Ray's POV

"So… you could have sent me home this whole time, huh?" I asked, almost a little too casually. I guess I could afford to be casual, considering I had the power in the immediate situation. Emerald was on my back, so I could drop her at any time if I really wanted to, and maybe this time I wouldn't pick her back up. Maybe I would just let her fall. We were quite a ways behind the others, so we could have a nice private conversation. At the same time, the others were still in my sights, so I wasn't about to get lost, either. Emerald didn't answer for a few moments, probably scared to answer, or lost in her own thoughts. Always lost in her own little world. Who cared about others? Certainly not her. "Huh?" I repeated, jerking a little in the air just to make sure she was really paying attention. She gave a little yelp. There she was.

"Is this… really the time to talk about that?" She asked. She was probably still hung up on what we had just learned about the kingdom. Royal armies killing left and right, huh? It just added to a long list of reasons I needed to get out of here, out of this world and back to mine, back to Mel. I missed her warm body against mine, her kind words, kind nature. She was always so considerate. It made me disgusted with the girl I actually had on my back.

"Yes." I said, simply. "First you said you didn't know how to send me back, and now I find out you could have done it the entire time."

"No, I can't." Emerald said. I wished I could look her in the eyes, make her look me in the eyes when she said that, make her understand the full weight of what she was saying to me.

"Yes you can. I remember what happened in that world with the blood. They made you tell the truth. You can, and you always could. You just don't want to." I could hear the intense bitterness in my voice, and to be honest it scared me a little, but it was honest. I would not backpedal or apologize on this. This was how I felt, and Emerald needed to know that.

"…My magic. I worked so long for it. It would be gone forever… no way to get any back, to live without magic for the rest of my life… nobody would ever accept me."

"Your magic? My kingdom! My wife! Sorry to break it to you, princess, but your magic doesn't really amount to much. You have used it exactly once during my entire time with you, and it was the same stupid trick you used to yank me from my life in the first place. I'm willing to bet you did just fine without magic before, because you've been doing fine without doing any magic now! Your magic is useless." I vented to her. It was harsh, but warranted. She thought, she honestly thought the two needs were equal.

"You don't under-"

"I don't understand?! No, I think you don't understand. I was ready to be your partner, I was so ready. I trained for it for years. I would have done just about anything for you. I was excited, too, you know? I was ready to take a princess and go protect the skies… I was ready for that. And then you made me wait for five years-"

"That isn't my fault!" She protested, I violently flung her, she hold on, a little too tight. I couldn't let that stop me. I wasn't finished yet.

"Which would have been fine, too. You made me wait and wait, and then I gave up on waiting and moved on. I reclaimed the life I had given up to be a chosen one, to be with one of you. Then, just when a new chapter in my life was about to begin… a husband and a king for my people… THAT'S when you decide to finally get just barely good enough with your magic to tear me out of my life." I could feel the bitterness inside of me growing, something growing in me, a heat, a rage. "I wasted my entire life, because of you."

That shut her up for a while. We flew in tense silence. There was another thing too, as it turns out, the position of chosen one… all it got you here was the "privilege" of killing multitudes of innocent people, making the whole thing a farce. It wasn't the king Mewtwo's fault, of course, or the council's. I was pretty sure they didn't know what exactly happened to us when we went over to this world. It wasn't like people came back. When I got back, I was going to tell them, and I was going to stop this whole chosen one thing. It was designed to help the world, but instead corrupt human royalty were using us chosen ones to kill.

I had to wonder… what my friends were like now. We had bonded during our training. I had become especially close with the Groudon and Kyogre, they were cool guys, even if they did fight quite a bit. I would always mediate, though, and we would come out of it better friends than ever. I wondered what their lives were like now? Hm… we were trained to go along with our human partner. We had our own opinions, of course, but it wouldn't surprise me if they were influenced by their princesses. When I thought about that, I was glad I was not with any of those girls. Although, maybe I would not feel the same way if I actually had been assigned… bonded, to one of those girls. Maybe I wouldn't even feel like what they were feeling. Maybe I would think they were in the right. Blood for power, huh? No, no matter what way I sliced it, that wasn't right and it would never be right.

I thought I could hear crying… was Emerald crying. It was over the wind, so I wasn't quite sure I could actually hear it, but I thought I heard her. I couldn't really turn around to check her face, but I would go under the assumption that she did have the audacity to cry right now. Not from the body, not from the nightmare… well, wait, had she been crying then? There were streaks on her face, but it seemed like it wasn't tears… more like… ink or something. Anyways, none of the actual horrible stuff that had happened within the last day or so, I couldn't tell anymore. No, no she was crying because I was yelling at her and not just quietly sitting and dealing with her… her utter idiocy.

"Really?" I asked.

"Just… just shut up and fly, huh?" She said, she was definitely weepy. Wow, that was just about the worst thing she could have said to me. I was… wow, I couldn't believe it, I was actually seeing red. I didn't think that was an actual thing that could happen. Also, I was so unbelievably angry it seemed I did a complete turn around and my face froze. I wasn't emoting at all. I was scaring myself, just a bit, but I really didn't care right now, I really couldn't make myself care. I didn't care I didn't care.

I thrashed violently. Emerald tried to hold on, squeezing my neck, but that only made me panic more, thrash about more violently until I knocked her off me. I continued to fly over towards Strider and the old coot, towards the Flygon. It seemed they hadn't noticed what was going on. I wasn't going to call their attention to it. Yes, Emerald was still attached to me by the tether, but now that the tether was longer, she didn't have to be on my back. She could swim in the ocean, that would be just fine with me. I really didn't care. She wasn't going to die that way, so I didn't care. It might hurt me a bit when she hit the water, but it was worth it.

Yep, there it was, a tinge of pain and the sensation of plunging downward, even though I was still flying high in the air. We could feel an echo of each other's pain. It was worth it to make her hurt, to hurt her. She hurt me, so why in the world not pay back the favor she so kindly gave to me. I couldn't actually have cared less about her. I would drag her through the ocean, I did not care.

Finally it was quiet. I breathed in and out deeply a few times. My eyes were still seeing red, even though I was calming down. Was something wrong, then? Either with the world or with my perception. Who could say who could say? I did not see them reacting at all, and they seemed to get further away. I went faster but they seemed to get further away, until I was alone in the dark sky. What? What what what what? This again? Was this happening again? The affliction, was this the affliction, was this because I dropped her, but, but I was in the right she ruined me, surely I would not get punished for that.

No, no, I could not let myself fall down this rabbit hole again. Wait, rabbit hole? What in the word was a rabbit hole and why was that the image that popped into my head. What was a rabbit and why did it have a hole you could fall down?

What if I just killed her, just got it over with. That would surely break the tether, break my bonds my prison bonds, bonded to this world, bonded to her. I wanted to get out, I wanted to get out, this word was awful, this world was the worst thing I couldn't stay here. My breathing got heavy, in and out, in and out. Quickly, too quickly. What was this? Was this death? Was I going to die? Was the affliction, the curse, the disease, was it all worthless, all deadly. Dead, I was dead, inside I was dead. Even worse, my life had never begun, she stole it from me, killed me, so why not return the favor.

Why not… return… the favor…

Because I wasn't about to contribute to the darkness of this world. I was not going to kill her. I did not want to kill her. She made me angry, and if I could ditch her, leave her behind forever, I would do that at a moment's notice. But right now, I was stuck at least somewhat near her. I would stay nearby, up until the point the old man taught us to be far, far apart. Then, when that happened, I would leave. She couldn't do a whole lot without me, and if she could do without me, she didn't need me in the first place, and she could send me home where I was needed. I uh… I thought about what I would do when we could be far apart. I thought about maybe … finding a life, a purpose here. But no, that meant I was giving up on Mel, didn't it? Plus, if I did make myself a life, I had absolutely no doubt in my mind that Emerald would find a way to ruin that too with her selfish ways. She was just that kind of person. I sighed heavily. What was I going to do? I couldn't… I couldn't force her to send me back. I wanted to go, I wanted to be free, free of this world.

Why was this world so dark, why blood in return for power. Why did sacrifice strengthen magic so much? I didn't use magic, only humans used magic… and some Pokemon, I guessed. It was something outside of our biology, and most of our powers came from our biology, not an outside force. Magic, as I understood it, was magnifying the energy of the world and concentrating it through your body. So I guessed, um, the energy of another's life was pretty powerful, and then that, in turn, made the magic powerful? I did not know how it worked, and I was pretty sure Emerald didn't know anything about this stealing a life to strengthen magic. Strengthen magic… the stronger he magic was, the strong I became. Energy, power transferred over the tether. So, if the dark court had really powerful magic… that would explain why the guy with the Rattatta beat us so absolutely. That was not a fun memory, incredibly embarrassing, really. It was because he had such strong magic, because he killed. If that was what it took to be strong, I could stand to stay weak. That was not worth the power.

Or was it, if that meant I could get home. Forsake the people of this world so I could go home to my people, to save my people, so they didn't have to come over here under the rule of corruption. Become the corruption in order to insure nobody else had to. That was… a very romantic idea, and something inside me burned with it, and burned to do something with all this pent up rage. Maybe that was why they did it, to take out their aggressions on this absolute mess of a world. Yes, the castle and the surrounding area, what Strider called the capital, was nice, but out here… everything seemed awful. Why was there that shining city… in a world so awfully full of darkness?

Speaking of darkness, I still couldn't see the others. What in the world was this? It was really annoying, was what it was. I couldn't tell if things were really happening or not. They could still actually be there, I could be right near them and yet my mind said otherwise. Or, there could be a dark cloud that was legitimately obscuring them from view, and I had no way of telling the difference.

A hand grabbed on to me. What? I squirmed. Was this real? It didn't matter, it was real enough to me, and then darkness, and then something hit my head hard, and my consciousness was gone.

Have an awesome day!