*Another week, another chapter! :O Though... Most of my attention has been focused on my Nuzlocke recently. :X However, I'm still writing this. :3 I'm on Chapter 18! :D XD Once I finish the story, I think I'll post at a faster rate. ^^ Now onto the chapter!*

Chapter 12

Ruby was panting when he entered the cave- a long day of hard training in the merciless sun had left him exhausted and covered in sweat. It had been worth it though- the increase in his Pokemon's strength and even his own was clearly evident. At the very least, he was much more lucid, and confident than before. Blood red rays of light cast their dying glare across the rock walls, almost making it seem as if actual blood had been splattered against them, painting it a dark crimson red. It was an ominous welcome.

Throughout the day, the Pokemon he had on hand had obeyed him well, though it was obvious that there was something they were holding back. They had been hesitant taking his commands, one tempo too slow as he fell into the rhythm of battling, letting the desire to win and confidence in his strength wash over him. That was strange- they were his Pokemon, weren't they? That was what Rei said at least. They should have been doing what he told them without pausing. At least they were strong enough to make up for what they lacked.

He had been hoping that spending time with his Pokemon would bring back a flashback at the very least, but all he had recovered from his memory was static. A clean, white slate, free of markings or blemishes. It hadn't even felt familiar to command them into battle, to give a curious stroke of their fur, to compliment when they did well or scold them when they messed up. They were foreign to him, just like everything else. They seemed to know him though, and he felt a slight guilt at being unable to respond to their recognition of him.

I wish I could remember something… Something that I actually think, not something that Rei told me… After all, how do I even know he's telling the truth? he wondered, a question he had been pondering all day, ever since Rei had dissipated into the air and left him to train. Most of his theories pointed to 'Yes'. There was just something unnerving and untrustworthy about Rei, and his doubts had grown exponentially, to the point where he wanted to either hide in the thick forests in the middle of the island or attempt to swim off the shore.

Except he had felt as if he were being watched the whole day, making it impossible to get off with getting stopped. He had even caught flashes of pale gold glinted off light, white-blond hair, chilling silver eyes hidden in dark shadows, heard the swish of an obsidian black cloak across the ground, alerting him to Rei's presence. He couldn't escape. So no matter what, he had no choice but to follow orders, didn't he? The truth, the lies- they didn't matter in the slightest. There was no way he could follow what his doubts told him to do.

Ruby had to blink a couple of times to adjust to the darkness, as the sun was almost completely set now- his eyes had become accustomed to the bright sunlight of day, and the inky darkness of the cave was just a sea of endless black, individual shapes impossible to make out, all blending into the cavern walls. But once his eyes adjusted, he could see in the shadows, the faint lights of night painting pale blue streaks into the cave, finding Rei's still form standing in the middle of the tunnel, staring straight at him, gaze unwavering. Rei could have been a statue for how still he stood- except for the eyes, which were most definitely alive. Ruby shivered- those intense, chilling silver eyes were terrifying.

"It took you long enough." Rei's voice echoed through the cavern, making it louder and more powerful than it was already, amplifying the authority it wielded, even though he had only spoken at normal volume. It was the kind of voice that filled you up with either the fire of rebellion or the obedience of a loyal servant, the command of a king- the very sound made Ruby straighten up, alert for the next words, not wanting to miss even a single letter, fearful of what would follow disobedience. For now at least, he had to act as the loyal servant. "Come. We might as well get this over with."

Rei beckoned with his right hand, and Ruby walked over to where the older man was standing, silent and unquestioning, head bent in submission, though his eyes were questioning and prideful, unyielding to the dominating force, the fire of rebellion. Rei smiled. That always made things much more interesting.

"Aren't you curious about the plans, Ruby?" he asked, silver eyes flashing, the question sounding almost rhetorical, as if he didn't expect the boy to answer. "Wouldn't you like to know what lies ahead for you?"

Ruby's instincts screamed "Run, flee! Danger, danger, danger!"but he remained right by Rei's side, still quiet. He was curious- but the man had asked in a way that seemed to demand silence, merely talking to fill the quiet. However, Rei's slightly irritated glance at Ruby's held tongue warned him that this was not the case.

"Kind of. But there's no way out of it, is there?" replied Ruby quietly, voice swelling with distrust. In the morning, he had felt more confident about Rei's intentions, but as he had become more lucid, he had started thinking, and thinking always leads to questions, which leads to doubts. "I'm going to have to do it whether I want to or not, won't I? So there's no point in me doing anything."

"Wise answer. You will have to go through it, like it or not. You seem to be quite hostile- this morning you were very amicable. Had a bad day?" teased Rei, voice now cold and chilling, the joke sounding like a threat. "Thought things through a little bit?"

"Kind of. I have no reason to trust you, because the only information and knowledge I have comes from you. But you're the only one who I know and I think you could easily crush me if I disobey you." Ruby was tense after confessing his thoughts, wondering how Rei would react- would he be angry, when just eight hours earlier he had basically commanded Ruby to trust him?

But the only way to describe his expression was 'amused'. No better word existed to describe the sly curl to his smirk and strange glint in his steely eyes. "I'm glad you took my lesson to heart. But you won't need them unless you survive."

They had walked into an open cavern now, when the stone ceiling above had collapsed to reveal the sky, a dark blue, covered in stars like black silk with glitter thrown on top. Ruby could hear droplets of water falling and hitting the ground, and he could feel heat filtering in from below. "Water and fire..." he murmured, tapping his foot nervously. "If I survive... What are you planning to do?"

"Wait. The moon has to be shining into this cave before the ceremony can begin. We also need the presence of two others- the legendary Pokemon, Groudon and Kyogre," Rei informed him, tilting his head towards the sky. "The moon will reach the edge of the sky we see in a few minutes- it's time to summon them."

Rei whistled, a high-pitched ringing noise that reverberated off the rocky walls, into the night sky, and instantly, two wild, feral roars chorused with the dying echos. Two pairs of loud stomps quickly approached, and Ruby could hear them steadily getting louder, feel stone raining on his shoulder from the forces above. His heart rate escalated in terror- what could lie in store for him?

Rei's hand clamped around his arm the moment he'd made up his mind to flee, effectively holding him in place. "I'm not letting you go now. Soon, I'll have total control over the two legendary beasts of earth and sea. Thanks to your services, Ruby. And as I've said so many times before- I hope you survive."

Ruby jumped back as a knife was slashed towards him, the blade barely an inch from his arm as it swung by, the displaced air feeling like a powerful wind as he gasped in surprise. He landed lightly on his feet, glaring at Rei, who clutched the knife in his right hand, smirking.

"Amazing reflexes, Ruby. I didn't expect you to jump back so fast- but a fight is always more interesting, isn't it?" Rei charged forward, almost too quick to see, but Ruby sidestepped with the same speed, his battle reflexes taking command of him.

Red flashes of light lit up the cavern with fire for a moment as Ruby released his Pokemon, glaring guardedly at Rei. "If a fight is what you want, you're not going to be disappointed!" shouted Ruby, crimson eyes shining ferociously. "Gardevoir, use Psychic!"

"Predictable," sighed Rei, his Gengar suddenly emerging from his shadow, blocking the blast with its own psychic powers. "Gengar, Shadow Ball!"

"Gardevoir, use your own Shadow Ball!" Ruby countered, and Ruru released a ball of pulsing purple light that swallowed the other whole, pushing forward at a rapid speed that the Gengar couldn't avoid, and the combined power of the two Shadow Balls easily knocked it out. "Was that predictable? If I lived after being stabbed by you, how would you possibly expect me to follow you?"

"Watch out behind you," replied Rei, smiling, returning his Gengar without a second glance at his fainted Pokemon. "Shame you wasted your time on contests. With more practice, I'm sure you'd be better at battling."

Ruby turned back to be buffeted in the face with a strong gust of wind, pushing him backwards, as if a hurricane were battering him. Ruru let out a shriek as the Salamence scored its sharp claws across her body, turning to face Ruby, knocking the boy onto the ground with a swift hit of its wings. In another second, its foot was upon his chest, pressing down so hard that Ruby thought his ribs would break, and its mouth opened, and he could see the fire building up in the back of his throat, the sparking embers starting to turn a bright, glowing white-

"Enough, Salamence. I know you have your grudges, but the ceremony won't work if he dies before I get his blood, and then how am I supposed to control the two legendary Pokemon?" asked Rei angrily, and the Salamence snarled as it stepped off of Ruby, leaving him breathing hard and unable to move. Ruby suspected the Salamence had perhaps broken a bone. "In a situation like this, you can't expect someone to play fair. Playing dirty is one of the greatest tricks in the game. If you play fair, you lose. It's as simple as that," he said, bending down so close that Ruby could feel his cold breath on his face. "Shame that you didn't realize that."

Ruby closed his eyes as Rei brought the knife down, trying to hold back his scream of pain as it tore into his arm, unwilling to let the man hear his suffering. Instead, what came out was a soft gasp, a grunt almost, and Rei looked somewhat impressed. "A tough one, eh? That's good, that's good. The odds of your survival just increased yet again. I'm quite surprised- from how you usually acted, I wouldn't have thought you were very strong at all. Good thing this memory loss allowed me to see your real strength."

"W-why?" Ruby wheezed, struggling to keep from screaming, drawing blood from his lip, which he had been biting to keep back the screams.

"The red orb and blue orb were created from blood, blood from a controller of Groudon and Kyogre respectively. I would have the orbs instead, however, they were destroyed five years ago," answered Rei, completely unfazed by the teenage boy bleeding out in front of him. He took out a flask and collected some of Ruby's blood, smiling at the suffering boy, taking in pleasure at the gruesome scene. "I need your blood to draw the sealing circles that will force Groudon and Kyogre to recreate the Red and Blue orbs. Unfortunately, there's not enough blood in your body to recreate both- but luckily enough-" Rei slashed Ruby's other arm as well, and Ruby let out a weak scream as his blood welled out, staining the ground as the sunlight of the setting sun had stained the stone walls. "We can make an orb that controls both at the same time- the Amethyst Orb. To answer your previous question, your blood will bind you to this orb as well- I should have some control over your actions. I don't need your loyalty- I only need you to be my puppet to trick those little friends of yours. I don't trust them running around and ruining my plans."

Through all the pain, Ruby could still feel himself becoming lightheaded from the loss of blood, the blood that was still pouring out in wide rivulets across his skin, the blood that Rei was using to seal Groudon and Kyogre. The two legendary Pokemon were completely still the moment the first drop of blood was splattered onto the ground beneath them, frozen like statues as Rei began to draw on the cave floor.

"According to legend, I was supposed to use the blood from your heart to create the orb," Rei said nonchalantly, as if he were discussing the time of day instead of how he should have killed Ruby instead of critically injuring him. "When the first two orbs were made, the two people who had managed to stop the two Pokemon with the help of Rayquaza sacrificed their lives to give the future generations a way to control the two beasts. But stabbing you in the heart would leave you useless to me in the future, and it'd just give me a corpse to bury. Too troublesome in my opinion."

Ruby simply lay prone on the ground, wishing the pain would stop, opening his eyes as he watched Rei add the finishing touches to the circle he had created, taking another dab of blood for one final stroke. The circle began to glow a vivid red, then blue, then white, and the chorus of Groudon's and Kyogre's unified screams pierced the cave, deafening him.

Where darkness had reigned only a moment ago, light replaced it, too bright for Ruby's eyes to take, and he felt blinded, eyes closing. The abundance of pain, the loss of his hearing and sight was too much, and he collapsed, unable to hold out any longer.

In Rei's hand was a small, dark-lilac colored orb, smeared with the blood that stained his fingers. He was smiling, smiling wickedly, on the verge of laughter. It had been easy, this easy to obtain the power he needed. Power simply flowed through the orb in his hand, but he wasn't about to use it yet. There was another potentially valuable playing piece that was dying at his feet. Now I have all the power I need… This is for you and me, Amethyst…

*Time for Review Replies! The regular reviewers didn't really review this time... And I think one of the people who reviewed doesn't know what Pokemon Adventures is. :/

just-a-chic: It's not odd that Ruby is a guy- that's kind of his official name. Like- given by the author of the manga and stuff. If you haven't read the manga yet, go and read it, because it's f-ing amazing. Mind telling me what needs improvement?

Venomeon: It was great to see you here, Noel. :3 Glad you took the time to read!

More reviews next time, please? *puppy eyes* I'll write faster, I promise!*