Waking Nightmare

The pair leapt away from the trunk of the tree as though it had suddenly been electrified. The new voice laughed. "Boo," it said tauntingly. Rain quickly stepped behind Zephyr, her face nervous but at the same time firm. "Who are you?" Zephyr demanded. "Why don't you show yourself?" There was a pause at this. "Alright then," the voice said at length.

Suddenly, the shadow of the tree started to writhe. As Rain and Zephyr watched, a portion of it seemed to rise off of the ground and balloon upward. As this blob of living darkness began to detach itself from the ground, it began to take more defined shape. Gradually, tendrils of shadow extended themselves from the mass and began to define themselves into wispy black arms with three fingers and flapping lengths of a vaguely cloth-like extension at the shoulders. The center of the blob condensed inward and quickly took on the shape of a man's torso, which abruptly ended at what seemed to be the torn hem of a cloak and with no legs of any kind. At the space where the neck would be, a sudden growth shot upward and formed itself into a necklace of upward-facing spikes, which changed from black to red. Finally, a smaller blob pulled itself upward from the top of the mass and began to take form into an almost flat looking face, with almost no significant features except for a crown of bleached white hair, which completely covered half of the face, revealing one cyan eye. The mane of hair extended backward into a long white tail, which billowed ominously despite the complete lack of wind.

Zephyr felt as though the bottom of his stomach had dropped out as the single visible cyan eye regarded them coldly. He knew who he was looking at. Zach had described him more than enough times. Hovering before them, exuding an almost palpable aura of fear and intimidation was the Master of Fear, the Prince of Darkness, and the Lord of Nightmares.

"What do you want Darkrai?" Zephyr asked, his tone firm but not harsh. Darkrai may not be the most pleasant of characters, and his job of spreading nightmares didn't do much to endear him to…well, anyone, but that didn't mean he had to be an evil person. Right? Behind him, Rain gave a little gasp as she heard Zephyr say his name.

"Oh, we have a learned individual, do we?" Darkrai chuckled. "How privileged. Well, whether you know who I am or not is completely irrelevant. I want nothing to do with you in any case. What I am after," he said, suddenly pointing at Rain, "is you."

Zephyr suddenly felt himself get knocked to the side. Sitting up quickly, he saw Darkrai lunging at Rain, his claw an inch from her throat. "You stay away from my mate!" he roared, springing to his feet and charging at Darkrai. He barreled into the black shadow shoulder first, sending him careening off to the side. Darkrai was surprisingly light.

"Rain, get out of here," Zephyr said briskly. "He's a Dark Type. You won't be able to do anything to him. Get out of here now." But Rain for a face of hard determination.

"No. I'll die before I abandon you. Don't even try to convince me. You're my mate, and I will not save myself knowing that you might get killed." This pronouncement made Zephyr turn to her, surprised. He'd never taken Rain for a "girly-girl", as it were, but he'd never realized just how tough she actually was. He liked it.

Unfortunately, Zephyr didn't have long to admire this, because at that moment Darkrai lunged at him, his fingers now extended into cruelly scythed Shadowclaws. Zephyr extended his blades and blocked, but found himself quickly being pushed backward. Darkrai might be light, but he was strong, and he was forcing Zephyr to take step after step backward in order to avoid being knocked over. 'Oh great,' Zephyr thought. 'Now what do I do?'

At that moment Zephyr suddenly heard the sound of sparking electricity. However, he didn't spare the noise much thought, having more pressing matters at hand. Suddenly though, there was a loud ZAP as an electrified green fist collided with the side of Darkrai's head, causing him to sail to the left and land flat on his back.

Zephyr looked with astonishment at Rain, whose hand was still sparking fiercely. "Thunderpunch?!" he asked, sounding stunned. "Where did you learn Thunderpunch?" She grinned devilishly. "What, I'm not allowed to find a Technical Machine lying around? Granted, I didn't know what it was at the time, but it didn't take me long to figure out that the little disk was the reason I was suddenly able to electrify my hand."

At that moment, Darkrai managed to get into an upright hovering position. With an enraged snarl, he lunged at Rain with Shadowclaws extended, but was quickly sent reeling by a vicious Megapunch from Zephyr. Still snarling, he raised one hand toward Zephyr, palm facing outward, and fired a Shadow Ball. Zephyr stepped smartly to the side and the black orb sailed past him, colliding with another tree about twenty feet away and causing it to explode. Suddenly, Darkrai was literally knocked for a loop as a rock the size of a man's head hurled itself at him and collided with his face.

Zephyr glanced over to seen Rain standing with a small fleet of attack stones hovering around her, all laced with a glowing blue aura. These she took the chance to hurl at Darkrai all at once while he was still disoriented. They all made contact, and Darkrai went sailing backward for about twenty feet before landing buried under the pile. In the next instant, the pile had exploded outward in a burst of black energy, and Darkrai floated in the middle of a small dusk cloud, looking positively apoplectic.

"You little insects!" he roared. "How dare you defy me?!" And then Zephyr was standing in front of him with one fist pulled back. "Like this," he said, delivering another powerful Megapunch to his face. Halting his horizontal movement after flying another ten feet backward, Darkrai seethed at Zephyr with a glare that might have turned some lower life forms to stone. A mouth had actually appeared on Darkrai's face, and its lips were pulled back in a ferocious snarl, revealing dagger sharp teeth.

"I'll turn you to dust!" Darkrai screamed, crossing his arms over his chest and starting to generate a veil of dark energy. Then he thrust his arms outward, and a black ring easily the thickness of a small car expanded out and away from him, hurtling toward Zephyr at terrifying speeds. 'Oh shit,' he thought, using one particular word that would have earned him a slap from Zach had he still been around. 'This is gonna hurt.'

The Dark Pulse was right on top of him in seconds, and Zephyr closed his eyes, bracing himself for the explosion of pain. However, what he felt instead was a pair of arms wrapping around him, and then he couldn't feel much of anything at all. In the next moment, though, feeling returned, and when Zephyr did not feel himself get blasted apart, he opened his eyes to see Rain standing with her arms around him. He looked behind him to see the inside of the Dark Pulse sweeping away from them, raging onward like some evil storm until it finally dissipated and ceased.

A furious howl of rage made Zephyr and Rain turn around. Darkrai was seething, and the aura of pure malevolence emanating from him was so think one could almost feel it. "What does it take to kill you?!" he roared. In the next second, he was lying face up on the ground. Zephyr was standing on both of his arms and held one hand to his throat while the other was pointed at his face, the blade gleaming dangerously. "More than you have," Zephyr said. "Now get out of here, and leave my mate alone." The tone of Zephyr's voice was as hard as steel, and the glare he leveled at Darkrai could have frozen water.

"You think this is over, you insolent brat?" Darkrai asked mockingly. "You can't defeat me. A mere mortal like you has no chance against me; I'm a god, you fool. I will have her. I will come for her again, and you will not be able to save her." Suddenly, he melted down into the ground, becoming a shadow again. Zephyr stood staring at a black patch on the ground that stayed for only a moment before whizzing away, quickly being lost from view.

Zephyr stayed crouched there for another minute, his body tense and every muscle in him on hair trigger sensitivity. Gradually, however, the tightness in his body drained away, his adrenaline levels returned to normal, and he breathed a massive sigh of relief. He stood up and waved to Rain, whose face broke into a relieved grin as she began to run toward him.

Zephyr never saw where the attack from. One moment, everything was perfect, but suddenly it all fell apart. A burst of back energy appeared around Rain and almost instantly formed an opaque black sphere around her. The Dark Void continued to envelop her for a few seconds, and then it condensed inward, being absorbed into her chest. Rain was frozen in mid step, her pupils wide and her eyes unseeing. Suddenly, every muscle in her body went limp and her eyes closed as she pitched forward and fell into the waiting arms of Darkrai, who rose up from the ground and caught her lightly as she fell.

The shock of what had just happened only lasted for a second before Zephyr was back in action. He charged at Darkrai, closing the gap between them in less than a second as the he screamed, "You let her go, you son of a bitch!" Zach would have slapped him for that one, too.

His arm blade was an inch from the back of Darkrai's head. There was no way he could dodge, or even react. Right? Suddenly, Zephyr felt as though his chest had been doused with acid. He staggered backward and looked down to see three deep gashes in his chest, freely leaking blood. He looked up at Darkrai to see him floating with Rain over one shoulder. His other hand, which had been re-morphed into a Shadowclaw, was being waved tauntingly at Zephyr. It was covered with blood. His blood. Zephyr hadn't even seen Darkrai move.

Suddenly, a cyan eye narrowed in a piercing leer was the only thing Zephyr could see, and then his head exploded. He fell to his knees as his hands flew to his scalp. They came away bloody.

"I told you that you had no chance," Darkrai said, his tone no longer angry but amusedly disdainful. "For a mortal like you to challenge a god like me is nothing more than on your part." Darkrai then pointed a single finger at Zephyr, who watched as another Shadow Ball began to grow. He couldn't move. He couldn't dodge.

Zephyr flew backward as the orb collided with him and exploded, landing hard on his back. His body no longer hurt; he was past feeling pain. Struggling weakly, he barely managed to turn himself over and get onto his hands in knees in time to see Darkrai rise into the air and fly away, taking Rain with him.

Zephyr didn't move for a short time. Then he threw back his head, clutching at his temples, and screamed. He howled for a surprisingly long time before suddenly he started to cough, falling back on all fours. He put his hand over his mouth to staunch the coughing, and when he was finished, it was covered with red ooze.

"Zephyr?! Rain?!" Zephyr was suddenly dimly aware that a pair of voices was calling his and Rain's names, but he didn't care. Nothing mattered except that Rain was gone, lost to the clutches of that black monster. He didn't even register when two individuals ran up to his side, babbling something he could barely understand.

"Oh my Arceus," said a male Gardevoir as he saw Zephyr crouching in a pool of his own blood. His companion, a Gallade, knelt next to Zephyr's head. "What happened here?" he asked quickly. "Gone…" Zephyr gasped. "She's gone. He took her. He-" He broke off as he starting coughing again, splattering the ground with scarlet spray. He fell to the ground, all his strength gone. Black was creeping over his vision now, and he knew he was going to die. "Rain…" he moaned, and then the world became an empty void.

"He's badly hurt," the unnamed Gallade said, gently lifting his shoulders. "No, really?" asked the Gardevoir sardonically, who had a tendency to use sarcasm as a coping mechanism in times of stress. He lifted Zephyr's feet gingerly, raising him off the ground. "We need to get him to the healer now, or he's as good as dead. You saw how much blood he's lost."

-(000)-

Far away already, over a vast expanse of unforgiving sea, Rain lay draped over Darkrai's shoulder as his sped back to his home, shuddering at the horrible nightmare she was experiencing. In her mind's eye, she could see Zephyr lying in a bloody heap on a bed, and she knew beyond any doubt that he was dying. She tried to call to him, but her voice made no sound. She tried to approach him, but her body would not move. She tried to cry for him, but she couldn't even do that. All she could do was watch as his breathing slowed, and then stopped altogether.

-(000)-

Bwuhahahaha! Cliffhanger!