Alright, back to Ken's POV. Remember the girl with red eyes back in Ken's poison test? Well, guess who this chapter introduces.
Okay, now there's two anonymous reviewers with the name anonymous. That's gonna get really confusing.
Chapter 9:The Tortured Soul
"Thanks for the ride, sir!"I shouted back at the Captain, who had a Wingull on his shoulder.
"No problem, boy!"he said."Always glad to help! Good luck collecting those badges!"
We were now in Hoenn, on Route 104, just east of Petalburg City. At least, that's what the old sailor said. I didn't have a map of this place yet. It was still a bit early in the day, but we decided that we would camp here since it would probably be night once we got to the city. After getting our tents set up, we all went to do our own thing. Anubis and Zaps were training together, Fang was napping in the shade of a tree, ZC was looking around boredly, Wrath was watching Anubis and Zapperton, and Psyche and I were meditating. All in all, it was pretty peaceful. But would it last?
Of course not. What gave you that idea?
Psyche and I opened our eyes, having sensed something at the same time.
"Do you feel that?"Psyche asked me. I nodded.
"Somthing's wrong,"I said, standing up.
"Hey, boss!"I heard Zaps shout. We turned our heads to see him, Anubis, and Wrath coming over to us."Boss, something's wrong. There's a nasty stench in the air."
"I looked around with aura sight, and there's a pokemon running through the woods,"Anubis reported."But something's freaky about it's aura. It's...black."I blinked at him.
"We sense it as well,"Wrath said."It's feeling an incredible amount of every negative emotion possible. Something is very wrong with this creature."
"Alright then,"I said."Anubis, come with me. Psyche, get ZC. Wrath, go wake up Fang."
"Right,"they chorused. We all split off, with Anubis and me charging into the woods.
We swiftly ran through the brushes to where we sensed the pokemon was. After a while, we noticed a trail of blood, and we ran even faster. Then after two minutes of running, we reached a clearing, where a very angry looking Kirlia was walking through, a small wound on her left side.
"Hey, are you alright?"I asked. She turned her head and glared daggers at us.
"Kill!"she screamed, firing a magical leaf attack at us without warning. We rolled in opposite directions to dodge it.
"What the hell was that for!?"I asked angrily. She continued to glare at us hatefully, but I could sense something was unnatural about it. Like Wrath had said, she wasn't feeling a single positive emotion. Just anger and hatred. Lots of it. Something wasn't right here.
But...I also felt something else. It was like the feeling I had with the rest my team, but it was different somehow. I just couldn't put my finger on it, though.
I sat down cross legged and closed my eyes to concentrate."Anubis, keep her busy. I'm going to look into her heart and mind to see what's up with her. Be sure not to hurt her too badly."
"You got it,"he said. I heard him dash off and start battling with the Kirlia. I took a deep breath, then allowed my consciousness to escape my body, breaching into the Kirlia's. She resisted at first, but my mind was more powerful than hers, and so I broke through.
XXXX
I looked around, my eyes wide in shock. I was floating in the air, the sky was filled with dark and powerful storm clouds, not a hint of light to be seen. Below me was a sea of pitch-black water. Just the sight of it made me cringe in disgust. This wasn't right. I had travelled through other pokemon's minds before, but none of them were like this. I concentrated, trying to sense something other than the sheer pain and hatred around me. I could feel that there was something deep within the sea of darkness other than complete anger. I didn't want to go into that disgusting sea, but I wasn't going to leave the poor thing in this condition. Steeling myself, I dove into the black sea.
It would be a complete understatement to say it was the nastiest thing I've ever felt in my life.
It was absolutely disgusting beyond reason, the black water stinging my 'skin.' I continued to go deeper into the pitch black darkness. But then, I saw a light below me, and I willed myself to go towards it. I felt the darkness resisting me, trying to keep me away from the light. But I just kept going. Just seeing this light was somehow making me stronger, and I felt an incredible attraction to it. Nothing was going to stop me from reaching it. The blackness struggled against me vehemently as I got closer, but it couldn't stop me. I could feel that it was getting weaker the closer I got to the light. I finally reached the bottom, seeing the source of the light. It was an orb about the size of basketball. Though I wasn't quite sure what it was, it was absolutely beautiful, the light it gave off filling me with some strange sensation that I welcomed with open arms. But just the thought of something so beautiful being drowned in this darkness made me want to cry. I held my hand out and touched the orb, which made me gasp. It just felt incredible. Just like that, I knew what this orb was.
It was the Kirlia's soul.
"Please..."
I gasped. That voice. There was so much pain in it, but...there was also a beauty to it that just touched my heart.
"Please help me..."
"...I will,"I said, feeling an incredible urge to protect her. But why? I didn't even know this girl, and yet I couldn't but feel that she was the one thing that mattered above all else."I'll find a way to help you, no matter what. You can trust me."After saying this, I sensed a feeling of gratitude and hope that only served in strengthening my resolve to help her.
"Thank you..."
I rubbed the orb comfortingly, feeling the darkness around us weakening even further.
"...en..."
I blinked, looking around. Who said that?
"Ken...wake up..."
Anubis?
"KEN!"
XXXX
I gasped as my eyes shot open. I was back in the clearing, Anubis crouching right next to me.
"You okay, Ken?"he asked, sounding worried.
"Y-yeah..."I muttered shakily. I noticed the Kirlia lying on the ground, unconscious.
"What happened in there?"Anubis asked."One second she grabbed me with a confusion attack, next thing I know, she's knocked out."I rubbed my head, sighing deeply. I stood and walked over to the Kirlia, picking her up."Ken?"
"She needs medical attention,"I said softly."Let's get back to base camp and I'll explain everything."
XXXX
"Wow, that's a heck of a story, boss,"Zaps said. We were now back in base camp. After fixing up the Kirlia and putting her in a bed, we had started up a campfire. I had just explained what had happened, and needless to say, the team was rather surprised.
"What do you think caused this?"COREM asked.
"I honestly don't have a clue,"I said with a shrug. I glanced at Psyche, who had his eyes shut."You know something, Psyche?"The Alakazam opened his eyes and looked at Anubis.
"You said this Kirlia had a black aura, correct?"he asked. Anubis nodded."Hm. Before I arrived at Sinnoh, I visited the Orre region. I heard that there used to be an organization unlike the Chrome Syndicate called Team Cipher. They created what was called the Shadow Pokemon project."
"Shadow Pokemon?"I asked. He nodded.
"Yes, a rather despicable project to make pokemon stronger by closing the door to their hearts, turning them into killing machines,"he said."They were indentifiable by black auras."
"Say what!?"Anubis asked, eyes wide.
"So, you think that is what happened to that Kirlia?"COREM asked. Psyche nodded again.
"So, what happened to Team Cipher?"Fang asked.
"You see, Team Cipher was operating with another group called Team Snagem,"he said."A young human male named Wes defected from this team, stealing what was known as a Snag Device. It gives the user the ability to steal another trainer's pokemon."I blinked in surprise."After he destroyed Team Snagem's base and made off with the device, he rescued a young human girl named Rui, who could also see auras."I looked at Anubis, who seemed interested by this."Together they started stealing the Shadow Pokemon, purifying them. Eventually, they purified every last shadow pokemon and defeated Team Cipher."
"But how did they purify Shadow Pokemon?"I asked. Psyche stroked his chin.
"Can't a person be huggled into happy?"Zephyr asked. We stared at him for a moment.
"Anyway,"Psyche muttered."I believe they did it by training and bonding with them like regular pokemon. But I heard they gave the really bad cases massages to relax them."I tilted my head.
"Massages, huh?"I asked, looking up thoughtfully."I read about massages in my spare time, maybe I should take a crack at it."
"Good idea,"Anubis said."I don't think the rest of us would be qualified for it."I nodded in agreement, then walked into my tent, leaving them to talk amongst themselves. I walked into the room where the Kirlia was, seeing she was still unconscious on the bed we had made for her. I sat down on a chair next to her, deciding to wait until she woke up. I moved my hand to rub her head gently, trying to help her relax.
"Kiiillll,"she mumbled with a growl. I sighed, believing this wouldn't be easy. About 5 minutes later, her eyes slowly fluttered open.
"Hey, there,"I said gently. Her eyes narrowed as she scowled.
"Kil-!"she paused, staring at me with a confused expression."K-kill...?"I sensed what felt like a small amount of recognition coming from her.
"So you remember me. That's good,"I said."I'm going to try and help you relax, alright?"
"...Kill?"she asked, still sounding very confused.
"I need you to lie on your front, okay?"I asked calmly. She blinked once, then hesitantly rolled over. I couldn't help but smile. If she listened to me, let alone understood me, then this might not be as hard as I thought. I pressed my right hand on her back, feeling that it was incredibly tense. The knots in her back almost felt like stones. I pressed two fingers against one of the knots, and she gasped sharply.
"Kiiiiilll,"she sighed, sounding relaxed. My smile widened as I realized I was obviously doing something right. I pressed my thumb on a spot just below her neck, which made her hiss for a moment before sighing again. As I continued, I felt her muscles starting to loosen, and she was actually smiling slightly. After a while longer, it seemed like there weren't any tense muscles left, so I stopped. By now, she looked so relaxed that it seemed she would fall asleep at any moment.
"Feeling better?"I asked.
"Kill,"she mumbled. She rolled on her back and stared at me silently. I moved my hand to rub her head, staring into her red eyes. Something about them seemed very familiar for some reason, though I couldn't tell what. She slowly brought her arm up and grabbed my sleeve, pulling my arm down. I did nothing to stop her. She moved my hand to her face, and I began to stroke her cheek. She smiled faintly and rubbed her head against my hand."Mmmm..."I smiled as she closed her eyes. I waited a moment longer before figuring she had fallen asleep. I pulled my hand away and stood up, then turned to leave the room."Kill?"I turned my head to see her staring at me, a sad and longing expression on her face as she sat up."Kill?"I blinked.
"You want me to stay with you."It wasn't a question.
She seemed to strain herself."Y-y-yes...p-please..."
I couldn't believe it. Barely an hour ago, she wanted to kill me. Now she didn't want me to leave her side. I turned to face her completely, then sat back down. I began to rub her cheek again, and she nuzzled against my hand, a contented smile on her face. I smiled, too, thinking we would have her back to normal in no time.
Why does the universe have to prove me wrong all the time?
"Hey, Ken, is she any better?"I turned my head to see Anubis at the entrance to the room. I glanced back at Kirlia, who immediately scowled at him, growling. I looked between the two of them, noticing that Anubis was getting nervous and that Kirlia was getting angrier."Uhhh, maybe I should-YAAAH!"Anubis was immediately thrown backwards by an unseen force, but I instantly knew that it was Kirlia who had thrown him. I looked back at her, confused by her sudden mood swing."I'll, uhh, go outside..."I heard the sound of retreating footsteps as Anubis left the tent. Kirlia then leaned against my side, smiling peacefully again. I wrapped my arm around her, wondering what that was all about. Maybe she has something against Lucarios?"C'mon, let's head outside."I stood up from my chair and picked her up carefully, letting her sit on my crossed arms. When we got outside, we saw the others still sitting near the campfire; except for Anubis, who was a few feet away from us, still looking rather nervous. I heard Kirlia growling again, and looked down at her.
"What's wrong?"I asked. She looked up at me with a blank stare. She then curled up in my arms and nuzzled against my chest, still glaring at the others hatefully. They stared at me with eyebrows. I just shrugged.
"HELLOOOO!!"Zephyr screeched, flying up to us quickly."HI, I'M--!!"
"Kill!"Kirlia screamed, throwing Zephyr to the ground with a psychic attack. He twitched once.
"Actually...it's Zephyr..."he mumbled."Imma...go over there now..."He floated away drunkenly. The others backed away slowly, not wanting to get thrown around like rag dolls. Smart.
"Apparently, I'm the only one she trusts,"I said, rubbing her head. She smiled again as if she had never been angry.
"This is rather problematic,"Psyche remarked. He shrugged."Well, at least you can keep her under control. That should be satisfactory until we can find a way to purify her."I nodded in agreement.
"Maybe the Legendaries will know something,"I said."I'll ask them at our next meeting."
"Until then, we'll have to keep our distance,"Wrath said.
"No hugs?"Zephyr asked sadly.
"No,"everyone said in unison, except for Kirlia, who continued to glare at my team. I sighed again.
XXXX
End of Chapter
I'm willing to bet nobody saw this coming. I would have had this chapter up yesterday if it weren't for an annoying amount of interruptions.
Also, I have a little challenge for you guys. I based Zapperton, Zephyr, COREM, and Psyche off of certain characters from different video games. I'd like to see if you guys can guess which ones.
Zapperton is based off a discreet Mario character.
Zephyr has the personality of a cartoon character.
COREM is based off of a character from the Ratchet and Clank series.
Psyche comes from a character in the game Psychonauts for the PS2.
I'll give the answers in the next chapter, but until then, feel free to reveiw and tell me what you think about this chapter.