I don't own Pokemon characters or stories! Enjoy Chapter Eight of Pokemon: Dawn's Nightmare!

Previously...

"Staraptor, use aerial ace!" Commanded a boy's voice, the room shifts in time to see Ash's Staraptor slice through Darkrai, and Ash standing in the doorway with Brock. "I won't let you hurt my friend!" He shouted to the cloud that was rematerializing into Darkrai. Dawn falls to her knees from all her fear, she manages to crawl over to Paul and cuddle with him, he puts an arm around her.

"I haven't broke my promise." He whispered to her, then glances at the reformed Darkrai slaughtering Ash's team. He let's her go as he rises to face Darkrai.

"What are you doing?" She asked as he walks to Darkrai, giving no answer. "No... NO, PAUL! Please!" She screams and Darkrai faces her and dematerializes and charges her for the one chance to possess her. Paul leaps on her, still facing Darkrai, he ends up absorbing Darkrai's body instead, causing him to collapse instantly across Dawn's lap. She collects his limp body and sobs loudly.

"Nooo! Please no, this can't be happening! Paul, wake up!" She shakes him, but he doesn't move.

Chapter 8: Is This Nightmare Really Over?

"I...I-I..." Dawn can't even finish her sentence with Paul's body across her legs, he was dead and it was all her fault... The thoughts raced through her mind of things she could've done differently. She had caused the love of her life to die. Ash walks up to her and takes her in arms, she needed someone to cry on. Dawn buried her head in his shirt, but his scent only made her emotions worse. She burst into tears, soaking Ash's jacket and shirt. She pushed him away and ran outside, locking herself in the house beside the exit to Iron Island's cave. Ash and Brock run out to catch her, but after many hours, they give up and leave their grief-stricken friend by herself.

"Elleia..." A whisper hovers in the air and Dawn wakes up in her room not knowing why she was crying or how she got home.

"Piplup, let's go train!" She said cheerfully, with a crackling voice because of the hours she'd cried for a reason, Dawn couldn't put her finger on it. The moment she stepped out of her home she felt a familiar chill, but she dissmissed it as nothing.

"Togekiss, spotlight!" She commanded, but not with her usual enthusiasm. She didn't know what had happened to herself, her spark for pokemon was gone. She trained, but it just seemed to lag on. She just kept these feelings to herself, and went on a journey alone. To rediscover her mysterious past, something she didn't even recall.

Back on Iron Island

Paul's body lie on the ground, it seems like he is dead for the longest moment... That is until his eyes jolt open, in a bright red fashion.

"What a fool! It's time for my nightmare to become everyone's reality... especially the girl." A possessed Paul smirked an evil grin and walked back out to the field and collected his pokemon without saying a word to them. He goes to the league for the championship and, gives trainers nightmares about not winning which caused many of them not to sleep well enough to give their battles a hundred and ten percent. This is how he planned to take the championship from Cynthia and be knee deep in many of the region's catastrope's, he will be everyone's hero, and in a flash he'll turn on them. His dream of a world in peril inside of the nightmare world would be recognized.

Paul would snap in and out of conciousness, he began to learn how to control Darkrai. He kept himself from getting into the semi-finals of the Sinnoh league at any and all costs. The league eventually awarded him a gym, he chose Canalave City, it was away from the mainlands, and all people, to set up his gym on Iron Island... Not many people go there anymore. Just pokemon trainers looking for a gym badge, he defeated most of them. He chose to devote his entire mind to supressing Darkrai, that's just what it took to keep him from conrolling Paul. Paul may not have spoken much before, but that was nothing compared to now, he rarely even spoke to his challengers.

Back to Dawn

With Dawn, things weren't much different... Her journeys were a temporary thing. She would travel for about two months was her record, but memories that she couldn't gather kept her from staying longer. What is worse, this year's Grand Festival is being held at the former Canalave City Gym... It gave her chills, she didn't know why. Boys were another problem, they would look at her, she has grow up so beautiful. They would flirt, and it would disgust her. She did a few magazine shoots because she rarely lost a contest. She assumed it was her new-found creativity and competitiveness. Dawn was a driven contest warrior, and no one could stop her. It became increasingly harder to be one of her pokemon, only her original pokemon seemed to live up to her high standards. There were a few pokemon that she'd find to serve her brilliant purpose as a top coordinator.

Three years into the ins and outs of Dawn's journeys, A boy moved in and began to take a deep interest in her rehursals. It took her a while to remember his name... Brayden. He reminded her of Barry, he could get a big head, and was always in a hurry. His biggest passion was pokemon... and Dawn's amazing creativity. He dreamed about being a coordinator as feirce as her one day when he was allowed to have pokemon to train with.

"Just three more years until I can carry my own pokemon! Then I can battle you for real, and not borrow your pokemon." Brayden always told her, and she'd just chuckle.

"We'll see." She'd reply. When she'd leave on her journeys, that he'd notice didn't last long, he'd be the first to greet her.

"Welcome back, Dawn!" Brayden said warmly. Something about his style, when Dawn would watch she became interested in his style. The way he would battle his pokemon pushed something out of her, she just had to get out and go on a journey to discover why Brayden's battle style fasinated her. Until then, she'd just have to keep going down this road and see where it takes her.

I hope you enjoyed Dawn's Nightmare, to find out what happen's next in the story read Pokemon: Coordinating Rivalries. Your reviews are always welcome. Thanks for reading!