Chapter 20: Shadows at War

Lloyd woke up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. He felt horrible, his stomach was in a great amount of pain and he had a terrible headache. He felt like he just woke up from a brutal beating.

He got out of the small bed and walked over to the mirror that hung from a wall in their room. He could barely see his face, the mirror was covered in dust and the room was nearly pitch black.

The pain all over his body suddenly got worse, to the point where Lloyd had to lean against the wall to avoid falling over. He thought he heard voices in his head, but they weren't clear enough to understand, they sounded like they were normal voices being spoken from miles away.

Maybe some cool night air will help me...

Lloyd stumbled over to the door and opened it, immediately he got blasted with a spray of water, he saw it was raining heavily, thunder could be heard booming in the distance. Lloyd didn't care about the rain, he certainly wasn't going to make himself feel better in his room.

The pain suddenly became intense, bringing Lloyd to his knees. It felt like he was on fire, burning intensely despite the storm. He yelled into the night, but his was voice was silent compared to the raging storm.

What's happening... to me...

Lloyd began to lose consciousness, he tried to stay awake, not wanting to fall asleep in the storm on the deck of the ship, but he couldn't do anything to stop it. He fell over onto his stomach, his body spread across the ground, and slowly blacked out.

---

"Boss, I've spotted the target, he just left his cabin and he's alone."

"Good, capture him immediately."

"Wait, something's happening to him... It looks like he's having a heart attack or something, he's on the ground screaming his lungs out."

"Oh dear, looks like its happening again. You'll have to hurry before he turns, good luck."

"Wait a sec, what do you mean..."

But it was to late, the boss had hung up.

"Figures... Listen you two..."

The pokemon spoke to Raticate and Gastly, who stood nearby trying to hide under a small ledge to avoid the rain, unfortunately the wind blew in their direction so the ledge did nothing to shield them..

"You two wait here. I don't need either of you getting in the way." Without waiting for a response, she jumped down to the deck where Lloyd had collapsed, disappearing into the shadows.

Raticate stood there shivering next to Gastly, his fur soaked. "I really hate this job."

"You and me both." Replied Gastly.

---

Lloyd got up, feeling much better, the pain was gone, in fact, he felt better then he'd even felt before, even when he was evolved into Raichu. Lloyd looked at himself to see if he evolved, what he saw was unbelievable, his body was shaped like his evolution, but his body was completely black, ever blacker because of a dark smoke that covered his body, the smoke reminded him of the body of a Gastly.

What... Am I?

"You are the all consuming darkness, the one others wish not to exist in this fragile world of theirs..."

Wait, who are you?

"I am you, I am your shadow, and I am Shadow. I am always with you, as you are always with me."

Do you know what's happening? What have I become?

"Your still you, and you always will be, your just being replaced is all, for awhile at least."

Replaced? By who?

"By me."

The pain returned, a thousand times as bad as before. But instead of falling over, weakened from it like before, he felt himself getting angry, very angry. He balled his paws into fists, so hard he felt like he was going to hurt himself. Involuntarily, he unleashed a bolt of lightning straight into the sky, more powerful then he'd ever been able to produce before.

He turned around, again involuntarily, raised his arm, and fired a thunder bolt attack at a lone crate sitting at the end of the deck. The box exploded into a shower of splinters, Lloyds instinct was to run and hide from the wooden shards, but his body wouldn't obey. The splinters harmless bounced off his body, none of them causing any cuts or getting stuck in his skin.

"Your mine now, your body is for me to control once again."

Again? You've done this before?

"Oh yes! Remember the day you woke up in that alley and heard about the dark, red eyed pokemon who killed so many? Remember the day another was spotted inside the brotherhood? That was us, your body, me in control."

That means... I'm the murderer? I killed the people of Havok City?

"Yes and no, I'm sure if you were in control, you probably wouldn't have done it. You weren't though, your body is the murderer, but your mind is innocent. Now be the good little slave you are and be quiet, I'm going to have a little fun!"

Lloyd wanted to say more, ask more, maybe even try to stop this "Shadow" from killing anyone, but he couldn't. He felt like his brain was shutting down, like falling asleep, but somehow different.

"Don't worry, you can have this body back when I'm done. There is such thing as too much fun."

Lloyd couldn't control his body, couldn't speak and couldn't even think. Lloyd was gone now, only the Shadow remained.

"Finally free, its so boring being trapped inside this body."

Shadow heard a noise behind him, someone was sneaking around.

"Oh good, my first playmate, why don't you come out where I can see you?"

But the pokemon didn't, instead, out of the darkness, a bright wall of fire came straight at Shadow. It was powerful, even powerful enough to hurt him, he avoided the fire by jumping into the air, landing onto the upper deck of the ship.

"Oh goody, looks like you came to play as well, this should be fun."

"I didn't come here to play at all."

Shadow heard the voice behind him and in no time unleashed a thunder bolt in the shadows where the sound came from. But when the attack lit up the area, there was nothing.

"I came to take you back to your master."

The voice came from the side, so Shadow unleashed another thunderbolt in that direction. The flash from the blast once again revealed nothing.

"And there's nothing you can do to stop me."

The voice came from above this time, Shadow didn't expect that because nothing was above him except a stormy sky, the pokemon must have jumped.

Shadow looked up and saw another fire attack come straight down on top of him. He couldn't dodge it in time so he was engulfed in the flame, once the fire stopped his attacker landed on top of him, bringing him straight to the ground. It then jumped off Shadow, disappearing again into the darkness.

Based on the voice, Shadow knew it was definitely a woman, and whoever this woman was, she was definitely a well trained fighter.

"Your pretty good." He yelled out, not knowing where she was. "No telling what your capable of when your not being rained on like this. I didn't think a fire type could fight this well in a storm."

"Should be obvious I'm no normal pokemon."

I have you now!

He fired a thunder bolt into the air, as he predicted it hit his attacker. The pokemon attempted to jump over him again while he was busy trying to hit where she was. Injured, she landed hard onto the ground on the lower deck of the ship.

"Haha, that was indeed fun. To bad we cant do it again."

Shadow intended to finish off the pokemon, he jumped down to where she should have landed, but she was gone without a trace. He could barely hear her running away at a speed he wouldn't be able to follow.

"Another time them?! Oh well, I'm sure there's more pokemon to have my fun with on this ship. The Chikorita Lloyds always hanging around should be quite entertaining!"

"Your not going to hurt anyone else Shadow. Your going back to where you belong."

"Oh, I remember you, your the voice that keeps helping my other half. What are YOU going to do that could possibly stop me?"

"This."

The orb of light appeared, Shadow laughed.

"This is your weapon of choice? You going to blind me or something? Hahahaha!"

The orb went over to Shadow and entered his body. Shadow suddenly went limp and fell forward.

"What... have you done to me?"

"What better way to get rid of a shadow then to shed light on it?"

"Augh... I'll be back... You can't stop me forever!"

The shadow like fog around Lloyds body drifted away, disappearing. Shadow turned from his dark, evil form and became a normal looking Raichu, then soon after devolved into Pikachu again. Shadow had lost control of Lloyd once again, giving control of his body back to its proper master.

---

Lloyd awoke hours later, the storm ended, the night now day. He got up, not feeling any pain from last night at all. He looked around and saw no signs of anybody around, and saw no signs of his transformation except scorch marks in the wooden panels of the deck, almost completely washed away by the rain, and the ruined remains of the empty crate Shadow tested his power on, many of its shards already washed away off the edge of the ship.

I can't believe it, Shadow are you there? Answer me!

But Lloyd didn't hear his voice, whether it was because he was gone or because he didn't feel like answering, Lloyd couldn't tell.

How about you, what or whoever you are with the glowing ball thing. Who are you and why are you helping me?

Again, silence, the voice didn't respond to him at all.

"Why is all this happening to me?!"

"What's happening to you?"

Rita snuck up behind Lloyd, scaring him. Lloyd looked embarrassed, knowing he must have looked crazy yelling out to voices only he heard. In fact when he thought about it, crazy was probably where he was going and why he was hearing voices.

"Umm... nothing, just talking to myself?"

Lloyd said it like it was a question, he looked at Rita, and Rita looked at him, they shared an awkward silence together.

"Anyways..." Rita said, trying to change the subject. "We're here, we'd better hurry up and get to this castle. The ships going back to the mainland soon"

Lloyd nodded. "Yeah, ok, lets go."

Rita led the way off the ship, Lloyd following behind thinking to himself, not really paying attention.

I can't tell her about last night, she'd think I lost my mind, and if she did believe me... I don't know what she'd do... I don't know what I should do... I should ask someone, anyone, before it happens again.

---

"Master E..."

"Don't say my name! Who knows what spies are nearby!"

Raticate looked around, trying to spot the spies she spoke of, he didn't see anything. "Sorry Master, I'm just wondering what we should do now, your injured and we know we can't take them on our selves!"

Raticate stood there waiting for an answer, his new master stood their for a moment to think. Raticate and Gastly got closer, waiting for her orders.

"That Chikorita... I recognize her... Yes, I think I got it now. We're going back with the boat, we've got a trap to set, those two are going to come straight to us."

---

Rita and Lloyd looked at Oasis Island, amazed by its beauty. Unlike the wastleland they were used to, with its endless plains of sand, dirt and dust, with barely any trees at all to be found, Oasis island was completely lush with plant life.

There was long, green grass growing everywhere, trees larger then either could imagine, going at least thirty feet into the air, all of them covered in leaves as green as the grass below. Oasis Island couldn't be more different then the wasteland they came from, it was like the ship took them to another world.

"Wow..." Lloyd was speechless, he never even knew such a place existed, he figured the entire world was as dead as the wasteland was.

"You know..." Started Rita. "Even if this is a trap, it'd be worth the trip."

"Yeah, even still we should be careful."

They both jumped from the boat onto a stone dock, they were the only ones to get off here. As soon as they stepped off the boats engines started up, and the boat began to head out to its next destination.

"Does your map tell us where anything is here?"

Rita opened up her bag and pulled out the map, she looked for a moment and tap the bottom of the map.

"Yup, its here, and according to the map, the castle is just north of here."

"Well, lets not waist time here, and I'm sure there's lots more to see on the way anyways."

---

Lurking in the bushes nearby were two pokemon, hiding in the shadows watching as Rita and Lloyd walked passed.

"It can't be... Is that...?"

"It must be, it looks just like her."

"This is terrible, we must report back right away!"

Not making a sound as they went, the two pokemon disappeared into the lush forest.

---

The forest surrounding Lloyd and Rita got thicker and thicker as they continued down the narrow dirt path, eventually the trees above them blocked out the sun and the sky, making the forest cool and dark.

"Think there's any wild pokemon here?"

"I don't know, my map didn't have any mystery dungeons on it for here, but I guess its possible for some to live in the forest."

Suddenly they heard a rustling in the grass, something was coming towards them.

"Stay back Rita, there's no telling what it could be!"

They stood there and waited for the approaching creature, ready to attack if it ended up being hostile. The rustling got louder and louder until the pokemon finally revealed itself. It was a Caterpie.

Rita exhale deeply. "Whew, nothing to worry about it seems, just a little Caterpie."

"Excuse me." It said. "Its rude to give such negative titles to people like that."

"Oh." Said Rita. "Your not a wild pokemon?"

"Most certainly not, I am a servant of the King and am here to escort the both of you the rest of the way."

"Wait a sec." Said Lloyd. "King? I thought it was King and Queen... Something."

"Tropica." Finished Rita.

"Right, that."

"Oh dear no." Said the Caterpie. "They haven't ruled for almost 15 years now. But I understand your confusion, not much news from here reaches the mainland. Oh dear, I forgot to formally introduce myself. My name is Regal, and I am in the service of the current ruler, King Noah."

"My names Lloyd, of Team Valiant."

"And I'm Rita, also from Team Valiant, and I'm the one you guys are looking for."

"Well yes, I know that." Replied Regal. "Its why I'm here, isn't it? Now there's no time to waste, follow me you two!"

Not waiting a second, Regal inched his way back into the grass where he came, Rita and Lloyd followed, having trouble wadding through the tall brush.

---

Meanwhile, Isaac and Jennifer had just entered Mount Justice. The rocky tunnels were very dark, Isaac couldn't see more then a few feet in front of him.

"Now what? I can't see a thing in there."

"You didn't bring a light or something?"

Isaac was a bit embarrassed, a light was an essential tool for exploration. "Sorry, no I didn't."

"Don't worry, I have something right here." She reached into her bag and pulled out a small metal lantern. She also pulled out two small, smooth rocks. "One sec..." She put the lantern on the ground and knelled over it, she took the stones and hit them against each other right near the lantern. The stones shot sparks with each strike, eventually one of the sparks went inside the lantern and lit it. The fire was bright enough they could see all the way down the tunnel to the far wall, at least thirty feet from where they stood. "There, no problem!"

A pokemon suddenly came at them, obviously attracted by the light.

"Great." Said Jennifer. "That didn't take long."

The pokemon was a Aron, it growled at them threateningly.

"Here hold this." She forced the lantern over to Isaac, but Isaac, lacking fingers to grip it with, dropped the lantern, putting out the light.

Isaac knelled down to pick it up, and heard sounds of fighting in the tunnel.

Is that Jennifer being attacked by the Aron? Oh man, I gotta help!

He picked up the lantern, but realized he had nothing to light it with. He grabbed two rocks off the ground, hoping to replicate what Jennifer had done to light it before. But when he struck the rocks together, they didn't spark.

The sound of fighting stopped, and Isaac heard the sound of footsteps coming towards him.

"No... Stay back!"

The footsteps got closer and closer until they stopped in front of Isaac. He stood there, not knowing what to do. Suddenly he heard two crack sounds from rocks being struck together, and the lantern igniting again, revealing the approaching footsteps to belong to Jennifer. Isaac looked behind her and saw the Aron laying on the ground, fainted.

"Wow, what did you do?"

"What you missed it? Sucks to be you then, you'll have to wait till the next one to see me in action." She winked at him, took the lantern and went ahead. Isaac stood there for a moment shocked at what just happened, then ran after her.

"No really, what did you do? Come on, tell me!"

---

On the next floor, they encountered another Aron. Isaac waited for her to attack, wanting to see her in action, but she stepped aside.

"Your turn." She said.

"But... I wanna..."

"I got the last one, so its your turn."

She's doing this on purpose, she's teasing me! Wait a sec... That's a good thing, isn't it?

Isaac stepped forward, the Aron growled at him as he approached. He decided to use bubble to take it down, he breathed in for a second and exhaled quickly, causing him to shoot out multiple bubbles straight at Aron. Each one hit it squarely in the head, the last one sending it flying back, landing in a heap, unconscious. Jennifer clapped behind him.

"Very nice, ten out of ten."

"Haha, thanks."

Suddenly Isaac felt a sharp pain in his left wing, the Aron wasn't unconscious as he had thought, and it was now biting him hard. Isaac, swung it around, beating against the wall, until it lost its grip and dropped to the floor. Enraged, Isaac ran over to it and kicked it across the room, this time it actually had been knocked out.

"I think I'll change my score. Negative Two."

"Ah, I'll take it."

They shared a laugh at Isaacs expense.

"Well." Said Jennifer. "Lets keep going, maybe next time you'll actually take one down without being chomped on like a chew toy."

---

The third floor was uneventful, but on the forth floor they saw something neither of them expected. While it hadn't noticed them, it wouldn't be long before it did. Right next to both of them was a sleeping Onix that they didn't notice until it was too late.

"Now what?" Asked Isaac.

"Wake it up and beat it up!"

Before Isaac could stop her, Jennifer went up to it and kick it right in the head not once, but three times. Isaac looked at her horrified.

"What? Just because its big doesn't mean its that tough."

"No, Jennifer, thats EXACTLY what it means. Now hurry up and get away..."

But Isaac was interrupted by an earth shacking roar, the Onix had woken up, and was now upright, towering over the both of them.

"Maybe your right Isaac, lets find out together shall we?"

Wow, Jennifer's amazing, if we survive this, I'm marrying her one day!

The Onix roared again, no matter who was right, Isaac knew this would be one heck of a fight.