I softly laid Katrina on the ground as she fell to her exhaustion. I stood and faced Corrina. The greninja let go of Corrina and stood in front of her as he watched me prepare to charge forward. It was time to face their darkness.
I looked around to see Latios holding Latias and trying his best to keep her stable. Sir Lance, Korook, and the general were slowly tiring out Tarik's team. They were sluggish and breathing heavily. Carter was still having a hard time with Carmina. It had turned into the point of him basically running around as she playfully chased him. Zeina crawled over to Katrina and held her. I looked down at her and she nodded for me to go.
I looked back to Corrina who was now standing alone. I felt the aura before his attack appeared, but my muscles weren't fast enough to react like I had done against Katrina. His water shuriken only cut my cheek as I ducked out of the way of his attack. I spun and tried to kick him down, but he was gone before I was halfway through my kick. I felt his aura move quickly behind me where I stood. As he reappeared, I was already moving two aura spheres, one in each hand, at the greninja to send him flying away back to Corrina.
He looked down at his stomach. Parts of his flesh were gone. A small trickle of black ooze fell down from the wound. He looked back at me and laughed.
"It's been a long time since I have felt something. Thank you for that." He said.
"I wonder how much more you could make me feel before the fun is over."
He then charged forward and flung shuriken after shuriken at me. Their speed was difficult to react to, but they could only trim my fur as I grew faster. The light in my chest began to burn again and the jabbing pain slowly numbed away.
He grew restless as his attacks wouldn't land. His attacks became sloppier; but had more power in each swipe, lunge, and throw. A shuriken landed and hit my inner thigh and another stuck square into my shoulder. I stumbled a little bit from the pain from my leg and saw the greninja's grin grow from my pain.
I looked at the greninja as he formed more shuriken for himself to attack. Even in this higher form, I can't beat him. He was too fast for me. Even reading his aura a few seconds before his action, wasn't enough. I needed him to be where I wanted him to be. I turned to Corrina.
She was still holding her stomach like she had eaten something bad. She was watching the greninja and then noticed me looking at her.
"Gareth!" she yelled and the greninja noticed me looking at Corrina.
Gareth's aura showed his path, and I knew what I needed to do. Time slowed down as I ran toward Corrina. Gareth quickly threw more shuriken to stop me and following his shuriken as they flew through the air. Corrina began to cower as I closed the distance. I saw Gareth pull out more shuriken and prepared to swing with them at me.
I caught the flying shuriken, threw them to the floor, and reached out with my bleeding paw. I grabbed Corrina's arm as Gareth swung the shuriken into my side. We stood close together and Gareth said, "Let go of her." And slowly twisted the shuriken in my ribs.
I groaned in pain as I slowly pierced her skin and felt the cold ooze mixed with my warm blood. I looked back at Gareth and raised my other paw to his opened wound in his gut.
"I will let go once you let go." I said and felt my aura spread into both Corrina and Gareth. The burning in my chest felt like a faster being fed more fuel as it grew hotter.
I opened my eyes to a forest. I was lying down on a hill. The sun in the sky gave a nice warmth to the greenery and there was a sense of calm. I took in the smell of the trees and forest and almost forgot that this wasn't real as I heard laughter in the distance pull me back to my senses.
I saw Corrina walking around in the forest with Gareth quietly following her. Corrina would approach anything that had color or caught her attention. She would stop and marvel at the foliage, flowers, and spotted pokemon flying in the sky. Gareth spotted them as well and quickly pushed Corrina behind him as he eyed the bird pokemon in the sky, but they were flying peacefully by themselves.
"It's fine Gareth. They won't attack unless we provoke them." Corrina said as she straightened her fur and stepped out from Gareth's cover.
He slowly relaxed and replied,"I am here to protect you Ms. Corrina. That is the deal Our tribes have made with each other. With you being the daughter to the chieftain and I being the second son to the chieftain. I am here to protect you as you prepare for your role, for this is how we survive in this wild country. All those wild Pokémon out there have killed so many from each of our tribes that there was no other choice."
"I wish there was a way to bring us all together." Corrina said as she approached the next patch of flowers to smell their alluring smell.
Gareth looked at her and watched her beauty as she saw the light and hope in such a dangerous world. She looked back at him and caught him staring at her. He quickly looked away and I saw him blushing under his scarf-like tongue. She giggled to herself and stood to join him.
I saw something shiver from the flower patches of that Katrina was at. The rocks behind the flowers stirred and growled as Corrina froze in place. A large gigalith rose from the dirt and roared at Corrina. I noticed that it's eyes were fallen, but it was just a roaring pokemon. Gareth quickly acted and flashed forward, already throwing many water shuriken to stun the wild gigalith. He reappeared in front of the beast and smashed away chunks of it's rock armor. The beast roared and growled, but fled into the forest knowing it wouldn't win the fight.
Gareth flashed over to Corrina's side and hugged her as to comfort her in her frozen state. "I am here to protect you and your dreams. I will make sure of that." He said as he hugged her. I saw Corrina blush this time as she snuzzled into his chest.
The memory faded into the black darkness, and I began walking around. I seemed to pass through what looked like a gallery of memories. Most were filled with Gareth and Corrina together. The further I walked, the more they smiled and laughed together.
I stopped and looked at a memory that was different than the rest. This one radiated almost blasted the warm blue aura. I could feel love, happiness, and nervousness coming from it as I watched the memory of Gareth and Corrina walking together hand in hand along the shore of a lake. They looked at each other and both leaned in as they kissed.
I continued walking along the gallery and watched them grow happier together, but it was only for a short section as images of Corrina collapsing to the ground or fainting. Eventually, the memories were of just Gareth standing guard as a shaman or doctor came by to look over a bedridden Corrina. Some days she would be sweating and showing a lot of physical pain and others were her just sleeping as Gareth sat close by with his head bowed.
"Please Arceus. Please don't take her from me." Gareth pleaded, the pain in his voice only showing more pain.
I heard something hiss back to Gareth.
"There is a way to bring her back."
Gareth whipped his head up and looked around the dark room.
"Who's there? You speak as if she is already gone." He said with visible tears running down his cheeks.
"This sickness has reached her heart. With my help, she will live. Do you accept?"
Gareth looked back at Corrina as she wheezed and struggled for each breath. He turned back to the dark room.
"Help me bring her back." He said.
A dark ooze slurped and lurched out of the darkness. Gareth took a step forward and looked at the ooze.
"Give her strength Gareth. Help protect her dream." The ooze said and Gareth picked up the ooze.
He walked over to Corrina and tilted her head up to feed her the ooze.
"Here Corrina, this will make you strong," he said with tears dripping onto her own cheeks.
She choked on the ooze as it slowly slipped down her throat. She coughed once it went down and began to shiver as her white fur became a pure white color. She clenched her teeth and her fists. Gareth held her as she gasped for air and opened her eyes to look at him. One of her eyes filled with darkness and her green iris slowly turned to blood red.
She stopped shivering and stood up, letting the blanket fall to the floor. She faced Gareth who stood with a large smile on his face. He hugged her, but she only looked forward with a blank stare.
"Gareth, I thank you. You have given me the strength to realize my dream." He looked at her as she held up her paw holding more of the dark ooze.
"Will you continue to protect my dream?" she asked and offered the ooze to him.
"Always." He answered and ate the ooze. He flinched and shook as his eyes slowly shifted then looked deep into Corrina's eye.
Gareth and Corrina seemed to duplicate or copy themselves as their new copies split off from the memories. They stood together to face me as the memories behind them disappeared into dust. Darkness radiated from Corrina. I noticed the light coming off me fighting against the dark, illuminating my half the space. The light and the dark fought each other like two children wanting the same chair.
"Now do you understand?" Corrina asked as they stopped a couple of feet away from me.
"My dream is to bring everyone together. To all live together as one. Do you not want that?" She continued.
Her face flickered to an image of an ooze-shaped Corrina as she smiled at me. I saw the ooze pokemon for only a second before returning to Corrina's face, but Gareth's face never flickered.
"I understand that you two cared for each other. That you grew together." I said and felt the pain in my side again. It wasn't the sharp pain from the shuriken in my ribs, but something else.
"It would be a beautiful dream if it was your dream," I said and looked right at Corrina and felt the light burn brighter to push the darkness back just enough to see the ooze. "But that's Corrina's dream, not yours, is it?"
Gareth took a step back and the ooze pokemon, the darkness pushed back against the light, and I felt something crushing my lungs. Corrina's image returned, and she reached for Gareth and pulled him in to embrace him.
"Gareth, you knew how soft and kind she was. That isn't her." I yelled.
Gareth shook his head and seemed confused for a little bit.
"Do you really believe that she would want all of this death and carnage? That she would want so many to suffer before they could be 'free'. "
"You don't know her!" He yelled and shook his head.
"That's right my dear." Corrina said as she grabbed his face to look at him.
I took the chance and forced the burning to form and pushed the light forward again. The light revealed the ooze again and Gareth lurched back from seeing the ooze. She looked sad and then angry all at once. She shoved Gareth toward the light as it began to recede back to me.
He began screaming like he was in terrible pain. A dark smoke seeped out of him and shot towards me. It entered me and I felt a terrible sickness wash over me. More pain shot through my stomach, and I felt my heart begin to seize up a little, but the pain quickly left. I watched as Gareth slowly got up and looked back at Corrina.
"I am so sorry. I was too afraid to let you go. I don't know what I could do without you." He said while tearing up. His eyes were normal, and I felt his love for Corrina add to the light.
Corrina's face flickered and twitched as Gareth called for her.
"NO. It is MY DREAM." She yelled and began to beat her head with her palms.
"This isn't you, Corrina. You saw the beauty in everything." He cried.
"And I will preserve it." She said and reached out a paw.
Black tendrils launched from the dark side and wrapped around our necks. They slowly closed their grip around our necks, but Gareth continued to plead to her.
"I know you are still in there and you would never hurt anyone." He struggled to say because of the black grip.
"Stop. STOP." She screamed and held her head as she flickered again. She looked like she was struggling to focus, and the tendrils loosened their grip just a little.
"Do you remember that night? The night where we walked along the shore of the full moon?" Gareth continued.
"Stop. No. Stop it." She began to cry.
"It was a little colder for a summer night. You were scared that you would fall into the water. Do you remember what I told you?" He asked and I felt the tendrils tighten again as she looked at us her face still flickering.
"I said that I would always protect you because-"
"I love you." Corrina said and the tendrils burned away as the light crept forward to Corrina and there was no darkness left around us. I walked over to Corrina who was now crying on her knees. Gareth had walked over to her and hugged her.
Corrina creid and her tears streaked down her face. In her fallen eye a streak of black ran down where her normal eye had clear tears. She fell into Gareth's arms and hid her face as she cried.
"It's okay. I am here. I have failed you. It's my fault. I am so sorry." Gareth said as he joined Corrina in crying.
"It wasn't you. It was the darkness that caused my sickness. It's still in me. Caleb." She turned to me and said, "You have to end this. Only you can. Bring balance."
"How do I do that?" I asked, ready to do anything.
"I am not sure."
"…aaaaakkkkkeee" Something tickled the wind. I looked down at my paws and saw the cuts and wounds I had made to enter. The pain in my stomach and sides also pulsed to remind me of their existence.
Corrina looked at me with a worried look.
"Caleb. The mixture of darkness and light is explosive and unpredictable.-" she coughed and Gareth grabbed her as a large smile returned to her face.
"You will never get rid of me. I am in everyone. I am wherever someone is in despair, wherever someone is angry, and where pokemon die. You would have to kill them all. Nhahahahaha." Corrina gasped for air and her worried look returned.
"Your aura can purify. It purified you of the darkness when you evolved again. It will rid the world of anyone or thing that holds the darkness, but that means." She held her head down.
"…aaaaakkkkkeee" Something tickled the wind again. Was Scar trying to reach through to me?
I felt him push me toward Corrina. I placed a paw on both her and Gareth's shoulder. She looked even more worried as I felt the light burn brighter within me.
"Caleb. I am connected to all of them. Whatever you do will affect them all."
"Koro!" I heard Katrina yell at me from the cave.
I felt myself slip out to the cave and looked over to Katrina. She was leaning against Zeina and had a worried look. I didn't try and hide the despair that I was feeling and sent an aura wave to her saying," I am sorry."
I returned to the space within and asked both Gareth and Corrina. "Are you ready to let go?"
"What are you doing Caleb?" Corrina asked, but I didn't answer as I focused on the heat of the light.
It burned hotter than the sun. It was like a wildfire had started in my chest and spread quickly through my body. I felt the cold darkness begin to singe as I reached through with the light, but my head began to ache as it reached further than just Corrina and Gareth. I saw the light reach through the world and singe the darkness in the guild and villages. I could feel it burn the darkness down to it's roots, but not completely kill it. There was no way to truly kill anger, sadness, and despair. They will always be present in our hearts.
I felt the darkness weave through the branches back to me. A huge pressure and heat began to build inside my heart, and it became hard to breathe. The darkness entered and I felt a release as I shot away from Gareth and Corrina in the cave. I struggled to stand and fell to my knees. I heard Katrina yell, and she was on the ground trying to crawl to me, but my muscles wouldn't work. They wouldn't stop flexing and convulsing. I looked around and everyone had stopped fighting. They watched as I walked to the center of the cave and felt the heat grow beyond what I could handle. It was like I was rolling around in the sun.
"Don't." I yelled as I held up a paw to stop Katrina from coming to me.
The light glowed from my chest again and quickly filled the room again with a huge light. I felt a pop and fell to the ground as the energy and heat blasted from me through the cave.
I opened my eyes to Katrina leaning over me. She had put my head into her lap and was looking over me. Her regular tears were slowly cleaning the black streaks from her fur. I reached up and rubbed the cheek that had the cut on it. She nuzzled into my hand and giggled with joy to see me move.
"I was worried that I wasn't going to see you again. "Katrina said still keeping her face in my palm.
"I-." I felt something fluttering in my stomach like I was falling. It didn't feel right.
"Don't move. We will get out of here when everyone gets up." She said while looking around.
I looked around from her lap and saw that all of the fallen were now unconscious lying on the ground. I looked up at Katrina and pulled her eyes to mine, the fluttering feeling got more intense. My body felt lighter, and my heart rate began to quicken as my anxiety grew.
I noticed that I was back in my regular Lucario. Katrina was holding my handkerchief.
"Don't worry Koro. I am not going anywhere." She smiled, "We are teammates, and we don't leave each other behind."
I wish that made me feel better, but I noticed something in my toes or that there wasn't anything going on with my toes. I looked down and saw my toes slowly fading into dust. Katrian shook as she noticed what was happening.
"No. Please! I just got back please!"
I saw Zeina and Carter just a few feet away, watching us. Zeina covered her mouth as she saw me slowly disappear. Carter tried to run forward, but Zeina stopped him.
Zeina gripped my paw harder to try and hold me down, but we both knew this wasn't going to work. "Koro! I don't know if I have the strength to do this without you!" She cried.
I lost the feelings in my legs and then my tail as I smiled up at her.
"I needed to save everyone," I said.
"But dying will desecrate their memories, Koro. You can't Leave." She was frustrated with me.
"This isn't about that. I had to take the darkness to free everyone. It will be near, but you all be strong enough to resist it."
"Then don't leave me! I will be stronger with you!" She closed her eyes and let more tears out.
I lost feeling in my torso and saw the dust taking me away fast.
"I-I lo-." She tried to get out but couldn't.
I pulled her gaze back to mine. Her beautiful violet eyes sparkled with hope, joy and new emotions.
"You will do great." My torso was gone, and I was nothing but a head.
"I love you too." And I was gone. The last thing I heard was the echo of Katrina screaming my name.
"Is that the last thing you remember before making the phone call at the gas station Mr. Lanston?" The therapist asked me.
I shuffled on the couch while staring down at the floor as the memories rushed back to me. Gasping for air in the middle of a wheat field, the sun blazing down on me. Worry and fear rushing through my mind as I looked for Katrina, for Zeina, for anyone from the cave. Noticing that I had fingers that my body was Caleb's, but the scars were still there form old encounters. As if they were they wouldn't let me accept that it wasn't real. I needed to find something to cover up and find a way home.
The guy at the gas station had my picture on his wall for missing kids and let me take some clothes as he called the police. I remember the bombardment of questions they had for me to try and find my kidnappers, how I got the scars on my palms and body, and how I got away from them, but I couldn't answer them. My mouth was sealed shut. All I could think about was the cave. Did they make it out?
"Mr. Lanston?" he asked.
"Uh, yeah that was it." I nodded and slumped back onto the couch.
He sighed and closed his notebook. He took off his glasses and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees. "You have been through a lot, Caleb. Being kidnapped for almost a year is not an easy thing to just get over, but to talk about it now, after months of being home, you decide to talk about what happened. I wonder, why now?"
I saw his aura and it said that he was confused. That he wanted to care but was also tired. I looked up at him and said, "I thought it was time to let it go and be free from the dark cell." He nodded his head and put his glasses back on to read from his notebook.
He began explaining how the story deeply tells the story about how I want to hide the trauma of my kidnappers. That my mind wanted to protect myself and hide what really happened when I got the scars on my leg, hands, and face. I knew he would tell me these things. They were regular diagnoses for a kidnapped teenager going through trauma, but I knew it wasn't the right story.
The therapist let me go and my parents were already at the door to the office, ready to take me home. My mom gave me a warm hug and led me to the car. We quietly drove home, but mom's aura showed that she wanted to ask me about the appointment, but I was tired of talking. My Dad's said that he was worried but respected my space.
As we pulled into the driveway, I saw my friends waiting near the front door. Wilson was deep into his DS, probably trying to get a new personal record for a speed run. Patty just leaned against the entry way pole and perked up when we pulled up. My mom told them it was nice for them to come and see me, but that I was pretty tired.
"Oh, come on Mrs. L. Could we at least have a small sleepover or campout. We haven't got to see him ever since he got back." Wilson pleaded while holding up a stuffed backpack. Patty was holding on as well and waited for my mom to answer. She looked back at me, and I sent a pulse of aura saying please. My mom sighed and said," Alright, but no staying up late. You need to get your rest."
We got out sleeping bags and set them up in the backyard to stare at the night sky. The summer night was a little colder than usual. I sighed at that thought. Wilson began rambling on about news in the video game world, but I wasn't really paying attention to him. Patty seemed to notice.
"What ya thinkin about?" she tried to playfully ask but seemed scared at asking me.
Wilson stopped his rant and asked. "Are you thinking about what happened?"
Patty hit him, but I answered, "Yeah, but I will be okay."
They both looked at me, but all I could do was stare up at the stars. Wondering if they were looking back. If she was looking back. I couldn't stretch my aura that far to see her. That was too far away. I hope they are doing well, but it doesn't matter what I thought because I am here now. The way to not disrespect their memory and help them is to move on and walk the path before me. The scars I have now will forever change me and may they serve as a reminder to be better.
(Thank you so much for reading this story. I hope you enjoyed your time reading my story. I had a great time writing this. Please tell me your thoughts and criticisms about the story. I plan on revising the story and then making the story into a comic.
I want to thank the followers that read every chapter and stuck with me to the end.
Thank you again for reading the story!)