Speech/Thoughts/Telepathy: PLEASE NOTE THAT THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION HAS CHANGED FOR THIS CHAPTER! READ THROUGH CAREFULLY!

"Human Speech"

'Human Thoughts/Human Telepathy'

'Pokemon Thoughts/Pokemon Telepathy'

Subconscious (Darkrai 'talking' to Michael) (NO QUOTATION MARKS)

"Pokemon Speech" (NOT ITALICIZED)

'Subconscious' (Michael 'talking' to Darkrai) (ITALICIZED WITH SINGLE QUOTATIONS)

"Subconscious" (Unknown POV 'talking' to Michael) (ITALICIZED WITH 2x QUOTATIONS)

A/N: This chapter is told almost entirely from Michaels' subconscious so read through the language legend carefully so you won't get confused.

DISCLAIMERS: I do not own Pokemon and I probably never will.

-Michael Kramer/Jessica Kramer are my concept and property.

-Ruby Ciel Garnet belongs to "CR0553"

WARNINGS (Listed below)

-Explicit Language

-Dark Themes

Michael's POV (Subconscious)

Darkness...Your world has been consumed by it...

'What...?'

Half-breed...

'Where...am I...?'

I tried opening my eyes but found the task to be beyond what I was capable of, a revelation that sent shivers up and down my spine. Suddenly I started hearing my own voice, specifically things that had left my mouth in the past.

"YOU HAVE SEALED YOUR FATE!"

A cry for mercy from the undeserving...

"N-NO! P-Please don-"

'That second voice...it sounded so familiar for some reason...'

It was a human you killed in your fit of rage...

'Wait...I killed...a human...?'

Several humans actually...

'I...I don't remember...'

"You are nothing but a cog in the grand scheme of things, Pokemon scum! Humans are the ones in control!"

You do remember ending that wretches life and how good it felt, right?

Brief flashes of the mans face in question rushed through my mind. Past words rang in my ears as memories of my interrogating the man resurfaced as well.

'I can make this go by quickly or...minute. by. minute.'

Your "interrogation" of the human...

'You have no more than an hour and a half left to live so I suggest you start talking if you want the last moments of your life to be quick.'

I wanted to bury those memories as I merely allowed anger to control my actions in those moments.

'N...No...I...I didn't...It...It didn't...I had...no choice...'

Yet you brutally tortured and killed the man...You RELISHED in his suffering...

Suddenly another voice rang in my ears, one full of compassion and wisdom. It was a voice any Pokemon would recognize in a heartbeat.

'You must not allow the anger to control you or you will lose yourself to madness once again, my child...'

A useless endeavor...none know of Your struggles or the sacrifices you've made...not even Arceus...

Another voice surged through my ears and, like the previous one, I picked up on its source almost instantly.

"I AM HERE TO PUT A STOP TO THE MADNESS, MICHAEL, BUT YOU HAVE TO TRUST ME!"

What does that boy know about trust? He turned you away in favor of another voice...

'No...No...A-Ash is...different...He is the...Chosen One...'

Who told you that? Arceus? You believe the word of a single Pokemon...?

'Arceus is the Alpha Pokemon...I trust his words as much as I trust-'

Your beloved? You put the word of a Pokemon shown to be incapable of keeping his promises on the same level as your mate of twenty years...?

'He gave me the power to protect what I love and cherish-'

By taking away your humanity and former life...

'I CHOSE to sacrifice my past life so I could protect her! I have no regrets having done so...

Are you saying this simply to mask the fear of rejection again? You never had human friends after all...

'No! I have absolute devotion in my family and the ones I have met along the way! They would never betray me after all this time.'

Again you state things that have no verifiable weight attached to them...Do you truly believe your so-called beloved feels the same way as you do? Would she put her life on the line for you when you have yet to take the proverbial bullet for your own mate...?

'I have never been given the chance to! She was always in harms way from entities outside of my field of vision...'

So, you ADMIT you do not truly possess the means to protect those you hold close to your heart...

'THAT IS NOT THE CASE-'

THEN WHERE IS YOUR BELOVED NOW, HALF-BREED...?

I then noticed I was completely engulfed in darkness, I had been so vehemently arguing with the foreign presence inside of my mind that I failed to see the truth around me. Somehow the world was devoid of anything except the pitch black darkness that could suck the air out of your lungs.

You just said you were given power to protect your precious mate yet she is not here...now you admit that you were never able to protect her in the first place...relying on divine intervention due to your ineptitude...You said you trust the word of Arceus and that he gave you power yet you just admitted you are still unable to save anyone you care for...

'Shut up! I still haven't mastered my power!'

Yet another excuse made by you, a half-Pokemon, half-human...you took on a red Gyarados no problem...what is stopping you from protecting your loved ones? Oh, that's right...you don't even know what to do when a situation doesn't just revolve around you...

'WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT COMMITTMENT AND SACRIFICE, YOU PIECE OF SHIT?! DON'T ACT LIKE YOU'RE PERFECT EITHER!'

On the contrary my naive friend...the Master has given me REAL power...not some fabricated imitation your so-called Alpha Pokemon gave you...I AM perfect in this world...

'This...world...?'

The world you reside in is the realm of your own heart...the void that has devoured its every corner and crevice...all you will find here is empty space that could have been so much more...had your own fears not taken hold of your life...

'How is that possible?!'

There was never any Walcott in this world...you shut off every contact you ever came to face because of your fear of being rejected again...the darkness that devoured your soul before is still there...but in a different form...one you will never be able to escape from...

'None of that makes any sense! I was JUST standing alongside my beloved fighting Walcott!'

It then dawned on me that I had not heard my beloveds voice since this whole ordeal began. I lashed out in anger at the voice, which I now assumed was Darkrai.

'Where is she?! Where is Jessi?! WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH-'

She never existed in this world...

'SHUT UP! THIS IS JUST A NIGHTMARE YOU PLANTED INSIDE OF MY HEAD, DARKRAI!'

This is the true reality you seek, Michael...you are so afraid of the world and its people taking what you love that you have secretly warded your heart from everything potentially negative in your life...including the inevitable deaths of your mate, son and daughter...you never truly met your future mate...you never created the so-called Eternal Bond with her...you kept yourself in isolation to hide your weak mind from the harsh reality of your human world...

'YOU DON'T KNOW SHIT ABOUT ME, DARKRAI! I WOULD NEVER KEEP MY OWN FLESH AND BLOOD OUT OF MY LIFE!

Again...you say one thing...but you already stated you are unable to protect anyone...you are a fraud...a waste...a joke being played by your strings like a puppet...by the "Great One" and his false promise of change for humans and Pokemon...

'ARCEUS CHOSE ME TO ENACT HIS VISION OF CHAGE!'

You think you are the first to be "chosen" half-breed...?

'I trust Arceus and what he said to me...'

Now we have come full circle...it is amusing to listen to your babbling...

I tried to force the foreign presence from my mind once again but found myself unable to process rational thoughts seconds later. My head felt like it was being stabbed at by numerous daggers and simply thinking made the pain even more severe. I tried not thinking at all but that task proved near impossible given my current state of distress, panic then made its way inside as the landscape around me began to change.

I could make out houses and blades of grass concealed by shadows, the sky was bare with no color to speak of giving the surrounding space an eerie aura to it. Everything around me was covered in the same pitch black darkness from moments earlier but you would have been hard pressed to pull the wool over my eyes in this situation. I knew the house before me was my own, the question was to do with the timeline I had been thrust into.

Everything lpoked Norma, if being thrust into a nightmare could be considered such, but there was a mysterious calmness to this place that I had never noticed before. It may have been that I was too young to to ever remember a peaceful time given the turmoil and isolation I faced on a daily basis at school. As I approached the front door of my house I could hear sobbing coming from the interior of the structure.

The crying seemed strang sly familiar for some reason, one that for the life of me escapes my grasp and left me pondering why this person sounded so familiar to me. I reached out with a shaky right hand and found myself to be in my original human form. Any traces of my Pokemon self were non existent and for some reason this brought out a small tinge of joy within my heart.

I shook that thought off to the side for now and grasped the door handle, turning it clockwise and finding it unlocked, something I would have never done in the waking world. I took my first step inside the house and began noticing color return to my vision, offering a silent thank you to Arceus for giving me something I could work with. As I entered the house fully I picked up a second voice but it was not crying alongside the other.

The noise seemed to be coming from upstairs which meant that there were three possible rooms the source of the voices could be. There was the master bedroom, the one me and Jessi shared, Blades room and Ambers room, which we had turned into from previously being an extra storage closet. The memories of finally finishing the remodeling came rushing back to me and I couldn't help but smile.

As I approached the staircase leading to the second floor of the house I detected a faint aroma that I recognized as Jessi's perfume of choice. Whenever we went out to dinner or ran errands she would always make sure to look her best, a feat I could never fully grasp but, at the same time, didn't have the heart to steer her away from. It made my beloved happy and that was what mattered the most. As the final step was made from the stairs I felt a sudden chill permeate the air around me, as though a mighty blizzard had raced through without warning.

Each step I took after the previous felt very heavy and it took everything in me to actually move my body from the sheer pressure being forced on my body. The scent of Jessi's perfume was gone and not a trace of it remained. I briefly began to panic as the to crying turned into incoherent wailing, the voice matching that of my beloved which then kicked my legs into overdrive. I HAD to find out what was going on to cause my beloved so much distress to the point the very air turned freezing.

Seconds felt like minutes as I approached the door leading to the master bedroom. The chill in the air made my legs stiff and my bones locked up on me right before I could grab the handle. As I tumbled helplessly to the floor I could see the face of my beloved staring at me from the point where my face would make contact with the floor. I tried to move my arms but they were stiff as though frozen by the horrid chill filling the house. All the while the wailing grew louder and louder and, as I was about to make contact with the floor, I saw Jessi's face and I suddenly wished I hadn't.

The face she had when she was corrupted...the same emotionless visage greeted me as I crashed through the floor and suddenly found myself submerged in freezing water. I looked around to find the scenery had changed once again from my house to a frozen wasteland to an uninhabitable frozen lake. I desperately tried to move my body so I could reach the surface but my muscles and bones felt as though the had no structure in them whatsoever. I began sinking deeper and deeper into the unforgiving cold abyss and the image of my beloved having her eyes gouged out seconds before her hell corruption took hold replayed over and over in my mind.

My eyes began to grow heavy and my heart started sinking along with the rest of my body, the concept of dying in a nightmare never coming across as a real possibility. As I began to fade away the image of my beloved raging out of control in her corrupted state, cursing my name and spitting on my grave made me hurt far worse than anything ai had experienced before. Not even getting shot by a sniper rifle hurt this bad and I silently began crying out to Jessi, begging her to forgive me and not to leave me in such a state of peril.

My crys went unanswered and my eyes finally would close for the last time, my death seemingly unavoidable now. The realization that I would die alone, cold and afraid seemed all too fitting given my past life. I tried so hard to escape my past and forge my own future but the past just wouldn't leave me alone no matter how hard I tried. Darkrai was right on that account...I had been trying to mask my fear of being alone again and now I would face my demise from the very thing I feared the most.

I could see the disappointed look on my fathers face as he would meet me in the afterlife after me, something no family ever wants to have happen. I began to ponder all that I had failed to accomplish in my short life and the future Arceus had promised me made what Darkrai said even more profound and painfully real. It had to be true, then, there was never going to be any future for me and Jessi. The realization that I had been made a fool of once again made my mind reel and the pain in my chest doubled.

Without even realizing it I had begun screaming my beloveds name as the cold darkness enveloped me whole. I started accusing my beloved of leaving me to die alone, something I swore to Darkai would never happen because of my trust to her. One by one everything I had convinced myself to be true turned out to be false, first of me dying alone, then Arceus failing on his word once again and now my beloved not being at my side.

Just before the unforgiving spectre of death took my soul to the afterlife I felt my body shift violently backwards, as though everything I had just experienced was going in reverse. The span of an hour went by in seconds and I found myself back in the same eerie darkness from when I first entered this nightmare.

This was a nightmare, I knew it was and that is all it should have been...

'So why does it feel so real to me?'

As I told you before...half-breed...this is your true reality...this is what you have sought...complete isolation so the world will be unable to hurt you anymore...

'It still hurts...this cannot be the future I wanted...'

Oh but it is...you only feel the pain of losing what you think is meaningful...the reality is they will all turn their backs on you when you need them the most...just like now..

I wanted to argue with Darkrai but he had proven me wrong on three separate occasions now and I just didn't have it in me to keep fighting. It didn't seem possible to me that all I ever wanted was to be left alone...I sought companionship for my entire early life and found a Ralts which I named Jessica. I sought to better understand Pokemon and how they go about their day to day lives while still being a trainer and a friend to them.

More importantly, though, I wanted to share my life experiences with someone I could call a friend, which Jessica proved to be and then some. When we were young we chased each other out in the yard until the sun would set. As we grew older it evolved into sharing activities such as watching television and going out to the park to fish or watch the stars at night. When we became old enough to understand how humans and Pokemon both seek mates and affection from those closest to them. The strong mental bond me and Jessi shared only amplified our closeness to one another.

It all started when I awoke to Jessi, then a Kirlia, sleeping in my bed and having a nightmare. She used her psychic powers to harm me but it was purely coincidental, as proven when she healed my arm and revealed to me the reasoning behind her sneaking into my room that stormy night. She was so full of innocence back then, none of this hell Pokemon was a factor and we lived life as though we were the only ones in it. We had two children before everything started changing, it was at that point I wanted to keep my family safe from harm but lacked the power to truly do anything other then train with Storm and try to instill his teachings to my son, Blade.

You have been silent for awhile...half-breed...are you finally accepting your defective origins...?

I tried ignoring Darkrai but I felt the same stinging pain from before come back. I could feel Darkrai probing through my thoughts, trying to gain any kind of leverage he could to use against me. Unfortunately he was quite good at this and he immediately picked up on what was on my mind at that moment.

Ahh, yes...Professor Langston...a poor, unfortunate soul brutally murdered by those heathens...you were so very angry with them...

'The anger I felt when Professor Langston and his wife were murdered was justifiable for sure...but did I go too far in torturing one of the men for answers?'

You did what any reasonable person would do...you ended the threat they posed to you and your beloved...even if such an effort was wasted in the end...

'I still...have...my...beloved...your mind games...are not-'

Going to work...yes, they are working, half-breed. You are already accepting the truth of my words and you would be a fool to claim otherwise...

'These are merely...illusions! I can...break out...!'

What will you do when you break out, then? Half-breed...you have no future other than complete isolation and emptiness...your friends will turn their backs on you and take everything you hold near and dear...away from you...out of your reach...

'NO...I WONT...LET THAT...HAPPEN...!'

You are a fool...and fools need to be shown the error of their ways...

As soon as Darkrai finished saying this I felt my mind being jostled around like a rag doll, causing me to lose my bearings. As the darkness around me began to swirl and take shape I could hear a faint crying coming from the vortex of seething chaos. The voice attached to it sounded so familiar...

You will see what the future holds for you and all who have associated themselves in your life...whether you want to see it or not...Celebi was wise to keep this from you...you will not be so fortunate this time...half-breed...

The darkness suddenly began shifting more violently and I could make out bits and pieces of what looked to be a ruined town. There was a decimated Pokemon conter and many homes had long been abandoned. The forest adjacent to the town was charred and devoid of any life whatsoever. Everywhere I looked there were signs of a struggle and it was at that moment I could make out the putrid stench of decaying flesh. It took everything in me not to gag on the spot.

I saw bodies strawn about haphazardly, some bunched up as though they had suffered their deaths together. I saw faces I was unfamiliar with but, unfortunately, also saw faces I did recognize. Locks of raven black hair were hanging lazily over a young boys face, his magnificent golden eyes hidden from view. Below his prone form lay a Pokemon with red down-like fur and a white upper body. The boy seemed to be protecting the Pokemon with his body yet that did not stop his muderers from shooting the Pokemon twice in the head.

'ASH! LATIAS!'

I began breathing heavily as more and more bodies came into view, many of whom I had only just begun to appreciate more and more.

'Gary...Ruby...Sabrina...Misty...Professor Oak...'

The I saw her...

'N-No...NO! NO! NO! NO! NO~!'

The scene played out exactly as in my nightmares from weeks prior but in much more gruesome detail.

There in a pool of her own blood lay the motionless form of my beloved, a large bullet hole having shattered her chest spike. Beneath her I saw two more bodies- my children, also dead with their mother. Jessi had been trying to shield our children with her body but that did not stop her attackers from putting bullets through Blade and Amber. I could only stare at the lifeless Amber pools that had given me so much warmth over the span of twenty years, they now looked at me as if asking "Why couldn't you protect us?"

The emotional strain was simply too much for my mind to bear and I felt primal rage course through me.

"WHY DID YOU PEOPLE DO THIS TO ME?! I SAVED YOUR LIVES AND THIS IS HOW YOU REPAY ME?! BY MURDERING EVERYONE I CARED FOR?!"

My outburst was met with snide, uncaring and cruel laughter, as well as accusations.

"You deserve everything you get after killing another human being!"

"He was only trying to better Pokemon and humans!"

"You killed him in cold blood!"

"MURDERER!"

"MURDERER!"

"MURDERER!"

I tried to shut out the noises but they only grew louder and more pronounced, soon enough I could make out voices of those who I knew now mocking me and joining in the chorus of insane cruelty. I could feel my mind shattering and I begged Arceus to get me from this madness but was met with more jeers and snide remarks. It dawned on me that I was begging Arceus of all things for help and I silently cursed myself for being so weak minded, just like Darkrai had said.

I began to slip away again into madness when something unexpected happened.

From somewhere in the chaos I heard a soft melodic voice envelop me in warmth, the source of the voice beginning to take shape and, in seconds, I found myself staring at the pure form of my one and only beloved. She began calling out to me with greater urgency and I responded in the same manner.

"Your future...my beloved...no...OUR future...is with each other!"

'Jessi! Yes, Jessi! My future is...my future...my future...is...'

It should have been an easy thing to say but, after all the torture Darkrai's nightmares had put me through, I kept thinking back to what he said to me about my real future...

...What if what I wanted was isolation from the worlds problems?

'My future is to be free of the worlds problems, Jessi...I don't think it will happen if we stay together...look at everything that has happened because of me...'

As though she were standing in front of me I felt a harsh slap my left cheek. The anger in my beloveds voice told me everything I needed to know about where she stood with me.

"You mean to tell me twenty years...TWENTY...YEARS...wasn't enough to tell you that I will be by your side to my last breath?! Michael Kramer...I can't believe you are acting this stupid in front of me!"

'Well...technically we're speaking telepathically...'

"That isn't the point, dummy...I could go back in time if I wanted to by asking Celebi...But do you know why I won't? I won't because the past twenty years of my life have been something out of a fantasy you only wish you could live out in its entirety."

I could only nod my head.

"I wouldn't change anything that has happened, my beloved...everything we have been through has made us stronger in some way! Never forget that!"

I listened to the soft and angelic voice of my beloved and felt tremendous guilt for making her so upset with me. I wanted to kiss her so badly but the dream world made for rather lackluster kissing so I would make sure to give my mate as hard and passionately as I knew how to when this was all said and done.

"You are who you are, regardless of what life has dealt you...the future is yours to control...all you have to do is let go of your past fears...let's face this world together...as a family, like we said we would...my beloved Michael..."

I couldn't help but smile at my perfect mate, she always knew exactly what to say and when to say it. It was at that moment that I knew I had nothing to fear anymore. What happened in my past was not something I could ever change...

...I had no need to when the future was still in the palm of my hand. With my beloved Jessi at my side every step of the way I would be able to overcome the nightmares that had been plaguing me all these years.

It was because of Jessi that my life turned around. It was because of my beloved that I could start a new life, and Arceus be damned if I was going to just flop over on my stomach and let the past haunt me any longer!

You are making a foolish choice, half-breed! The only future that awaits you is solidarity and loneliness!

'Be quiet, hell-spawn! I am Michael Kramer! I am my own person, I am a half-Pokemon, half-human and I WILL NO LONGER ALLOW THE PAST TO DRAG ME DOWN!'