I AM BAAAA-AAAACK!

AND SO HAPPY ABOUT IT IT I CANNOT SAY. I MISSED YOU, FANTASY. SO, SO MUCH.

ENJOY.

P.S. I forgot how creepy this chapter was 0.0 Beware.

Chapter 28

The Umbreon

Strangely enough, there were no pokemon in the entire dungeon.

"Maybe they all live in the village?" Heather proposed her reason.

"No," Austin whispered, looking around. He bent down and touched the sandy floor. "I can sense the auras trapped in the sand. Now that I think about it, it's lined with their blood. That's why it's reddish."

We were all silent for a moment, shocked and disgusted.

"Then...?" Wylie said the word none of us wanted to.

"Then the pokemon here were all killed. Their bodies are gone, but something must have dragged them away because some of their auras are still here, walking the halls like ghosts as they fade away."

Heather shivered. "I thought you said they were all dead. Also that their auras are in the floor."

"It's all true," Austin whispered. His gaze flickered over to the corner briefly. Suddenly he gasped and his blue eyes flicked red and his face... looked abruptly older. He lowered his head and stared down at the floor. He whispered as if reading, "Six hundred thousand souls, all crushed like ceramic bowls. Their bodies ground to fine dust they're told, but some few were too bold. They walked away and now they hunt the one who pulled this deadly stunt. Come, come, come another day, but save the world for today. Six hundred thousand souls, all crushed like ceramic bowls. Chosens come and Chosens pass, let's hope these are here to last."

We all stood in shocked silence for a full minute before Wylie whispered, "...Austin?"

Austin snapped his eyes shut and shook his head violently for a good moment. When he opened his eyes, they were blue again and his face was normal. He looked to the corner and yelled, "Leave me alone!"

"Austin? What was that?" Wylie asked quietly, sounding a bit frightened.

"That was my father temporarily taking over my body," Austin muttered, looking angrily at the corner still.

"What?" Carry demanded, wide-eyed with shock.

Austin didn't answer. Instead he yelled at the corner, "I know you're dead! As far as I know, you've been dead since I was six! Now leave me alone!"

"Um, Austin?" Wylie wondered, tilting his head and giving him a sideways glance with his eyebrows raised.

"What?" Austin asked. He was giving the corner death looks.

"Is your father in the corner there?" the buizel wondered.

"Yes," Austin said. Evidently looking at his father in the corner, he narrowed his eyes and shouted, "Yes! I know I'll die. We all will one day. ... No, I'm not afraid of death."

"Um, Austin, we can't see or hear him," Jared reminded our angry friend.

Austin's eyes lit red again. He whispered, "Carry. Use your psychic on me." With a shudder and a blink Austin was normal again. He yelled, "Stop doing that, you bastard! Go away!"

"... Can I do that?" Carry wondered.

"Do what?" Austin wondered, glancing at Carry.

"Use my psychic powers on him," she responded.

"What gave you the idea to?" Austin asked, turning to face her.

"Uh, you," Carry said, giving him a sideways look with her eyebrows furrowed and jaw set with a touch of confusion.

"Oh," Austin said, then turned back to his father. "You mean this a**hole? I can't flipping remember anything when he does that."

"Oh. Well, I can sense your dad, so I'm going to try," Carry responded.

"Throw him against the wall for me a few times, will you?" Austin wondered, daggers in his eyes being shot towards where his father was said to be. (That poor corner is probably dead by now with all these shots directed near it.)

Carry blinked and her eyes reddened. The shape of a lucario formed first, then the details filled in with gray scale coloring, save for his eyes. He looked just like Austin except for his red eyes and older look.

"Hello," his father said.

"Back off!" Austin suddenly hissed, then whipped around and threw an auric wave near Heather. Something black fizzled to life then faded away at the same time just as it was touched. Austin turned back to his father. "Leave! Please! You're endangering my friends here!"

The older lucario ignored his son. He locked gazes with Heather, who shivered as he looked at her.

"She's haunted," Austin's father drew the words out in a very slow, Spanish-accented voice.

"I'm aware. You're only making it worse by being here," Austin hissed the words, his eyes narrowed and angry slits.

"You're doing a great job protecting them," Austin's father told his son. He slowly shifted his gaze to Wylie and said, "You as well. Thank you."

"Great. Thanks. Bye," Austin said.

Austin's father shifted his gaze back to Heather, sending another shiver down her spine. "Your grandmother is angry."

"W-w-w-why?" Heather stuttered. I could see in her wide, fearful eyes memories of painful, scary times. This conversation was quickly bringing out the worst things she'd seen. Brought them out after all the effort she must have gone through in order to bury them.

"She does not understand the color you possess," Austin's father said, his speech still terribly slow. His gaze shifted to a darkening figure behind Heather. Heather screamed and Austin prepared another attack, but his father said loudly with a booming voice, "You know she is not in control of her genes. The color is from your ancestors."

Carry did us all a favor before hand and used her psychic powers. I didn't know exactly what it did, but it worked and the black features of the creature faded into gray and white and the figure was revealed to be a very old-looking vaporeon who looked a bit like Heather with the same yellow eyes.

Heather jumped and spun around to face the creature. Her eyes went wide and her jaw dropped in surprise when she saw it. "Gramma?" she whispered. "You've been the one hurting me?"

The old vaporeon flinched and nodded.

Heather stared at the creature for a few moments before whispering, "I still love you."

The vaporeon looked very sad and regretful suddenly. "You know, my child, I have been following you for so long, just waiting for you to make a mistake big enough to use against you and your coloration. My presence has been attracting horrible spirits to you that have hurt you mentally and sometimes even worn you so much that it affected you physically as well," Heather's grandmother said in that slow, creepy ghost voice. She also sounded sad and regretful. "I am truly sorry, my granddaughter, that my racistness has been harming someone so sweet and caring like you. I even knew what I was doing and did not stop. I even knew what and who you were but did not stop. I guess it took the yell of another to stop me." She turned to the other ghost. "I thank you." She turned back to Heather. "My sweet granddaughter, I love you. Thank you for continuing to love me despite my terrible mistakes."

Then her ghost sat down and slowly faded away.

Heather closed her eyes and smiled lightly in the direction of the spot her grandmother had just been in.

Austin stared at the spot for a long moment before realizing out loud, "She faded once her soul was ready to forgive herself. The reason she didn't move on was that she was too prideful in her racism and she knew it but couldn't get over it. She was constantly guilty but didn't change it."

"How'd you get all that from her apology?" Jared wondered quietly.

Austin glanced at the oshawott and then back to the spot. "I've seen a lot of ghosts. Heard most of them, too. They all have a similar thread of guilt running through them."

We all turned to Austin's father, knowing he had some reason for still being there as well.

Austin's look, once fiery with anger, now was curious and soft. He must have suddenly realized that if Heather's grandmother was still there for a reason, then so must his father be. He probably realized that his father was... guilty. That realization, that his father knew his mistake and was regretful of it, seemed to make Austin realize he was there to apologize.

"Explain," Austin said quietly, not a demand.

"I knew the whole time, about the Chosen's advantages and disadvantages," his father explained quietly, looking away. "I knew everything and never told you. I was afraid so I ran away."

Austin laughed harshly. It wasn't really a laugh but a sound composed of relief, disbelief, and slight anger and understanding that were expelled in a similar way as laughter normally was.

"I can't believe that's really the reason. Dad, so did I. In fact, I choseto be Chosen," Austin explained, looking to his father with abrupt understanding in his eyes. "I knew what it meant even though I was little. I get that you were scared, especially since Mom died and if I went insane with power or something ridiculous like that you would probably be killed by your own son. It's scary having to have this power. It would have been great if you were there to help me, but I think it made me stronger in the end that you weren't. Now go. I forgive you. I've never been angry at you, just at the fact that you never told me why you left."

Austin's father smiled. "Thank you."

"Wait!" Whylie yelled suddenly. Everyone immediately looked at him. "Don't fade just yet. What was with the poem before?"

Austin's father's smile disappeared and he grew serious. "A warning," he said, putting a weight on the first syllable of 'warning.' "Everyone of you is in danger. Also an explanation. Someone did kill all these pokemon, including me."

"Who?" Carry demanded, suddenly jumping up onto all four feet. "Who would do such a thing like this?"

"Darkrai," Austin's father said, closing his eyes. The word sounded like a terrible acid that looked just like water. Drink it by mistake and it'll burn your throat out. "He was warning you all. Avoid him as much as you can. He'll steal you away into distant lands that are almost impossible to get back from."

"When?" I wondered. "Recently?"

"Yes. Two days ago," he responded. "Come back another day. His presence may still be here, though maybe it is not him himself."

"We can't come back another day, but we will be fine," I told the ghostly spirit.

"You can go now. Thank you very much," Austin said. "Goodbye, father."

Austin's father closed his eyes and whispered, "Remember my words. Be careful. I love you, my son."

Author's Note:

I AM SOOOO GLAD TO BE BACK... STILL.

ANYWAY.

(This is all when I'm editing this chapter:)

When Austin's father was talking to Carry through Austin I was like, "THAT'S SO WEIRD. WHY DID I WRITE THAT?"

And then he's Spanish... I almost deleted it, but it's a unique character thing, I guess.

(Jaeson: Then why, RKL7, is Austin not Spanish?

RKL7: First of all, you're in the wrong story. Second of all, his father went away when Austin was six. Maybe he lived in Mexico or something.

Jaeson: *Smirks because he's enjoying torturing me* This is the pokemon world. Mexico does not exist.

RKL7: It does in your world!

Jaeson: My world has humans. This one does not.

RKL7: ... Whatever.

Jaeson: Also, the Jamaican spinda-

RKL7: *Smirks as she ignores him and continues editing, eventually getting so focused she can't hear him*

Jaeson: *Mutters* Finally she's focused again. Mission accomplished.)

Yeah, so... Darkrai. This should be interesting.

Warning: I hate the next chapters. Really, I do.

(WHEN I LOOK AT IT ONCE MORE BEFORE POSTING IT, SINCE EDITING CAME EARLIER: OH, NO. THE NEXT CHAPTER... JUST... OH, NO...)