Next morning:-
Leo's point of view:
I woke up and then woke Lucas up. "Morning," I said. Will and Italia woke up too and stood up to leave for our journey.
"How far is this mountain anyway?" I asked Lucas. "I don't know exactly but it's at the end of this wilderness," he answered. Italia was walking ahead of us and I stared after her. I picked up a stick and kept throwing it to her Mightyena to fetch it. The Pokémon really seemed to enjoy playing.
"So what do you think of her?" Lucas asked me, out of blues. "Nothing really," I answered, throwing the stick again and watched Mightyena bark and run after it. "She seems nice but she is secretive but we'll eventually discover why she wants to go to Mt. coronet." "Do you like her?" He asked. I gaped at his question. It just sounded cheesy. "If this was coming from Will, I would understand. But I thought you knew me better," I answered. Lucas probably knew that I would never ever fall in love with a girl.
But here's the thing. Italia was different than any girl I had yet seen. She seemed like she didn't want to be friends with us. She was a mystery which seemed to be attractive. Girls always fell for my silver hair and blue eyes but she seemed like she had no such intentions which made her charming. Have I finally found a girl who might actually be friends with me?
We had only been walking for about an hour when we were attacked! They attackers surrounded us and they wore black all over. I immediately recognized them as the grunts of dark raiders and was preparing to fight them back using my Luxio.
"These guys!" Italia gasped, looking around at them. The four of us gathered in a circle surrounded by approximately 6 grunts. One of them threw out a duskull.
"Duskull, use Shadow Ball!" A girl's voice said and I realized that this grunt was the girl behind the pokemon. The duskull released his move. "Luxio, counter it with spark!" I order my luxio who used his move!
"NO, Leo don't!" I heard Italia scream. As soon as the two attacks collided, there was a blast which blew the 10 of us in different directions. I blacked out.
Many hours later…
When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a different section of the forest. The pokemon stared down at me from the trees. Caterpies and Treekos stood in the trees and Zizagoons hid in the bushes. I looked around and found Italia struggling to her knees and standing up. I ran up to her.
"Hey, are you ok?" I asked worriedly. "Yes," She answered. I could tell by her tone that she was not surprised. "It seems that we have been separated from Lucas and Will by that blast," she said. "I hope my Luxio is with them," I said, looking at the sky. "I hope the same for my Mightyena." She said. I suddenly remembered that her Mightyena didn't like his pokeball either, just like my Luxio and Lucas's swellow. I hope that Mightyena is good. I had good game of fetch with him in the morning.
"Let's find them," Italia said and turned to walk away. I ran to keep up with her. "We're alone, we might as well talk," I suggested. "Sure, let's talk!" she replied, quite cheerfully.
"So, you wanna like tell me why you are going to Mt. Coronet?" I asked her. She shook her head.
'Come on now!" I said frustrated. "If you're going to travel with us, you might as well tell us." "You wouldn't wanna know," she said. Before I could say anything else, she added "Why do you care?"
Care! I don't care! I thought to myself. "I don't care about it one bit!" I snapped. "In fact, if it weren't for my lousy friends, I wouldn't even have to put up with you!" I know I was pretty rude but she didn't seem to mind it.
Then suddenly, out of the sky, I found another trainer. He was sitting on a black charizard with wings that had a red skin underneath which I immediately recognized as a shiny charizard. He had dark blue hair and a very pale skin as if he were dead or something. He wore a white v-neck and black jeans with a black jacket over his t-shirt. He looked kind of smart but the frown on his face seemed permanent.
"Daniel!" Italia said, shockingly. I turned to her, my eyes widening. Did she know this guy?! "What are doing you doing here?" Italia questioned, trying not to make any sudden movements. "I sould be the one asking you that," the blue haired guy, or should I say Daniel answered her. "I tried to tell you everything but you just imprisoned me. That's why I ran away!" Italia snapped at him. Wait a minute, she was a prisoner at the dark crater and told us nothing!
"If you think you're so good, then battle me!" Daniel yelled at her."Bring it on!" Italia replied enthusiastically and I assumed that she was actually happy to battle. "I'll help too!" I said and she took out her garchomp while I took out salamence.
"Go Camprupt! Infernape!" Daniel threw two pokeballs and sent out his pokemon. "Garchomp, use dragon claw!" Italia said, pointing to the camprupt. I silently told salamence to use hyperbeam. My trick was to help quietly and listen to their conversation.
"I didn't think you would betray me!" Daniel yelled out to Italia. "I loved you!" "I did too, but you're too consumed by your dream for that miserable world!" She answered as their pokemon battled. Camprupt soon fainted and Italia's garchomp was hurt in the recoil so he fainted almost immediately. She returned him in.
Then out of the ordinary, the Infernape attacked me instead of Italia.
"Leo look out!" Italia screamed.
I felt myself pushed to the ground and I heard a loud noise as if something had hit my partner. I turned around and found her crashed to the tree by the Infernape's flame thrower. Angered, I told Salamence to use Fly and he hit the Infernape so bad that it fainted. Daniel, angered at his defeat, mounted his Shinny charizard and flew away.
I rushed to Italia's aid and bent down in front of her. "Italia! Italia!" I called her, worriedly. I placed my hand of her back and raised her up. She seemed to have been knocked unconscious. "Italia! Wake up!" I said, shaking her. No girl has ever done anything like that for me. Her body was motionless. I looked down at her arms. They seemed to have been badly burnt by the fire.
"Floatzel, come on out!" I sent out my Floatzel and using his watergun, I bathed her wounds and cleansed her arms to get a better view of her injuries. They seemed bad. Poor Italia, she got hurt saving me. She did wanted be friends after all.
I laid Italia against the tree and sat next to her all the time, tending to her. She was injured….because of me. I touched her face and traced my fingers to the strands of red hair on her face. I tucked them behind her ear.
It made me wonder why she was so quite. Why would anyone not want to have a friend? It was like she didn't trust anyone.
I felt a warm feeling inside of me. Something I had never felt when near a girl. I could not explain it, but I knew that I cared too much for Italia as I had never done for a girl before. I stayed with her for hours.
Will's point of view:
Since I'm the youngest one, I expected Lucas to go easy but ever since we got separated by the blast, Lucas made me walk for hours looking for Leo and Italia. Luxio travelled near Lucas's feet while the Mightyena stayed next to me. Occasionally, he would bark and then nip at my heels which were very uncomfortable. I guess it wanted to see Italia.
Lucas walked ahead with Swellow on his shoulder. He walked silently. "Do you think they're ok?" I asked him. "Of course they are. I've known Leo since we were kids." Lucas replied.
"You two are great friends," I said in a low tone. "Yeah," Lucas answered. "We met at a battle tournament when we were 10. He and I had a fierce battle but then I lost. We've been friends since then. We trained and grew up together."
"What about you? Don't you have friends?" Lucas asked me. "No, not many," I answered sadly. Lucas slowed down so I could stay side by side with him. "Why?" he asked as I caught up with him. "Because back at the castle, there were no kids my age so I grew up with a bunch of older kids. There was only one girl my age, Natasha. And then, there were always royal duties. I had to do everything by rules." I answered him. He looked at me pitifully. "Well, you have friends now!" he said which made me feel good. No one had ever called me a friend before. "Thanks," I answered, smiling at him and then patted the Mightyena. He was also my friend now.
"What do you think of Italia?" I asked Lucas. "That she is pretty," Lucas answered unwillingly. "You like her!" I exclaimed. "No I don't. Even if I did, I want Leo to have her." Lucas answered me. "What do you mean?" I asked, confused. "Well, Leo has never liked girls but Italia is so different I think he might warm up to her. So I want Italia to go for Leo and not me." Lucas cleared up. "Oh," I answered. That was very noble of him, to think for his best friend rather than himself.
Leo's point of view:
"Hmm, Uhmm, uhh," When I heard Italia moan I squeezed her hand. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at me. "Leo", she said, almost in a whisper. "The dark raiders? Are they…." 'They're gone Italia. Relax." I answered her. She sat up, her back still against the tree.
"We have to go," Italia said. She tried to stand up but I pushed her back down. "You're hurt," I answered in a soft and kind voice like I had never done before with a girl. "I'm fine," she protested. I placed my hand on arm and squeezed. 'Oww," she squealed. "And that proves it that you're not fine." I pointed.
"It's nothing really," she argued. "You're burns are severe and you look awfully pale. Just relax for a while.….for me." I answered.
Italia's point of view:
Leo stared into my eyes as if he was trying to read my mind. I decided to listen to him and sit for a while.
"Italia, why would you save me?" Leo asked. "Because that's what friends do right? Help each other?" I asked, uncertainly. "At least that's what they did in the books I read," I added.
"Be honest Italia. What exactly were you doing in the dark crater and why are you going to Mt. coronet? And who is that Daniel?" Leo asked me again. I shook my head to refuse to tell him. "Friends tell each other things, in case you missed that in the books," he countered. I gave up. It was no use keeping secrets now and it would help to share my troubles with someone. I had no choice but to tell him.
"I was one of the dark raiders," I began. Leo gasped at my statement and it was probably ok. I mean, why would someone raised in evil want to do good to the world anyway?
"It was a long time ago," I continued. "Daniel was my best friend back then. He and I were playing with our pokemon in the forest when we saw a crash. We went up to the place and discovered what is now called the dark crater. Our village used to be there and after that incident, everyone was killed. Daniel and I were really upset and went searching for anyone alive. In the middle of it, there was Pokémon."
"A Pokémon? In a crash?" Leo asked. "Yes," I answered. "He was all black except for floating white hair. He was darkrai. Daniel approached him and immediately connected. Darkrai put Daniel in a nightmare which made him dream of the perfect world where darkness rules and everyone is his slave. He did the same to me and his younger sister Cornelia later. Darkrai gathered up more people under his nightmare and made the dark raiders again like he did thousands of years ago in the time of the previous guardians. Daniel, Cornelia and I became what you call, leaders of dark crater. I lived with them, trained my pokemon and read books in my spare time for a laugh. I slowly fell in love with Daniel. His ambitiousness attracted me. There was no kindness among us and there was no concept of friendship. We didn't care for those who fell and were injured or killed; we left behind the weak and killed the innocent."
"But then, I had a dream. I heard a voice calling me to Mt. Coronet. I asked it who it was but it said if I wanted to know, I'd have to come to Mt. coronet. The dream must have snapped me out of Darkrai's nightmare. At first, I tried to brush the feeling off and convince myself that it was only a dream and that I was still the same but since I wasn't, I begin to realize that what we dark raiders aimed for was wrong. I told Daniel to stop and that we were wrong and then about my dream. I guess darkrai had dug his claws deep into him. Daniel was furious. He locked me up and won't let me out. Then he went to conquer Nessa kingdom. The loneliness in that room was killing me and it made me feel as if I was meant to be someone else. Since I was no longer in darkrai's nightmare, I was able to see the reality that his world was simply a world of misery for him to rule and Daniel was only being used. The real world was the peaceful one. I escaped him with the help of my trained pokemon and then met you."
"What about Daniel. He seemed to be in love with you," Leo said. I know he was, Leo was right. "I was second in command and girlfriend. But then I realized the evil in him and had to leave him." I answered solemnly.
"You've been through so much," Leo said in a whisper, snapping out of my thoughts. "Italia, if I had known….." "You couldn't have done anything about it." I told him. He squeezed my hand once again. I have always been in control of my emotions as a leader of dark raider but I felt butterflies in my stomach when he did that. For the first time ever, I looked closely at Leo and noticed how cute he was. Behind all those hard core expressions, I finally saw how caring he could be to his friends.
Now he knows about her. Things get real cheesy here.