Emerald's POV

"No need to shove our guests." The guy with the black cloak said. His voice was deep and resonant, and I had never heard it before. I… I knew I hadn't seen everything in this kingdom, but this was my family. Unless it was some sort of clone? That would be a crazy twist, but I was pretty sure there wasn't cloning technology, so I had to assume this was in fact my family. So who were the rest of these people, and what were they doing here?

"Apologies, my dark king." A guy said, one of the guys I had never seen before. Everyone's reaction to seeing me here was… mixed. Some looked annoyed, outright disgusted, or, even… a little sad? At least, that was what I thought. It was possible it was all just in my imagination, the room was not very well lit. I thought at first, because I couldn't see that well, it might actually not be my family, and maybe I heard wrong. But no, I was very much right. Their Pokemon were with them. It could be nobody else.

"May I?" My mother stepped forward, her and her Cresselia. Her voice sounded strange. I couldn't exactly put my finger on it. She was different somehow. She sounded… shallow, maybe? I wasn't exactly sure what she was doing, or what exactly was the change, what was causing it. Was she… somehow… not her, right now? Some sort of fake, some sort of show? No, my mind was going off the rails a little bit. I needed some more information before I jumped to a lot of conclusions about the situation. The cloaked figure nodded over to my mom, and she stepped forward. Something was very wrong. My mother was not one to take orders from anyone. She was her own woman. She didn't even let her husband order her around. So why did she wait to step forward until she got permission from this guy.

"Emerald, my dear-"

"What's going on, mom? You guys are sort of freaking me out, you know." I laughed nervously, but nobody seemed to be laughing along. I looked backwards at Ray for any kind of support. He was looking back and forth between the figures warily. He sensed danger, and so did I. But, it was my family. A lot of them teased me and made me feel horrible about myself, but they weren't a danger. So then… what was I feeling?

"I know this must be strange for you, but in actuality, I am glad you found us. Now that you have Ray with you, and some magic, you can officially join the court." She said. What were the words she was saying? The… court?

"I'm already a part of the court. I- I'm a princess." I stuttered because, before I even finished my sentence, I was cut off by laughter. They were laughing at me, my sisters and the others. Who even were they? Were they citizens I hadn't seen? What in the world was going on here? Only my parents and the dark hood guy didn't laugh.

"This is the court that runs the kingdom, dear." Mom said. "And this is our dark king." Mom said with a completely straight face. I burst out laughing, which, ironically, made everyone else stop laughing.

This was… what was this? It was ridiculous was what it was…absolutely ridiculous. A dark king, a shadow court, sounded like something out of a fairy tale, a story. Something that couldn't possibly be reality. They all had straight faces, though.

"His power is not to be taken lightly. I am part of his court. Together, we run this kingdom." My dad said. Wait, was this where he was all the time? With this weird guy in a hood? Was that why he was neve around, and all my sisters. Heh, if that was the truth… no wonder I didn't feel like I fit in with the rest of the family. How often did they gather together like this? How much time did they all spend together without me? I felt a poke on the back, and turned to Ray. He gestured over to the people who just so happened to have cut off our exit. Welp. That wasn't a good sign. What was happening that they did not want us to escape? Was this some sort of trap, some weird punishment for sneaking out at night? If it was that… they were being weirdly specific about it. Something was very wrong with my family. I did not feel safe, right now, but I could not run. So, instead, I stalled for more time, more information.

"Then why even bother to have the normal court?" I asked, my voice shaking a little.

"Appearances. I don't think some of our citizens would accept the dark king, even though he created this place." Dad said. So what he was saying was that he was just a figurehead, someone who acted like king while someone else was actually pulling the strings. That didn't sit right with me. No, that was an understatement, that pissed me off! My dad worked hard for all his citizens. But he wasn't even in charge, this other guy was? And who was he, anyways? Who was this mysterious man in the hood? The Shadow King? What even was that? It sounded so fake, like something a kid pretending would come up with.

"And what's this about making a group on the western shores disappear?" Ray asked. Oh, ok, that was a little reckless, now wasn't it? I was planning on sort of building up to that one. I knew I wasn't one to be talking about recklessness. I was as reckless as they came, just… now did not seem like the time. Every muscle in my body was tense. I felt the seconds tick by, it felt like an eternity. Were they not answering, or had time just slowed in my mind. Or, alternatively, Diamond was messing with me again, making my perception of time all wonky on purpose. My sisters were laughing again, and the people behind us made a tighter loop around us. If there had been any way to run around them before, the opportunity was gone now. This wasn't good at all. Was I… Was I about to die or something? Life have just begun for me, my place in this world… my place in the world had only just been established. Or was it? Was this the world I was trying to be a part of? My mother shifted uncomfortably, my father looked over at the hooded figure, and the hooded figure stepped forward to speak.

"This world is ruled by magic, and I can grant you powerful magic. I invite you into my court, Emerald. Please accept the invitation." He said.

"You didn't answer the question." I said, stalling, That was quite the question, and not one I really wanted to answer yet. I had the feeling neither answer woud go very well. This world was ruled by magic. I knew that already, that was why I had been trying so hard for so long to get any sort of magical ability. It meant everything in the world. But… what did that have to do with some shadow court? What did that have to do with lying to our people? It didn't matter if this was 'for the best' or whatever half baked excuse that they could come up with, they were lying to the people, or they were lying to me, neither of those were ok.

"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. There is only so much power in the world." The hooded figure said. "If you want more than that, you must join us. Pledge loyalty to me, the true king, and we shall welcome you."

My face twitched. This felt like a weird dream, a really weird dream. Was I still asleep, secretly? I would wake up in the castle, everything just as normal as ever. I closed my eyes, in hopes that that might happen. Instead, I heard Ray's voice… trembling, ever so slightly, or was that my imagination, or was this whole thing my imagination? No, my imagination had never cooked up anything like this before, besides, typically when you imagine something, you had to actually imagine it on purpose. There was no way I would make something like this in my mind on purpose.

"So… if I'm hearing this correctly, and correct me if I'm wrong… you are going to make some people disappear… in order to boost your own power?" Ray asked. I heard him snarl behind me, that was a new noise. I hoped my family did not see me flinch. I wasn't afraid of my own familiar, I had just never heard that noise before, and it came out of nowhere. "No, I refuse to answer to any king with that kind of doctrine. It's just the opposite, sacrifice your own power to give to your people. I will never support death at the altar of power." Ray said. That was really well said. He had a strong opinion about this, huh? He had strong principles. I could respect that. And since he has already spoken, and we would be considered one unit, it was already too late for me to make any attempt to finesse my way out of there.

"I agree." I said simply. All eyes were on me, stern and judgmental. I felt extreme malice coming from all directions. Were we about to die?

"I ask you to reconsider." My mother said, a soothing voice in all this, although something about it was still strange, hollow, something did not ring true, and it frightened me. "Now that you know, we cannot let you leave without becoming part of the court and swearing your life to secrecy."

No, that was the exact phrase I did not want to hear falling from the lips of my mother. I knew what that meant… join or die… or be severely hurt or stopped in some way. I looked back at Ray and we locked eyes. This was just about the first thing we agreed on, not killing people. It was sort of ridiculous that THAT was the kind of situation that was necessary to rally us together. The look in his eyes told me that he wouldn't back down, and he wouldn't let me back down either. I spoke for the two of us.

"The answer is no." I said, with as much firmness of resolve in body and mind as I could muster. Everyone around me seemed to darken, their intent became much more malicious. They got into strange poses, perhaps a fighting stance, or perhaps a position in which to do powerful magic.

"Wait, my lord, may I deal with this? I wish to demonstrate your power." Some guy I had never seen said. They all turned to look at the cloaked figure, who seemed to pause to consider the man's proposition.

"You may proceed." The dark king said, after a little bit of thought. I could almost feel a smirk on his face, right now, even though his face was completely hidden in shadow.

The man stepped forward, and the ring spread out around us a little, but it didn't feel any less restrictive, like we were caught in a noose, tightening, te ground under our feet about to disappear, our necks about to snap. This sudden wash of impending doom. I had never felt anything like it in my life.

"We're going to have to fight our way out." I whispered to Ray, although I wasn't sure why I bothered to do that, they could all clearly hear me. My sisters were here, any of them could have taken us on, but the shadow king chose this guy. What was his familiar? He was no royal, so it could not be a legendary, perhaps Dragonite or something, a really strong dragon.

I heard a scurrying on the ground. His familiar was a Rattatta. Wait, what? Was he kidding me? Ray could squish that thing with his claws, while tied in a giant knot like the green noodle he was. Ray seemed to have a similar reaction. He was laughing, although I thought it was mostly to try and cut some of the tension, which was overwhelming right now.

But then he stopped laughing as he was knocked backwards into the opposite wall… by Rattatta attacking him. I stared at him for a second, dumbfounded. There was no way that should have been possible… unless… his magic prowess was incredibly high, connected to his familiar, which made him strong. But to make a Rattatta that powerful would take some truly miraculous magic prowess, more powerful than any other citizen I had ever seen, plus several members of the royal family. That wasn't right. A citizen should not be more powerful than a member of the royal family. Something strange was going on here. We were born with higher magical powers, but he was not… and yet his Rattatta… had knocked Ray on whatever his version of a butt was.

Once Ray recovered from the shock, he threw himself into the fray. A bit of a prideful one, wasn't he? Not to be beaten by such a normally puny Pokemon, although they had aleady proved something was different. Their fight moved across the entire cave area, and I saw our chance. The circle had broken when the fight broke out, and we were attached, so I ran and ran, and dragged Ray with me.

We went back through the cave, twisting and turning. These people were trying to kill us, and these people were my family? I couldn't wrap my head around what was happening, it was all too fast, everything… everything. What was I going to do? My first instinct was to run home, across the lake, to hide. My family and the guard could protect me… except they were the ones who were after us right now.

So, what would we do? I turned my gem light off so that they at least couldn't follow us quite as easily. But, that meant that we couldn't really see, either. Well, I couldn't really see, at least. I had no idea what Ray's night vision was like. I groped in the darkness, letting my sense of touch guide me. It didn't guide me very well. We were in complete darkness, we came to an opening, maybe the opening we had been in before. No, this was not the Oracle's chamber. If it was, I would have heard the water, felt the carvings in the floor with my feet. We were in another opening. That meant… we were lost.

And still, we heard the scurrying of the super powered Rattatta and the guy with him, his heavy breathing. Heh, maybe he had a lot of magical prowess, somehow… more than a guy like that should. That was the kind of power you only saw in the royal family. Who was this guy? Anyways, he had a lot of magical prowess, but that didn't make a whole lot of a difference when it came to running through a cave. I wanted no part of fighting them. If a little rat could throw back and overwhelm a seven foot dragon, I really did not want to see what it could do to a human.

And eventually, the sounds faded. They gave up, or at least retreated for now, and let us be. Was this a permanent thing? Probably not. We would have to deal with that again, I knew it. For now, though… for now, we were safe.

Er, well, safe was a relative term. We were completely lost in the catacombs. I knew my way about most of the caves found here, but I had never been in this specific set of tunnels before. We didn't have a lot of time, either. I didn't bring any food, because I thought this would be a quick trip, and then back to the castle. There were very few supplies. I had only a few tools to help with exploration. One of those was the gem light. Thankfully, that didn't really run out of energy. It would have to do as our only light. I turned it on and saw we were in a small tunnel. There must have been a water source somewhere nearby, because the rocks were damp. Well, I wanted to be free of this place, go out and explore with Ray. Now I would.

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