The thought that I just saw Myron for last time in my life could not sink in my mind, it just happened too fast, too unexpectedly. At first, I saw how Darkrai is avoiding Sinar the jolteon's powerful thunderbolts, thinking "there is nothing to be worry about", but a moment later Myron just said that they are going to suicide, sacrificing themselves so I may live.
He did not even want to know what I thought about it. Maybe he didn't want to know, maybe this way it was easier for him, or maybe he was in a hurry? What would happen to me now? When I changed to another form I always thought that I became someone different, but now it would be just me and myself. Kilian wouldn't give me advice, Sinar won't scream in my head, Myron wouldn't be irritating me with his cheerful character and I wouldn't have a chance to speak with Snowid again. I wouldn't even meet sylveon who was with me my whole life, waiting for an occasion to show himself, I didn't like this appearance but I felt that I lost something really important by not meeting him.
Intensive tapping in my forehead snapped me out of my thoughts.
"Are you listening?" Rea asked when I looked up.
"No," I answered still not fully concentrated on the talk. "Sorry, could you repeat?"
"I was asking you where did you meet Myron? He was appearing in my dreams lately with some other eeveelutions, we had some talks but we didn't exchange any important pieces of information. But it looks to me that you know him," she repeated, a little irritated.
Why didn't he tell me earlier that Rea was cursed?
"He was a friend," I sighed. Now he only 'was'. There was still a chance that this was only a dream: in Darkrai's playground and it was its game. But this just didn't look like a dream, I still couldn't understand where I was. It wasn't looking like anything that I knew, some kind of dream and reality mix.
"I met him..." when did I meet him? It had to be during my training in Distortion World after I gained my ability to form change, he never was very helpful but he was always someone to talk to. Myron was the third one which I met, the first one was Sinar.
"Anything more?" Rea demanded.
"I knew him my whole life." I wish I could have learned more about their lives, if I had ever known they were separate beings trapped inside me.
"So he was haunting you all the time? And now he will haunt me!?" Rea squealed.
"No, he won't," I answered; no one would 'haunt' me anymore.
"Uh, if you say so," she breathed. "But what you are doing in my dream then? Because this is one of 'these' dreams right? These which aren't just random images?"
I actually didn't know any different kind of dreams, mine always were containing some of my other parts or different souls or whatever they really were. Another thing which I would never learn.
"I don't know what I am doing here, I met Darkrai and then everything went crazy, I don't even know when I left the real world and found myself in a dream," I blurted. It was the third time in a row when I passed out I hoped that Naert won't be worried when I wake up-if I wake up.
"You were saying that you have some problem and I found out from some giant umbreon that you are ill, is that right?" I put aside my sadnesses for a moment.
"You met Fluffy?" Rea questioned.
"His name is Fluffy?!" I exclaimed. Why didn't I know that while I was talking with him?
"Maybe it is not his name but everyone calls him that," Rea added. "It is because of how he looked while he was eevee."
"Okay it is not important right now, what is wrong with you?" I asked but I already knew, Myron said that I cursed her, I didn't see any differences right now but I guessed that here, in this dreamland it didn't work since I was eevee even if I was sleeping in some other form.
"Well, how to explain it? I feel weird, sometimes so angry that I could kill, sometimes sad, I can't sleep and I have a feeling that I need to go somewhere, that there is a place which is calling for me," she said sitting down on the ground and looking very serious. I also sat down and thought about it for a moment, it maybe was stupid but I needed to ask for it.
"And you are sure that is not any of your, umm..you know, natural process," I asked sheepishly and her serious look changed to angry glare.
"My eyes look like a pair of blue headlights and my fire is blue and cold, it is not some natural process," she hissed. Why didn't she start by saying that?
"What? Headlights?" I questioned. Currently, her eyes were dark green but it was just because of this world I was currently in. Then I noticed that if I was speaking with her while she was dreaming then I become a voice to her like Kilian and the rest were for me, I just hoped that it won't be too long. She sighed and stopped glaring at me.
"It is some kind of source of very bright light, it helps to see at a very long distance in the dark if you put jolteon to it, it some of the human's technology," she explained, looking down curling her tail around her legs.
"If this is some kind of manmade thing then why would you know about it, I thought you were wild," I was puzzled but then I reminded myself that in the tent where she-or rather the hunters that hired her-captured me, I found also some technological things there.
"My pack is close to the ruins of the city, that's why we know few things about it and even take some of them to our dens. Like big cuboid rock which can make ice if you fulfil it with water, some espeon even learned how to read letters so we know how it is called," she said proudly.
"And what it is called?" I wasn't very interest but I thought that I know what she was talking about. I saw some of the theses metal rock before I destroyed the city, humans were keeping there some small glass bugs which drained some of my dark smoke with its needles.
"It was 'eon flarfla'," she tried to say but she grimaced after hearing what she just said and tried once again with the same result. For me, it sounded just as some random not connected with each other syllables, not making any sense. "When espeon said it via telepathy it sounded much different, I just can't make this weird sounds. But he said that means 'pull here'."
"Humans really don't know how to name things," I declared. 'Pull here', a senseless name for ice making rock. It should be named 'ice making rock' or at last 'water to ice changing rock'. "Eee evev," I tried to repeat how Rea pronounced the name of this metallic rock but I found that I couldn't make it sound the same. "It is some weird human's sounds probably, let's leave it. So just your eyes and flame is messed up? Well that is not that bad."
"Not that bad!? I've become some freak! Some invisible force is dragging me through unknown territory, and I attacked my friend not knowing that he just wanted to help. I am going insane, I can't be like that!" she stormed. I noticed a tear on her cheek but she quickly washed it away.
"This friend, is he still with you?" I asked calmly. She didn't respond immediately trying to calm herself down be deep breathes. "Who you took with you."
"His name is Terid and he is espeon," she said finally.
"Yeah, I remember you mentioned something about him while we were in the ruined city," I pondered. "Wherever this 'feeling' is forcing you to go, you should stop," I remember what I heard from the arcanine, the 'feeling' could be a call from Giratina.
"But it promised me to return me back to normal and, umm, I am already there, I am sleeping there actually," she said. The 'Promised', now I was sure, that was Giratina's voice but what could she want from Rea? Although she was cursed, she hadn't antimatter inside so she couldn't be very helpful.
"Can you describe a place where you fall asleep?" I wanted to know where a 'feeling' dragged her.
"Sure, it looks like large clearing, every tree around is crushed, burned, but not from a fire, more like as if they were struck by lightning. But how it is possible that every tree got hit by lightning? The whole ground was covered by ash. I hadn't problems with that but Terid couldn't breathe until he learned how to filter the air with his psychic. There is also..."
"...a sickle-shaped lake with the always flat sheet of the water, dark like night reflecting the stars even during the day," I finished for her. I knew that place. It was where I was about to build a portal between the two worlds but decided otherwise. The lake was a fragment of the portal put aside like part of the broken glass waiting to be put together again.
"Uh, you almost guessed correctly, but the lake is almost perfectly round," a shiver went through my spine when I heard what she just said.
Perfectly round? But that would mean that the portal was almost complete. Maybe arcanine was right, I didn't need to focus on building it, all I needed to do was to live here, in the normal world and portal could be build by itself. I needed to go there and do something but what? I couldn't just close it, I wasn't taught how to do that but I always could...go inside.
If I returned to the Distortion World the process would stop but I would be trapped with my greatest fear: Giratina. What could I do? Go there and wildly jump at Giratina with teeth? Psychic wouldn't work no matter how strong I could become in that, there is no sun in Distortion World to change into espeon. But if it would be the only solution... then I would be worrying how to kill her when I go inside.
"Listen now, you can't sleep there, you need to run from there, it is dangerous, try to wake up," I commanded her loudly which actually had to have looked funny since I was still in my eevee appearance. I gritted my teeth at this unpleasant thought since I was serious now. Or was I only overthinking this?
"Well, okay I'll try," she wasn't trying, but my look made her take my worry seriously or at least behave like that. I saw that she closed her eyes and started repeating something but I couldn't hear a word.
Then I started a feel a force which as if the wind was pushing me backwards: at first quite gently but becoming stronger and stronger. I wanted to resist but I couldn't. Rea seemed to not notice anything, as if the wind wasn't even affecting her, as her fur didn't even move. I couldn't stay in place and I became further and further from Rea, I opened my mouth but no sound came out. Then I completely lost the ground and the world started spinning.
It was like a blink of the eye when I woke up in the forest, it was dawn. At first, there was only a weak glow, a thin blue line of the light separating the dark sky from the also dark silhouette of the land. The band of light slowly got wider as if it was a rising eyelid, showing the great and round pupil of the morning yellow sun.
Shadows disappeared, dark fumes in the sky become fluffy white clouds and monstrous arms become trees. I found myself lying warmed from every direction. As I looked around I saw that around my curled body was lying around another also curled up body. She was keeping her head rested on my back and was still asleep. I hoped that I won't become too big worry for her in this night.
As I looked around I rested my head on my forepaws doing it gently to don't wake her up. I didn't know what exactly happened on this night, when I drifted away, maybe she had her own fight with Darkrai?
Myron? I thought with a hope but minutes had passed and there was no response. So this really happened, I lost them.
I curled even more and braided my dark tail between Naert's many tails. We were in the shadow of the tree so I stayed in my umbreon form. The warmth was pleasant. Her heat was always pleasant. She moved slightly, getting even closer but not waking up.
Would I be strong enough to put my life away and stay in the Distortion World? Or maybe should I let the sun and the skies fall down and just follow the whispers of my heart.
I don't need to save the whole world, just her and part of the ground where we could live. But how could I do it? If I entered the Distortion World I won't leave it alive, or I kill Giratina, or she would kill me but if I won't do anything much even more would die.
"There are so many legendaries somewhere there," I sighed silently looking at the sky, not lifting my head. "But it is only me to fight that."
"You lazy shits."
And here I was, a replacement for a legendary, hidden under my mate, depressed and overwhelmed by events which happened around. I couldn't be like that.
I slowly stood up, trying not to wake Naert, who curled up even more after she lost touch with me. I hesitated, should I leave her something? Anything that could tell her what I was planning to do? I shouldn't leave her without anything when I knew how much it would hurt her. Then I got an idea.
I exposed myself to the morning sun and after a moment changed to espeon. Then I used my psychic in a similar way in which I used on arcanine but much much more delicately, only slightly dabbing her mind but not going any further. It was as if I would open the third eye as I saw her dream.
She was at the bank of the river. A great waterfall was falling from the mountainside closely adhering to the cliff.
"Sometimes I regret that I am fire-type and can't enjoy the water. Just look how great it looks," she excited looking at the waterfall hardly hitting the surface of the lake before creating a cloud of steam of the water.
Then I reminded myself about what she was dreaming. It was long ago, our first destination of our second year together when we became bored of staying in the valley. I decided to show her every place which I was considering as worthwhile to see. The waterfall wasn't huge or extremely high but had many turns on the pending rocks on the mountainside which made it look like as if it was living creature running between them.
I knew what would happen next, I would walk through the bushes and stand next to Naert, facing the waterfall. And after a second exactly that happened (in her dream, I was as leafeon). But when he stood next to Naert and was about to comment on the waterfall I used my psychic on her mouth. There was no resistance as it was only a memory. For a moment I thought what I was about to say. 'Hey I am leaving you to trap myself with Giratina', but no, I couldn't say it like that.
I exchanged my psychic powers with Naert, looking deep into her mind. I saw as if millions of imagines were floating in every direction in small or bigger groups, incredibly avoiding each other's' paths. It took me a good amount of time but then I found it. Memories of me, moments which she spent being with me, our meetings, our trips and our reunion. I moved forward it but when I was about to touch it I stopped. One more step forward and I became for her a strange creature, she won't recognise me anymore, she wouldn't remember anything about me. But maybe this way it would be better? She had a long life ahead which I might destroy. But maybe if I hurt her now I would spare her pain later. She can't feel something that she does not remember.
"I am sorry," I coughed up. My heart was bleeding and I could feel a tear appearing in my eyes when I moved forward and imagines of memories started to be torn apart, disappearing like smoke in the wind. And I had to see every one of them as it dissipated in the air not leaving a trace.
There was only one memory left, on this image I could see myself lying on the branch, she was looking from below and moment after Naert was surrounded by the bright light. I closed my eyes, I didn't want to see it, I didn't want to see my expression when I saw her then. But I didn't stop, when I opened my eyes once again a memory was gone, it was last one.
Like going out of the water I slowly exited her mind. When I was again as the real me, with Naert still sleeping on the ground, I changed to leafeon and ran through the forest. I didn't need a scent anymore to find a right way. I would always find this place no matter where I would be.
I ran, jumping over roots, going through the thick bushes, being slammed by a very low branch of the trees. Leaving my tears on everything that I passed. I felt empty as if my heart was squeezing by some powerful hand, I was alone again but it couldn't be different. Maybe it would be better if Naert wouldn't find me at all? No, that wouldn't be easier then. But my pain quickly changed to anger. It was all Giratina's fault, if she would leave me once for good, I could live a happy life. It was she who killed Myron, Kilian, Zenon and even this sylveon who I didn't have a chance to meet. She killed all of them and everyone who I killed were killed because of her. She was a master of death, everyone who was dying or suffering was giving her pleasure.
Then I noticed that it started storming, white lightning cutting the sky in half. The same weather when I betrayed her. I took it as a good sign, everything that was good for me started this one night so maybe I would repeat that, or end it.
I wasn't afraid of lightning even when its energy elected my genes. My fur growth longer and started to merge together creating sharp spikes on my whole body but mainly at my back. Then I felt this uncomfortable feeling when my tail was disappearing and my muzzle was getting longer. My run became faster, much faster as my vision started to be like a blur. Weaker and stronger discharges were going through my fur leaving a small static cloud behind me, slightly burning nearby plants. The cloud of discharges behind me grew and started emitting a noisy crackling sound. Lightning bolts were hitting the ground all around me as I became a typhoon of electricity, leaving forest devastated, marking my path.
With all the electricity going through me I couldn't notice how many time had passed. Was it ten minutes or an hour that I was running for? I didn't know, I didn't want to know. Important was how much I needed to wait to release all of my rages at the serpentine dragon.
The normal forest already ended and I was going through the destroyed one, with all burned trees and ground. I already could see the silhouette of the lake on the horizon...with many floating ghosts around. On the ground were standing two transparent, perfectly smooth rocks in rotten violet colour, suspended in each of them were a floating espeon and flareon.
The ghosts quickly noticed me since I wasn't hard to miss with the whole storm all around of me. With a bloodcurdling howl they rushed to meet me. A ghost horde even from that far seemed to be familiar, even now in the sight changed by madness I could see a haunter which I though I met earlier but I was only guessing, to me all of them looked the same: dead, and now they will die for the second time.
When the huge group of ghosts and me were about to meet I immediately stopped but a storm of electricity went further as I charged it, even more, unleashing the power magazine in my fur. There was no matter now how much resistant the were, what were their second types or what abilities they had. That was a power of Giratina, who instead of lighting up the surroundings was swamping the environment in the darkness. Some ghost changed into a cloud of fumes which were quickly torn apart by the wind blows other were screaming as their body was shared by lightings which were cutting their dark mass better than any blade could do. There was only a few more second of howls and then everything went silent, almost silent. There was still an irritating sound of clapping.
I felt as my whole strength left me, I needed to charge myself again. It would take a few minutes after how much energy I used up just now. The sound of clapping got more intensive and changed into applause. With a growl, I turned my head in direction of the sound. Two meters above the ground was floating another ghost, very similar to Darkrai but it wasn't him: Darkrai was destroyed. This one was grey and looked much more material than just a cloud of smoke. He had only one eye in the centre of his head and was quickly clapping his long hands ended with five fingers. I wanted to unleash a thunder at him but I manage to create only some weak sparkles which didn't even left my fur.
"Impressive, most impressive," a dusknoir spoke deeply. "I hope that my horde, at last, leaves a scratch at the Giratina's litter."
"Shut up," I hissed. I hadn't heard my own voice in this form in a long time: it was so cold, so harsh, cracking and rusting as if it contained some electricity.
"Uh, where are my manners. I am Draught, a herald of the horde which you successfully annihilated," he continued completely ignoring my command, he was looking at me haughty as he clenched his fists. "Excuse me, but I wanted to give your head to Giratina as a welcome gift to this world." Just as he said it, he shot at me with his fists first. I wanted to thunderbolt him but found that my reserves were still not charged enough.
His fist hit me hard in my forehead, making me fly back as I didn't manage to duck. He followed me as I was still flying and hit me with both hands slamming me to the ground. But even then he didn't give me a second to stand up, hammering me into the ground in series of a blows. My anger returned to me as the waves of pain didn't leave my head and the moment after the air was once again filled in the dark "light". Dusknoir was pushed back by electricity but hadn't any visible injuries. I quickly stood up on all fours and glared at the ghost.
"You sent to me a lot of souls, dark jolteon. But I always wanted yours, I am a collector of souls, I plead you, join my collection," he said. I was a dark jolteon, only my sides had yellow zigzagged lines: my real form, the main one, in which I was truly myself just like in the day when I gained my freedom or turned a city into the ruin.
He was slowly floating in a circle waiting to strike again and I was charging as much energy I could before he decided to attack.
"I will send you to the Distortion World and then find you there to kill you again," I threatened him, I could feel my rage growing again.
"That would be a pleasure," he chortled and again shot at me like a bullet, from the place, without a run-up. But now I had enough energy, and I quickly created a thunder cloud around me and when he got into range, long sparks went through his body, leaving long burned lines. He stood in place, paralysed. I jumped back making some distance between us, and shot a thunder attack at him, following it with my teeth. The thunder hit him straight in the centre of his body and my charged teeth reabsorbed the excess energy ricocheting from him, charging me up again.
I was close to being charged with enough to unleash another wave of annihilation. Just a little more. Dusknoir wasn't that fast and talkative anymore, he was loudly howling but it wasn't howling like earlier, it was deeper and with more bass. I smiled at my opponent suffering, my own wounds were hidden under a thick cloud of dark smoke and adrenaline was preventing me from feeling the pain.
"What would I do without all of this," I said to myself. "Shhh...KILL HIM, I KILL HIM, I KILL YOU, YES YES HAHA," I started jumping up and down as the wave of happiness stroke my mind. "DIE!" I roared wildly as I suddenly stopped jumping and another static cloud went before me like a moving wall destroying everything of its way. Dusknoir didn't even try to avoid it, he surrounded himself in the defending ball of light but it burst like a soap bubble. When the storm ended, the empty grey shell what was formerly the dusknoir's body fell on the ground.
"Haha, I won!" I screamed like a maniac and ran to the shell and jumped on it, running into a circle, jumping up and down of the empty dusknoir corpus. At the end, I tried to eat the shell biting it rapidly but it was too hard for my teeth what irritated me. I once again got inside and realised electricity in every direction blasting the shell into million pieces.
Next what got my attention were two violet stones. I ran happily jumping on things what left from the destroyed ghost, I especially liked duskull's skulls and sableye's eyes when they cracked and broke under my dark feets.
When I got to the stones I saw that even when they were transparent I could see my reflection in them.
My eyes were pinned to my reflection as I couldn't look away, it seemed that my eyes started to glow and I felt that I completely froze. My vision limited to the only these two glowing pupils, I was sinking in them, they were overwhelming me with this cold blue glow, consuming me, going deep my mind and anchoring somewhere at the back. Soon I started to see things, terrible things but I still couldn't look away. All my happiness suddenly left me when I started to hear a scream somewhere in a background which was getting louder and louder.
It was something dark on the back of my mind, like a needle going deeper and deeper into my head. It was death, thousands of dead pokemon walking together, I didn't see any pokemon who had complete bodies, they were cut open, without heads, others without tails, some of them were missing their legs and they were all like worms crawling on the ground but still, continue the march, living on the ground rivers of blood with its internal organs like a small boat which was floating in the deeply red liquid as on the calm water. The ground was all burned and all of the cracks, made of rock in maroon colour. I saw in my vision a tall creature walking toward me, the whole body was covered in cuts and dry blood, behind her were nine tails created from bone, from which only small parts of meat were still holding.
"You will die, you are created to die," the dark jolteon from the reflection spoke to me. The screams became that more intensive, and I started to feel weak, so weak that I finally fell to my side. The scream immediately died, my eyes stopped emitting light and I snapped out as if it was some long dream.
I looked around and noticed that I was lying just before the violet stone which contained the strange espeon.
"Fucking eyes," I muttered. It wasn't the first time I hypnotised myself, and it never was an enjoyable experience. It was draining happiness from who look in them and replacing it with fears which everyone had hidden somewhere at the back of his mind.
Electricity, too much electricity.
This power was dragging me to madness but now I calm down. I noticed that it became night again. I needed to stare at myself whole day and didn't even notice the passing time. I once again looked at the two eeveelutions trapped in the purple half-rock-half-liquid. I knew what it was, it was like the ariados' web to trap his 'food'. Giratina had done this to trap her prey into something like that. She needed to eat too and because of her aggressive character, she was hunting much more than she needed.
What she didn't manage to eat she enclosed in this violet substance, she had thousands of these things with random creatures trapped it, not only normal pokemon or humans but also legendaries weaker than her that no one will ever hear about. The mass was some kind of ice but it wasn't cold: it kept the creature inside alive as long as the ghost-dragon wanted, as if time inside has stopped. She didn't need to make these structures personally, I guess that ghost or at least dusknoir used a curse from the portal to create these two enclosures. I couldn't recognise if that was Rea inside of that but it was highly probable since she said that she had an espeon with her, who was right now in the second trap.
"So you didn't run away," I said to myself sadly and faced the round and dark lake behind the stones, I slowly walked to its shore but when I looked in a sheet of the water I didn't see my reflection in the water, which only reflected the stars in sky on this fateful night. I sighed and put one of my paws into a dark mass, it wasn't water. It was warm, gluey and thick, I needed to push my paw to make it sink into that. Just as my paw was in, my zigzag marks on my both sides started emitting intensive yellow light just like dots in my eyes started emitting light blue.
I was once again filled with the energy of the Distortion World, and now there was no turning back. I dipped another paw into the lake and followed by another and after a moment I was slowly sinking in. The substance started to gurgle, destroying the perfect reflection of the sky from the past.
My heart was beating fast, I already wanted to end it, to stop feeling anything: the sadness that I left Naert. No, not just left her, at first I changed her life from a naive vulpix to my walking support in which I could find motivation, happiness and hope. I simply used her to make myself feel better, then I scared her and even when she returned I dragged her along through danger.
Then I lost these beings who I thought was just my imagination: Myron, Zenon, Kilian, Snowid, Lasota, Flareon, Sinar and this Sylveon they were with me my whole life trapped by Giratina but I didn't even take an effort to meet them.
And I then cursed Rea, dooming myself. I had no doubts that Giratina guided her here through her mysterious illness: she needed her to do something with the portal. I probably killed Rea by this because if I don't succeed, and I doubt that I will, Giratina would eat her, sooner or later. But was I ready to face Giratina? Would I just curl up in a ball before her, hoping that with fear it wouldn't hurt that much? What if it was already too late and I just made my life shorter, going to my reaper?
I was already half-sunk into the dark mass of the portal, I looked up, enjoying maybe the last time I would see how this world looked like. I just hoped that I was going there only for a while.
Soon there was only my head above of the 'water', and when my whole body was under the sheet of the lake everything changed.
I wasn't in the lake anymore, before me was a great wall in a mix of dark and grey colour, incredibly high and long in every direction but with a hole before me. It wasn't the same hole in which I had problems to fit even as a small eevee, now it was broad and wide open. Not big enough for a serpentine dragon, Giratina couldn't fit here but an arcanine could walk through that with his head height.
From the walls and ceiling of the tunnel in the barrier was some sprinkles, like sand fragments. I entered the hole and walked ahead, it was completely dark here but I was lighting up my way by myself. I hadn't all these things when I was passing through here the first time, it came later with every next mutation but I didn't know what exactly came when. I wasn't as jolteon to often to keep with my changes in this form but if my eyes wouldn't stay the same I wouldn't recognise myself in the mirror. Even my own paws looked strange to me when I was looking down at them.
I came at the exit of the tunnel, just one more step and I would be fully in Distortion World. I needed my rage now, instead of wandering about sadness. I focused on the powers inside of me, forcing dark sparks to jump in my fur. I started charging myself as I did this last step and exited the hole and entered a large place of not cold or slippery ice, which was spreading in every direction. Just as I entered I stopped once more. I was really here again, in place which I promised to avoid as long I could. I just hoped that it would be worth it.
Hello, Taranis. Welcome home.