Yayforwinterbreak! I'lltrytogetsomemoreuphere, butI'llbestudyingforfinalsandstuff. Thesearemyfirstfinalsbtw, sowishmeluck! Iwishallofyouhighschool/collegechildrenoutthereluckonyourtestsaswell! Especiallyifyou'reafreshman, too.
Oh, andcrud, IleftyouallonaterriblecliffhangeragainxDIapologize.
Lastly...
ENJOY!
ChapterFifteen
TheUmbreon
"Wait," I said, stepping forward. "Did you say Celebi's chosen?"
"Yeah," Austin said quietly and calmly as Wylie started to pace.
"Why us? Why us?" Wylie asked the sky as it poured its sorrow upon us. "We've already lost Laek, I can't lose you, too." Wylie looked to his friend, desperation and terrible, terrible cheerlessness and sadness and sorrow in his eyes.
"Because we had the experience and we were willing to risk everything," Austin reminded his friend.
"Still are, apparently," Wylie whispered.
"I'm one of Celebi's chosen," I bursted out. Wylie and Austin both switched their gazes to me. I continued, telling them, "I met Craeg once before. He told me that he wasn't going to kill me, otherwise someone else would become Celebi's chosen."
"You can heal him, then," Wylie said, his eyes brightening just a little.
I frowned. "I can? How?"
"This is going to sound bad," Wylie warned, "but you'll have to cut him where the red marks are and turn them into something treatable."
"You want me to hurt him?" I asked, very confused.
"Dark," Austin said quietly, clutching the wound in obvious pain. He moved his arms to show me and said, "If you cut me here, then the effects of your Celebi's chosen impact will neutral out the effect of Craeg's Darkrai's chosen effects because they're opposites, like one and negative one."
Heather's eyebrows knitted together and she frowned. "Wouldn't Darkrai's opposite be Cresselia?"
"Long story short, no," Wylie said.
"What happens after?" Jared wondered. "I mean, after the effects go away?"
"The cut becomes a normal cut and we get him treated," Wylie said.
"Not here, though," Austin quietly put in.
Wylie nodded. "It's not safe here anymore, not for any of us six."
"What?" Carrie asked, stepping towards them. "We have to leave?"
Wylie looked regretful, his eyes wide with sadness. He looked so much like he wanted to say we could stay, but he softly shook his head no. "Yes. We have to leave. They found us here."
"So we're just going to let them run us out?" Carrie demanded, outraged through her crestfallenness.
"We have no choice," Wylie told her dispiritedly. "We can't risk any of us getting hurt."
Carrie's shoulders sunk and she lowered her head in defeat. "Oh," she whispered.
"I'm so sorry," Wylie told her quietly, despairingly.
"You shouldn't be sorry," Heather said, with Carie slowly nodding her agreement. "It's hard enough for you to have to tell us in the first place. It's what's best, anyway."
Suddenly Austin gasped in pain.
"What's wrong?" Wylie demanded.
"I guess... the full effect was... delayed," Austin managed to say through gasping breaths.
"Hurry, Dark," Wylie pleaded.
"Do I have to do anything special?" I wondered, a little panic slipping into my voice.
"No, just cut him with your claws, the Darkrai's Chosen factor should activate your power," Wylie explained.
"Okay..." I said, then quickly padded over to Austin. He very painfully moved his arm away from the wound.
It was like nothing I'd ever seen before. I thought it was just red from the blood or something, but up close I could see it was light emanating from three long slices of his body from below his underarm to just above his hip. The light was a terribly dark mix of red and black and a tiny bit of angry white.
I clicked out my claws, though I was not quite believing what I was about to do. I arranged them on his side to match the three claw marks from Craig, and slowly dragged them down Austin's body. The scary red light faded into a scary red cut as I worked. Austin shook from the enormous amount of pain and tension, not making a sound and squeezing his eyes shut.
When I was finally done and all the red light had disappeared, Austin gasped with relief.
He kind of fell from sitting on his knees onto the ground, then slowly rearranged himself into a cross-legged position. Wylie raced over and helped him. Austin put his elbows on his knees and balanced his head on his palms. "Thank you," he whispered.
For a long time we were silent. Then Jared asked in a tiny voice, "Where do we go?"
Wylie looked down and Austin managed to meet his gaze by rolling his head a little. Austin gave the slightest nod. Wylie said after a quick glance at the fainted Craeg, "I know a place that isn't too far from here and they shouldn't know about it. Austin, shall we?"
Wylie held out a hand and slowly pulled a shaky Austin to his feet. Blood was starting to slowly drip down, the heavy rain smearing it to stain his fur.
"What should we do about him?" I asked, jerking my head towards the fainted Craeg.
Wylie walked onto the grate and called, "Digglet! Have someone come up here! Darkrai's chosen needs to be arrested!"
We waited a few seconds, then came his reply: "The guildmaster and Chatot are coming up!"
Just as his sentence ended, the two came rushing out of the tent. Upon seeing the still-burning fire, Wigglytuff gasped.
I heard a slight buzz as Austin made an auric wave. It traveled through the air slowly in a way that you could tell Austin was on his last strength. It snuffed the fire out, leaving no burns on the pink tent.
"I'm guessing this is goodbye for awhile," the matching pink pokemon said quietly, sadly.
"That would be correct," Wylie said, nodding his head slowly.
Wigglytuff smiled with a bittersweet curve of his lips and said, "My friends, it has been a pleasure working with you, and I hope we all meet again someday. I wish you all the luck I can give."
We all nodded our thank-yous, and Wylie led us away with his head up but not quite happy at all.
It occurred to me, as we slowly made our way down the path, how strong Wylie was. Carrie, Jared, Heather, and I had been shocked and mentally beaten into quiet words, but Wylie kept his head up as best he could and answered all our questions, told us where to go, and did not forget that Craeg might be awake yet.
I wondered how badly Wylie was hurting inside, if he'd be awake all night with churning thoughts.
Poor Wylie. His life is so screwed up. Anyway, if any of you are interested there is a poll for Nexus going up. There'll be a similar one (asking for the fan favorite character) soon! :D Hope you enjoed!