"Don't worry Meissa." Rigel said to his unconscious sister as he walked quickly through the cave. "We'll get you out of here and take you to that Audino that lives in the forest, she can help."

"Are you sure we should take her to Cebalrai?" said Aludra. "What if we can't find her? We should take Meissa to my dad."

"What could Asterion do?" asked Rigel. "This is serious, she needs an Audino."

"Don't you know that Lucario can use aura to heal?" Aludra said. "I'm sure my dad knows Heal Pulse."

"What?" Rigel exclaimed. "If Lucario can heal, then why in the world are we wasting time like this when you could heal her?"

"Don't yell at me, I don't know if I can use aura well enough yet! I might end up hurting her more than helping."

"Fine, we'll take her to Asterion, but first we have to get out of here. Gauss, can you go any faster?"

"Increased movement speed unnecessary." Gauss said. "Entrance of cavern in sight."

Seeing that Gauss was right, Aludra and Rigel rushed to the cave entrance out into the light of day where Tarazed was sleeping soundly.

"Tarazed, wake up!" Rigel yelled. "Now's not the time to be sleeping!"

Tarazed jumped as Rigel spoke, and was about to get angry at him before he saw the worry on his face and Meissa in Aludra's arms. "Rigel, what happened?"

"We ran into some things down in the cave that attacked us." Rigel said. "While we were fighting, one of them got Meissa alone and..." He tried to force out the last words, but the memory of the Sableye attacking his sister caused tears to well up in his eyes and made him fall silent.

"She's bleeding, we need to bring her to my dad." Aludra said. "Otherwise she might... we need to get going. Now."

"What are we waiting for then?" Rigel said through his tears as he ran toward the forest. "Come on!"

Rigel and the others ran through the forest as quickly as possible towards Aludra's home, ignoring everything they passed as Meissa's breathing grew weaker and weaker. Rigel's mind filled with dread as the same feeling he got when Tarazed killed the Dwebble began to resurface, that feeling of sadness, fear, and pain. "No, no, this can't happen." he thought."She's got to pull through, otherwise I don't know if I can..." He tried to push the horrible feeling out of his head, but it continued to gnaw at the back of his mind as he ran.

"Rigel, something's wrong!" Aludra yelled as she felt Meissa's life energy ebbing away. "Her aura is beginning to fade, we might not make it in time!"

"Don't say that! Don't you dare say that! Try to use Heal Pulse yourself if you have to, just don't let her go!"

Aludra tried to focus her aura and transfer it to Meissa, but she couldn't concentrate and run at the same time. "Rigel I need to put her down! I can't focus like this!"

"Fine then, do whatever you have to do! The rest of us are going to get your dad!"

Aludra then set Meissa down on the ground carefully, put both hands on her, and focused more than she ever had in her life. "Come on, don't you die on me." She said as she concentrated as hard as she possibly could, willing her aura to flow into Meissa. But as much as she tried, Meissa wasn't healing.

Suddenly, just as Meissa's life energy was about to fade away completely, Aludra felt a ghastly new energy start to build up as the cloth used to bandage Meissa's wound began to darken, becoming so black that it seemed to take in and trap the surrounding light. She watched in horror as the blackness of the cloth began to flow across Meissa's body like liquid and leave a puddle of shadow on the ground around her.

"No, Meissa!" Aludra yelled as Meissa began to sink into the puddle of darkness. She tried to pull the Eevee out of the blackness, but Meissa had been completely engulfed before she got the chance. The pool of shadow then began to grow smaller as a black mass rose from the middle and solidified into the shape of a quadrapedal creature. The creature was an extremely dark purple in color, with it's head held low and obscured by what appeared to be a hood, and what looked like tattered scraps of cloth hung from spots on it's body. After the creature had formed, what was left of the black pool began circling around it's feet and formed a shape similar to the upper torso of a humanoid as mischievious laughter filled the air.

The creature looked up at the stunned Aludra, revealing two bright yellow eyes that glowed with an unnatural light. After a few seconds of glaring at Aludra, the frown on the creature's mouth turned up into a twisted smile as it spoke in a voice that chilled Aludra to the bone. "Hello Aludra. Looks like you couldn't really help me. Oh well, no hard feelings I guess."


Meet Wraitheon. No points for guessing the type.