long tail with a lightning-bolt end flowed out from its tiny body. He now held a miniature, phantasmal Raichu in his paw.
His eyes widened slightly. (…Lightforce?) Shadow whispered, careful not to wake the Pichu that slept behind him. The Raichu seemed to disregard his words, her bright eyes occupied with staring up into his. "…I'm so glad to see that you're okay, Shadow. Light was very worried about you."
(She should be worrying more about herself right now...) He replied with a mix of worry and anger audible in his voice. (…Fucking Namba is probably torturing her in all sorts of ways right now, isn't he?)
The figure shook its head, the saddened droop in its eyes growing. "Shadow, I'm afraid that it's worse than that."
The worry and anger both rose, resulting in a mixed feeling of shock and the want to tear through the forest to kill Namba that instant. It was a struggle not to raise his voice. (Worse? What twisted idea of his is he trying out now?)
The spirit looked like she sighed in his paw then, pausing with her head bowed for a few moments before her eyes made contact with his again. "Shadow, he's…he's ordered Light to hunt you down."
His paw trembled under her. Being in a spirit form, she could feel the waves of emotion flowing off him, a chaotic flow of fear, disbelief, pain, worry, and rage. An uncanny stillness came after the trembling, and once again looking into his face to detect an emotion, she saw him looking blank, continuing to simply stare down at her with widened eyes and his mouth slightly ajar.
(What do you mean by, 'hunt me down?)
"It's exactly like it sounds, Shadow. I have no idea where she is right now…but she's coming for you, and if she finds you then she will try to kill you."
(Why would she kill me? There's no way she would follow that bastard Namba and come out just to kill me!) Shadow said, an anxious sweat building under his fur.
"She has no choice, Shadow. The movements she makes are no longer her own, nor are the words she speaks. Namba has done something to her to make her follow every command he gives her." Lightforce's voice said in his head, "She's a prisoner in her own body, Shadow. She's being forced to watch her body betray her and do what Namba says, and he's ordered her to kill you. Not even her words aren't influenced by him…when she was first ordered to kill you…"
Shadow could see the ghost in his paw bow its head, paws covering its face. Was she actually crying?
"…She replied with, 'It will be done, master.'"
(…)
(WHAT?) Shadow said, his whisper gone. He heard a rustling from the Pichu behind him, but continued on nonetheless, the rage rising from the mix of worry he held for his friend and boiling up. (She would never fucking say that! She's no one's slave, ESPECIALLY not Namba's!)
Zero groggily opened his eyes and mumbled to himself, blinking rapidly as a dry breeze went by. Distinctly, he could hear Shadow yelling a small distance in front of him. He rolled forward, glaring towards the Pikachu. He mumbled curses under his breath.
(Did I yell my head off guarding while YOU were sleeping, Shadow? No…)
Shaking his head, Zero raised himself onto two legs and slowly began to walk toward Shadow. He scratched at his left ear wearily, stopping as both of them perked up to a sound in the forest. A flash blinded every inch of Zero's vision for a moment, and in the following moment he saw a beam suddenly tear out through the forest.
…
…No, I cannot doubt my actions now…
To end this…his pain…I will do…anything…!
…
(Shadow, look out!)
(AAAUGH!)
White, crackling energy cut through the darkness under the trees and smashed into Shadow from his right. Zero watched, alarmed as the beam slammed Shadow through a tree's trunk in a shower of splinters and then into another behind it. As the first tree fell forward, raining twigs and leaves from its cracking structure, the second tree let go its own green leaves and sticks from its branches. Shadow lay in the trunk of the tree, his body screaming from the sudden, violent attack. He weakly reached out for the edge of the new hollow he was inside, grabbing the edge of the bark. Pulling himself out, his legs gave out as he was halfway out, making him tumble down…
Zero dashed, a blinding flash of yellow to Shadow's side after he fell from the hole, crumpled in the grass and leaves beneath it. Spasms racked the Pikachu, white static sparking up all over his fur with sprits of what looked like black fire coming up with it. Groaning, Shadow placed a paw forward in an attempt to rise up, but found his strength in the limb gone.
What was…what was…that…?
"…She's here…"
Zero spun with his claws ripping from his paws, facing the direction the attack had come from with an uncertainty running in his breaths. His ears perked, head slowly moving with his eyes to identify any figure that could've been hidden in the shadows. Dim moonlight illuminated his blades and the bright green of his irises.
(…Come out, come out wherever you are!) Zero yelled, teeth gritted with a faint grin appearing on his face. (I fucking dare you!)
Winds carried through once more, dulling the sounds of creaking branches and movement around Zero. Despite the interference, he could distinctly make out a scent nearby that easily gave away their attacker's location. Turning his eyes to his far left, he lowered himself and braced his arms over his chest, claws ready to strike. In the trees ahead, he could see a silhouette standing. (Gotcha.)
(Zero, wait!)
Zero forced back the urge to dash forward and quickly looked to the Pikachu who was forcing himself onto his feet, his claws still waiting behind him at the ready.
Despite the sudden spike of pain, Shadow quickly rose up from where he lay, looking out to his left while still on his front paws. He gave a quick shake of his head, rising onto his hind legs with his eyes peering forward into the night forest.
(…Light?)
The following moment went on for eternity in Shadow's mind. Faraway sounds like that of what sounded like an Ethereal attacking another Pokémon were deafened to his efforts to try to hear his friend in the dark. Closer to him were the sounds of his own breathing, Zero's breaths behind him, and his heart beating in his chest. Grass rustled ahead of him from behind a tree.
(Shadow…my dear, dear Shadow…)
Two scars could be seen under Light's white chest fur, dried blood staining a small portion under them. Smaller cuts could be seen across her entire form, like she had been thrown into a gigantic grater. The ears that should've stood perk were drooping with small notches in them, while her tail barely rose above a drag behind her. At her sides, her arms hung limply with obvious bloodstains coating her paws like she dipped them into a bucket of dark red paint. Even her eyes themselves seemed forlorn and tired, like she wanted to drop right there but couldn't. Under them, dark streaks dropped down her face like her tears had formed rivers.
. Shadow could see a leather collar with a small black box and a small 'R' dogtag wrapped around her neck.
(…Shadow, I'd be careful if I were you.) Zero spoke, cautiously walking up to the Pikachu's side with his claws still extended. (Namba wouldn't just let her go.)
Shadow glanced at Zero. (I know…)
The Pichu narrowed his eyes and raised his paws as Light's battered form drew towards them. A twitch ran up his body, one of his eyes giving off a brief flash of bright green. Zero bowed his head, his left hand withdrawing its claws as he put it to his face, giving off a low, frustrated growl.
I…I really need to…learn to control this!
(…Get ready for anything.)
Shadow nodded and faced Light once more, taking a few cautious steps towards his friend just as she walked with a lowered head towards him. Sounds around him died into nothing, just as many a chill ran through him. He knew it was her; it wasn't just her AntiReal trying to trick him, this was certainly her. Why did he feel so anxious?
He stopped in his tracks just as she did; her gaze still lowered away from him, towards the wavy, sea-like grass underneath them. Words came up into his mind, a continuous stream of questions and worries that his mouth refused to speak. It felt very dry so suddenly. Here she was, standing there as silent as he was, just as unmoving, yet he couldn't say a word to her.
(…You're…you're still alive…unharmed…Shadow…?)
She sounded like she was choking on her words, reminiscent of if she had just been crying. Each had come out shaky and full of sorrow. Once more Shadow could not find feeling in his legs to move closer to her, nor could he find his words.
(…I'm…glad that you're…that you're okay…) Her frail voice echoed to him once again.
Say something!
His long yellow ears drooped; the words he managed to get out dripped with remorse. (I'm…I'm sorry that I let you get taken, Light.)
(…Shadow…I'm afraid …)
Forgive me, Shadow…
(…I must kill you.)
…
Upon seeing Shadow stiffen up, Zero allowed himself a miniscule smirk. I'd say you already killed his mood.
…I did not just hear that.
Her words came out sincere and eerily soothing. The soft, warm stare she gave despite the apparent injuries riddling her form showed utter caring for the shocked Pikachu staring back at her with a slack jaw. (Please try to understand, Shadow. It's not that I hate you, far from it…I want to help you by doing this to you.)
(Light, how will killing me…how will that help anything? Do you even know what you're saying?) Shadow shouted back at her. Unfazed, she nodded back to him, silencing him once more. His ears turned down at flat angles from his head, like the cold, heavy feeling in his gut was chilling him outside. Meanwhile, Zero cautiously stepped up to Shadow's side, his claws still downturned.
Light regarded the Pichu with eyes that widened for but a moment, an almost invisible flash of white brightening her eyes in an instant. She reached with a paw to her head, shaking. Her chest rose and fell more rapidly than before in the silence that filled the space between the three as she bowed her head down. Sighing under her breath, Light turned her sad look back onto them.
(Listen to me; everything's just…fallen apart, Shadow. You've seen that by now, I'm sure. The Ethereal…they're everywhere. While I was finding you I came across many, too many, and they…)
Her voice cracked, one of her paws balling up. (…I saw them kill them, I saw them rip them and torture them…I saw them massacre each and every single one they came across …!)
(Light, it's okay, we can-)(NO! IT'S NOT OKAY, SHADOW!)
Breath caught in his throat, Shadow said nothing; even Zero looked taken aback as she continued on, fresh tears rolling down her face from her bloodshot eyes. (If you can't see the condition of the world we live in now, you're blind, completely and utterly blind! There was always smoke reaching into the sky from wherever battle we were in, there was always blood spilling all around us, as far as I can tell, there has always been war during our lives, Shadow! This…this is just the twisted hell it's all been leading up to!)
Somehow, her eyes were even more bloodshot than before. Droplets of her tears surrendered to gravity at her chin, falling in a crawl-like trickle to the grass. Silence gripped them all for many long, dreadful moments. In front of Shadow, he saw not the friend who had pulled out of Team Rocket, not the friend who consoled him in the forest, or the friend who had stood by his side even as they fought a chaotic battle against Marxus.
What he saw was a hollow shell, a hopeless and heartbreaking imitation of his dear, dear friend, a tortured, remorseful being wishing only to bring death in the twisted resolve to save those she would never truly wish to harm.
Light stared to the ground, drops of crystal splashing to the ground at her paws. (…Shadow…Zero…all we were given before was suffering…we lived no day where we haven't had to struggle in some way…and always, always we have had to fight for our lives…in a dying, bloodstained world…)
Her gaze lifted up towards him once more, the unnatural chill it gave him unsettling him even further. He said nothing; however, Zero seemed to find words instead.
(You're…you're fucking crazy. I'm with Shadow here…one, how the hell do you think you'll be benefiting us at all by killing us?)
(It will benefit…by allowing you both to escape from this…hell on Earth, this…this corrupted existence.) She replied, slowly lifting up and extending her battered paw to Shadow. A soft white glow emanated from it, her eyes squinting slightly. (…Please…let me be your savior…)
(…W-why…why would you even think of this?) Shadow whispered, his voice just as shaky as hers. He followed her glowing paw up to her face, her frown moving only slightly with her words, themselves a whisper like his own:
(…Because I love you, Shadow.)
…
A clock ticked slowly on top of an oak desk, the desk itself just a foot or so from the side of a bed where a man, his hair ruffled, slept with his glasses still on…
Suddenly, a gasp issued from his mouth as he bolted upright, his glasses thrown forward and onto the sheets he lay under as he gasped for breath, alarm and confusion visible on his face. He rubbed his forehead while his other hand searched frantically for his glasses. Finding a thin metal bar, he lifted it up and adjusted its position in his hand until he could feel the bottom of both lenses. Putting the glasses on, he took a quick look out the window, noting the clouds floating lazily by behind the tranparent blue dome that reached far beyond into the woods. A thin green treeline climbed into the slope of Mt. Moon far away, retreating before grasses continued up until they yielded to rocks whose jagged forms could not be made out from where he was.
Xepher exhaled and sadly looked out to the bustle of the streets, now filled to the brim with both refugees in mixes of tattered and baggy clothing, and soldiers in their deep blue flak jackets, some faded more than others with parts torn from the fabric to show the metal linings and padding underneath.
"…I'm up so I might as well get back to work…" Xepher muttered, turning around and walking to the desk, pulling out the wooden chair tucked under it and taking a seat. He adjusted his glasses while his left hand flipped open his laptop. Within a minute, he was looking at a complex diagram on the screen, filled with small mathematical equations and other text. What stood out in the design was a small page detailing what was suggested to be old text of some sort, as if from some forgotten civilization. Footnotes littered the text, linking to individual parts of a strange weapon on the screen.
"This thing better work…"
Looking it over, he began to type in further calculations in another window of the computer. Once again, he found himself engrossing himself in the work, putting his attention again to the variables and theories that may put a stop to the crisis outside the city.
All he had heard from the outside so far was bad news. After escaping from the burning, bloodstained husk of Viridian City, that was almost all he had been hearing from the outside world. If he were to look up towards the sky right now, he would be able to see plumes of smoke that had floated north from Saffron, and if he looked out from the highest building in the city, he guessed he might be able to see the dim glow of an inferno far, far away in the forest to the west.
His fingers froze on the keyboard, his hair hanging down past his sullen eyes and over his glasses. Xepher looked to the clock at the bottom corner of his screen; it read 1:52 a.m. Even now, time's still going. We…we're running out of time. I'm running out of time. It's only a matter of that time until the barrier fails or we all starve. Cerulean doesn't have the resources to keep us all maintained…
That truth was growing more and more apparent every day. With the city full to bursting, he estimated that food supplies themselves would like only last for a month at most. The inhabitants of Cerulean were quickly, and irreversibly, running out of time.
…I need to make the most of the time I have left. To start off…I should explain myself. Hiding the truth won't change it.
Xepher clicked away from the project on the screen, saving it quickly before going to his computer's webcam. The doctor opened the options and, drawing a breath to prepare himself, clicked on 'record'.
…
(Raisen!) (I'm fine, keep going!) (Raisen, look out!) (Huh, what the-AAAH! AAAAUGH!) (RAISEN!)
…
(Die with me.)
Her arm flew out in front of her with white aura rapidly exploding from it, striking out towards Shadow. As soon as he had jumped away from the attack, however, the aura suddenly redirected and swept towards him like a tidal wave. Her free paw was erect over her head, forming a protective transparent-white dome around her.
I want to save you, nothing more.
Zero hung back, narrowing his eyes at the top of Light's paw, panning down her body within the dome while she stayed transfixed on Shadow. He let his claws retract into his paws, knowing that dealing any mortal damage against Light might just incite Shadow's wrath, and he knew how that went for him last time.
The Pikachu slid to a stop as the massive tendril of white energy retracted back to her, only to tense up once more as she stepped forward, raising her paw with a surprisingly eerie glow of energy upon it…
The Pichu shot away like a bullet, the blast from her paw ripping through the air and obliterating the ground he had been standing upon. The reflex to go at her was processed by his body faster than his mind, after so much time of doing so in the past. For a moment, he almost forgot not to use his blades.
Zero smirked at the feeling of his balled-up paw smacking her across the face. He jumped back for a brief moment as she recoiled, immediately accelerating towards her again as soon as his paws brushed against the ground.
(Here, I'll knock some sense into you!)
The space around her went dark. She stood silently, her eyes glowing as brief pulses of her energy emanated from her. Though Light's body remained still, she was still able to see all around herself, from the frozen image of Shadow leaping between two scizzoring strikes of her power with his eyes still locked upon her to the Pichu who was now only a foot or two from her, his left paw raised to deal another blow against her. Concentrating, she mentally prepared her next move…
Something was again nagging at the back of her mind. Again, voices of her doubts came with reasons to stop her attack on them; for what reason, she didn't know.
This was the only way she could save them.
The only way to free Shadow from this wretched life.
In the brief instant between Zero's paw striking at her once again, her left paw flew up towards him, her look firm. (Still, child.)
White energy shot from her paw and instantly wove into a bubble around him. The bubble, with Zero frozen in place within, floated up above the ground, connected to light's paw by a thin rope of white energy. Within the sphere, tendrils of white spread in towards his body, latching themselves at his hind legs and his front legs, along with the base of his back and the rear of his head. While Shadow rolled to a stop nearby from her last attack before, he saw Zero in the bubble and heard her mutter under her breath.
(Marionette Formation)
Zero's head shot up straight ahead, the confident look on his features vanished. His mouth went agape and his eyes went wide in terror for a brief moment, as if he were about to scream within the bubble...
Get off me! Leave me alone!
A moment later his eyes glazed over white, like the inside of his head were an expansive bright void.
AAAAAAHHH!
As his mouth shut, the bubble he was inside burst while the strings of energy that had attached with him remained, joining the single white beam that connected back to Light's open paw.
I can't be doing this…
I have no choice.
Shadow tensed up as Zero jerked his arm up in front of himself like a loosely-controlled puppet, his claws shooting out from the ends of his paws. The blank stare that the possessed Pichu gave Shadow only further served to disturb him.
(Marionette Dance)
She flicked her paw, the beam connecting it to the tethers on Zero rippling briefly like a wave in the ocean. Almost instantly, Shadow found himself nearly getting gutted.
Sharp slashing sounds cut the air like the Pichu's extended claws. Each instant the sound repeated and repeated, the sounds of the metallic talons joining into a string of different pitches of whizzes. A claw nearly tore open Shadow's right ear as he slid forward and kicked Zero's hind legs out from under him. Even then, Shadow reflexively surged electricity out in front of himself as Zero passed over, his own cheeks alight with what little electricity he had as a Pichu.
Light!
Shadow slid forward, spinning onto all fours and dashing to where Light stood, the white beam still held out in front of her by her paw. But she seemed to pay him no attention, her sullen, half-lidded eyes zipping back to the other side of him along with her paw.
Shadow slid to a stop while simultaneously raising his paws to his sides, an electrical field instantly zapping around him at the same time that Zero's paws smashed into it.
(…)
Zero made no audible sounds aside from his breathing, his eyes whited over while he continued to pummel Shadow's electrical barrier with rapid and unrelenting strikes of his claws. Wisps of smoke trailed off the barrier, leaving an acrid scent as his strikes kept on, mute even while shadow began to notice blood spearing against his paws. The skin behind his claws was beginning to be burnt right off from the power of Shadow's barrier.
(Light, stop! You're going to make him burn his fucking paws off!) Shadow yelled, almost pleading.
Light blinked slowly.
Zero's claws ripped viciously into the shield once more before another wave travelled the length of the beam to Zero. He jumped back with the motion of her paw, landing on all four and standing back up in front of her, raising one of his bloody paws up with the claws pointing at Shadow. Cautiously, Shadow lowered his paws, a warning expression upon his features.
The Raichu blinked slowly again, sullen eyes travelling over Zero's bleeding paws. She flexed the paw connecting a beam to Zero again, this a time a short pulse going through the ethereal rope. Short white pulses briefly lit up Zero, silent as the burnt and tattered flesh around his claws quickly grew back into place. One of his triangular ears twitched.
They stood silently. Shadow stared longingly into the unreadable depths of his friend's eyes, trying to find some sliver of the friend he knew left.
(…)
"Shadow," came the voice of Lightforce in his head, "I fear for the safety of that Pichu…Zero, was it?"
Yeah, I know. I still don't trust him much though.
"That wouldn't make an excuse for if she caused him to kill himself."
I know that. What's making her act this way though?
(This is your last chance, Shadow.)
Light spoke even as her paw flexed to further manipulate the puppet she had made out of Zero, the dark circles under her eyes seeming to have darkened even further. A sharp metal sound reverberated through the air. Lowering his head a bit, Shadow followed Zero, his claws retracted, as he got back onto all of his paws. (Please…I don't want to make this any more painful than it has to be. Just surrender yourself.)
"Remember, it's not really her saying that."
I know.
"It's the collar. Get that collar off her neck; I'm sure that's what that madman was using to control her."
Got it…Namba isn't taking her from me.
(…No, Light. You may have given up, but I haven't.)
Both of her ears fell. A short sniffle emerged from her mouth as fresh tears formed under her eyes.
She closed her eyes for a brief moment, and as they opened again they were narrowed with despair and anger. The beam to Zero pulsed again, forcing him up onto his hind legs again with his claws extended. She wiped the wetness from her eyes with her free arm, glaring back at Shadow.
(...Fine.)
…
(What's the matter? You look frightened to see me.)
(Get away from us, demon! Why don't you and your monster friends go back to hell where you belong!)
(…Back to hell…where I belong…)
(Where else? You certainly don't deserve the higher plane, you freak!)
(Heh, you have no idea where I belong. I feel like I belong nowhere now. After all, I'm dead, aren't I? Not like you would care. The only things you had managed to hold onto were Raisen, Bolt, and those simple little mirages of Blitz and Electra in the old burrow.)
(They are no simple mirages! They are my parents, real or not! I don't know how or why, but they are there, and I will not let you insult their memory like this!)
(…Their memory…funny…memories…you care a lot about them don't you. You care a lot about your twin and your older brother, too…)
(Of course, you forgot about me. Just like when I was still around, just like you always have. )
(…What do you mean?)
(Do I have to spell it out for you, Raika? What else could I mean! Do you know what it's like to be completely forgotten by the world for nearly ten years? Do you know what it's like to be isolated for so long, you eventually just snap? No, you don't…because you didn't have to sacrifice everything. Because unlike me, you and Raisen decided to run away that day, just like Bolt told you to…)
(…You decided to run like cowards, just like OUR dear brother Bolt said to do, rather than help them that day. I'm sure you know how that turned out…you know how that turned out for Blitz and Electra.)
(…you…you can't be…!)
(Guess what? I am. And you know what? I'd like to show you what it's like to be lost in the dark. Let me give you taste of the insanity I now embrace...It's the best I have to offer you right now…)
(Sister!)
...