POKEMON RANGER, OUT OF THE DARKNESS - Chapter Ten: Entei.


"Kate, help, please!" the anguished voices were almost expected now. She realized who was calling for her and raised her arm, reaching for Sven, her eyes wide and panicked. "SVEN!" she yelled into the darkness, straining to catch hold of him. The Dark-Kate appeared, and she too strained against her bonds, looking at Kate with the same panicked eyes.

Kate didn't feel the darkness wrapping around her, she didn't care about it anymore. She couldn't take anyone else disappearing… Especially not Sven, not Sven who helped her catch Palkia, not Sven who worked with her and Keith in Chroma ruins, not Sven the ranger who had made 10,000 captures… Not Sven her friend… She strained toward him anxiously, watching as the darkness wrapped around him.

"Kate, you have to save yourself…" the Dark-Kate whispered suddenly as Sven continued to fight, "If you don't then you'll be the one stuck here for all eternity… if you don't help yourself, you can't help him, or Barlow, or anyone else! You can't help Keith!"

The last sentence broke into her mind and she gasped, looking down at the smoky tendrils that were grasping her stomach. She closed her eyes. 'I need to wake up, now.' Her eyes opened and she opened her mouth, taking in a large breath before yelling to Sven, "I'LL HELP YOU! I SWEAR I WILL!" She let her hand drop and something in her pocket glowed. The feather, the blasted feather. The stupid riddle that was holding them both in their grip. She felt so close to the answer, but it would slip away before she figured it out.

"Save yourself…" Dark-Kate murmured again, struggling still against the dark bonds that held her. She let out a few more callous coughs and winced as blood streamed from her throat, "You can save yourself, Kate, and you can save everyone. You've done it before… these nightmares are… warning you… you need to know…"

Kate turned on the mirror image of her, her eyes wild, "WHY IS DARKRAI TORTURING ME LIKE THIS?!" she sobbed hysterically at the bound girl, "Why does he take the people I love?"

"…You need to know…" the Dark-Kate said again, her voice growing dim, "Darkrai… isn't… taking… them…"

Darkrai isn't taking them. Darkrai isn't taking them. The words were spinning in her head even as the fading girl explained what she meant.

"He's… telling you… they're being taken… in the only… way… he can…" she was disappearing, "Darkrai… is on… our side…"

She jerked up, breathing harshly, to find herself in Keith's arms once again. "Sven…"Darkrai isn't taking them. "Darkrai…" Darkrai is on our side. How could he be on their side…?

Keith murmured something in her ear but she didn't hear him. Her thoughts were whirling. Darkrai… what's up with you?

---

The gentle ripple of the wind across her face was like the touch of a memory, one of when things were so much simpler, so much easier to understand and deal with. Keith was off somewhere behind her while she dreamed, really dreamed for the first time in almost a year, atop the Pidgeot. Pachirisu was tucked inside her jacket for both warmth and protection from flying away. Much as the little Pokemon looked like a squirrel, she doubted that it could fly like some squirrels could.

The green landscape below her was rarely broken by small stone fences or little towns in the countryside. She could actually enjoy it, being in her state of dreaming. She almost thought she was hallucinating, after all, she shouldn't feel this happy when she was surrounded by misery… especially when she was the reason that the misery was occurring.

Her hair was once again blowing out behind her. She hadn't worn her pigtails in a few weeks. It was different, not having the familiar tug in those places that she had practically grown up with, but she still couldn't think of wearing them when they made her think of that first time they had been pulled out, back when she first faced Darkrai. The memories preceding that experience flashed before her, and the feelings she felt just before.

"We can't have you two go. Sven and Wendy can manage alone!" Hastings told them while they frowned at his turned back. They both knew deep down that they were ready to take something like this on. No matter what they ended up facing in Altru Tower, they had both experienced so much more, and here was Hastings, acting like the first pokemon they saw would make them break their stylers!

"Voicemail, voicemail!" Came across the link from Sven and Wendy, which both were sharing; "We've run into a bit of an issue." Sven's voice continued, "Three shields prevent us from bringing the gems in aerially. Someone would need to come up through the building and disable the shields." Hastings and Erma looked uneasy.

"We don't have anyone we can spare…" Hastings muttered, frowning. Kate growled quietly under her breath, an action that was mirrored by Keith a second later. Kate narrowed her eyes and cleared her throat. "WE could go, you know."

"Nonsense, you're not ready for something like thi…" Hastings turned around as he spoke and caught sight of their offended looks. Kate narrowed her eyes further. "I stand corrected. Your eyes tell me that you're ready. I apologize for treating you as rookies."

Kate nodded and shared a glance with Keith while Hastings announced that they would be helping Sven and Wendy. Keith offered an uneasy smile as he watched her. They were partners in this.

The mission had started out rather disastrously, to be honest. Several floors of obstacles had worn both of their amounts of patience thin, especially considering they had to rescue Isaac as well. By the time they found him and learned he had been forced to make the final adjustments, Kate had lost her patience. She had taken out seven Pokemon on her own, ruthlessly pushing through the crowd and stomping further up the tower. No one could stop her. Kate smiled from her perch on the Pidgeot as she remembered the unstoppable feeling that had taken hold of her chest. Even after Keith had been knocked away, she still kept going relentlessly. That uncontainable feeling of glee that she felt when she finally got the Yellow Gem back came back to her now. She chuckled into the wind as Keith caught up with her, his face drawn and tired, but his usual grin still on his face.

"What has you so happy?"

"Just remembering better days. Oddly enough it makes me happy to think about how good things were back then instead of thinking of how horrible they are now."

"That makes an odd sort of sense and yet no sense at all," was the brilliant answer from Keith.

"I know, but it makes me happy, so I'm going to think about it." Kate responded softly. Their stylers beeped twice, which indicated that a voicemail was coming through.

"Voicemail, Voicemail! This is Rhythmi. I have a bit of bad news, guys. We're running out of people to help us fight. Barlow's team is gone and nearly all the new recruits from the Ranger School have backed down. We have a few of the recruits still with us, but their number is very few. And… Sven disappeared."

Keith's eyes were pained and he struggled to keep a calm voice, "Can we get a status report of the investigation over who's doing this, Rhyth?"

"Still going slow. We've found a greasy sort of residue and a small black hair that was dropped off of a Gliscor, though. Nate's still analyzing it."

"What's keeping him up?"

"The residue has some sort of contamination; it's not really grease like hair normally produces. The hair was stiff with the stuff and it smelled horrible."

"Well, tell him good job anyway. That we've gotten this far is an accomplishment." Keith sighed as he and Rhythmi finished the transmission. Kate had been silent throughout the entire conversation as she thought. A greasy residue… something here didn't add up right. She had a bad feeling that she knew exactly who was behind this… she just didn't have a name or face yet.

Call it a gut feeling.

She looked downward to see three fields below them. One of them had burned up grasses and an ashy look to the ground, but there didn't seem to be any sort of fire burning. She nudged her Pidgeot into a banking curve that let her jump off. Keith followed a few seconds later, miscalculated, and landed on top of her sending them both sprawling to the ground with their limbs tangled together.

Keith pulled himself free and into a sitting position with his face tinted a bright red. Kate rubbed her head and shifted to the point where she could rest it on her knees, looking at her leg where there were several ashy scratches from one of the sticks she had landed on. Thankfully, none of them were bleeding.

"Sorry." Keith muttered embarrassedly. Feeling gracious, Kate nodded and helped him stand up. She looked around a few times before sighting a cave.

"Looks like that's where we'll be sleeping." She muttered quietly, her mood shifting toward annoyed. She had gotten tired of sleeping in caves but sleeping out here in the open, on the ground of this fire-stained field was the least appealing option to her at that time. She rolled her neck before walking toward the cave, pulling out the odd feather as she did so. She twisted it in her fingers slightly, looking through it at the ground below.

Keith watched he walk toward the cave before walking after her, looking around them in an attempt to see any hostile Pokemon that could attack. His attempts proved futile but he was glad that he couldn't see any.

As they entered the cave, Kate held a hand to her head as a faint, but indescribable ringing took hold of her ears. She felt dizzy, she needed to sit… Vertigo made her loose her footing as she stumbled forward and she felt Keith's arms wrap around her waist to hold her up. She closed her eyes and mumbled, "Oh god, do you hear that?"

Keith raised an eyebrow, looking around for a few seconds with his ears perked. He heard a low rumbling, but Kate didn't seem to be hearing that. "Hear… what, Kate?"

"The ringing…" Kate murmured, "Can't you hear it?"

"I don't hear any ringing… I hear an odd rumbling sound, but…" he paused and saw that her pocket was glowing faintly. He closed his eyes and focused for a moment before picking up the almost silent sound of a prolonged note… it certainly did sound like ringing, in a sense. "Wait, I think…" he said, unsure. Kate was gripping her forehead and her eyes were held tightly closed. He gently lowered her into a sitting position and leaned her against the wall. The rumbling sound got louder as the faint glow from her pocket increased. He tugged out the clear feather, now glowing brightly.

"Keith," she muttered, opening her eyes as the feather stopped glowing and the low grumbling note disappeared with an echoing silence replacing it in the cave. "I don't think we're alone in this cave." Her whispered statement sent shivers down his spine as he felt hostile eyes on his back. He flipped around and sent out his Capture disk on instinct, watching it fly toward a large brown dog-like Pokemon with… clouds for a tail.

Keith raised his eyebrow as he directed his capture disc, looking at the status bar and how little it was filling with each circle he made. Kate's styler soon joined his and he watched the status bar move a bit faster. He looked at Kate and she nodded.

"We have to charge to full power and both circle. If we keep the charge long enough, we should be able to capture him." He muttered slowly, calling back his capture disc before letting it out again when Kate and he were ready. They both started charging their capture disks and once they were charged, they let loose again.

---

The status bar bleeped out an OK as Kate was sweating from the exertion of trying to capture this Pokemon. It was turning out harder than they both expected. They'd had to recharge several times and a few hits had Keith's styler nearly out of commission. But they had finally done it. They had captured whatever this Pokemon was. Keith pointed his styler at it and pressed a few buttons to bring up the browser, causing a beam of light to scan the Pokemon. Kate followed suit, still in her sitting position against the cave wall.

The browser spoke up in a mechanical voice, 'Entei, a legendary fire type pokemon. It is said that when it roars, a volcano erupts somewhere around the world.' Kate clicked a few buttons to save the information before leaning back against the wall again, wiping her forehead. "I need to rest…" she muttered, her breathing sharp. A soft glow from her pocket brought her attention and Keith's attention to the feather.

Kate pulled it out of her pocket and looked it over. It was still see-through, still clear, but it was glowing softly. Entei perked up when she pulled it out to inspect it. She didn't know what it was glowing for but…

"You have the clear wing." The voice had to have come from Entei; it was deep and resonating through the cave. Keith looked from Kate to Entei and back, his eyes taking on a protective glint as they had several times before. Kate sighed and nodded to Entei, "What about it?"

"Give it to me."

Kate handed the feather to Keith who held it before Entei, warily watching still and ready to send his Buizel to attack the beast. There was a flash of light that filled the cave and two things happened.

One; The feather turned a blood red color, reminiscent of Keith's hair, and floated into the air, glowing again.

Two; A small crystal ball, reddish brown in color with small swirls of darker brown, appeared before Kate's face, and the familiar forgetting feeling returned. Kate felt the depressing thoughts of the dream with Sven disappear, leaving her with a much clearer mind. She could think things through tonight, before they left to face their next opponent the next day. Perhaps she'd tell Keith what she knew… and what she suspected.

---

Thoughts whirled around her head as she listened to Keith's uneasy breathing. He was asleep, but not very much so. She felt guilty, knowing he was getting less sleep because of her. Kate shifted slightly, waited for Keith's breathing to even out a bit, and then sat up and crawled away from him, over to her own corner. There, she hesitantly closed her eyes and began meditating.

The darkness around her came seamlessly, and soon she found herself stepping into the darkest part of her mind, figuratively. She felt her body relax into the pose subconsciously as she fell asleep.

The Dark-Kate was waiting in her chains, with Darkrai floating beside her. Kate wasn't sure whether or not to be afraid of the Pokemon anymore. Her suspicions were plain on her face and she knew it.

"Don't be afraid. You have nothing to fear of Darkrai." The Dark-Kate said softly, nodding to the motionless Pokemon. Kate shifted her gaze to the chains.

"Why are you chained…" she whispered, the sound being lost to the folds of black. She raised her voice to ask a second question, knowing that the Dark-Kate would only answer her first in a riddle anyway. "You said Darkrai is on our side."

"So he is." The Dark-Kate smiled, "He's the messenger, if you will. He keeps out of the conflict as well as he can, and serves his purpose by keeping you and Keith informed on the events as they happen. The big bad boss man only attacks people at night. Darkrai projects their minds and yours into the dark realm so you can hear their distress."

"And they know that I'm fighting for them." Kate realized, pausing to look at Darkrai again, "Okay, so he's helping us. But then why did he send me dreams of my family and friends being killed?" she hadn't forgotten about the dark dagger through her sister's chest.

"Darkrai knows what will happen to them if you fail." The Dark-Kate responded solemnly, "It's motivation for you." She looked again to the motionless figure who was simply staring at Kate. "Remember, Kate." Her doppelganger said softly, "Remember the pain you heard your first time in this place. Remember the horror of a thousand nightmares being lived again and again in the same instant."

Her eyes widened as she heard the screaming, the screaming she had pushed down so fiercely to shield herself from its pain. She dropped to her knees and shoved her hands over her ears.

"Feel the distress, and endure it." Her twin said softly again, "If you can't face this, you can't face anything that lies ahead of you. If you fail here, you won't succeed later."

The voices were loud, but the soft voice cut through them all. She remembered the tone of voice… it was the same tone her mother used before when she had broken her arm at age 7 and wanted to give up. She felt the same pain in her arm as her mother's voice filled her head.

"Kate, can you imagine what other people, what Pokemon may be going through right now? "

Those words… the words she had made sure she never forgot…

"If everyone were to give up the first time they got hurt, who would help those who were in pain?"

"Who would help those who were in pain…?" she whispered, opening her eyes and lowering her hands. "If I'm in pain from these memories, I can hardly imagine what others… what Little Sis and Isaac and Melody and everyone who's been captured… what they're going through…" she forced herself to stand and looked upward, making herself listen to the screams and cries.

If you fail here, you won't succeed later. The words that her lookalike had said… if she couldn't endure, she couldn't help.

"Thank you." She finally spoke as the screams and cries of those caught in the chaos died away, but the memory of their pain remained, "I don't think… I could have gotten this far without your help."

"You're helping yourself." The Dark-Kate grinned, "Now, break the bonds."

Kate frowned solemnly, "Not yet. I can't break this connection. If I break the bonds, I lose the messenger." She smiled, "I'll break them when this is all finished. Till then, just hang around."

"Not like I can do much else." Not-So-Dark-After-All-Kate smirked and raised her hands, showing her limited movement. The smile faded as she looked to Darkrai, "Darkrai, we're done for tonight. It's almost morning."

Darkrai nodded once before there was a flash.

Kate opened her eyes after the flash and looked around, rubbing her eyes.

"Wow…" she muttered, "I feel… refreshed." She smiled slightly before looking over to Keith, who was still asleep. "First time I didn't wake him up too. Full night's sleep, what a relief."

She stretched and tossed out one of her Partner Poke balls, letting out Cranidos before nudging Pachirisu awake inside her jacket. "Hey you two, what say we go find food for mister sleep till noon?" The pokemon were excited about this idea as the last time they had eaten was the morning before, at the Pokemon Center. Kate smiled and led them out into the burned field to search for food.

She smiled as she saw the sun, a familiar smile that had eluded her for so long. Things were going to work out, she just knew it. And nothing was going to bring her down today.


A/N: Yeah... totally stole from Pokemon Mystery Dungeon Red/Blue Rescue Team... which is not mine. I own the game but I have no rights to profit unless I sell my game, which I can't do since it's one of the only Two Pokemon games I have (Three guesses which is the other one, and the first two don't count xD).

I bet everyone has little ideas about what's gonna happen next. That last line is so easy to abuse. -abuseabuseabuse- See?

So I really have to thank phantomdare1 for -has to count- EIGHT lovely reviews, which convinced me to actually sit down and push myself past the stupid writers block I faced. Next chapter will be an inside look at the 'studio' and not an actual chapter. Sorry. Thought you'd like to see the insanity instead of angst for a bit. -is being crushed by angst blocks as I type- I know I need a break from it! So next chapter is COMPLETE AND UDDER INSANITY. AKA Comic Relief. xD

Kate: WHAT?! You never said we'd have to do a Behind the Scenes segment!

Keith: (whining) Do we have toooooo?

Me: YES! YES YOU DO. AND THERE WILL BE FLUFF.

Kate: O.O

Keith: O.O

Both: O/////O

Me: xP