I live!

*Crickets*

Okay, I know I've been gone for a while, but I promise you it's not because this story is getting abandoned. I just had exams and I misjudged how much studying would take up all of my time. Hopefully I should be back to my regular update schedule now.

Disclaimer: I do not own pokémon!

It wasn't long before Rok could once again pick out the familiar glow of Rage's flames. Smoke was pacing beside the incineroar's large body, occasionally glancing nervously at the surrounding trees.

Grinning, Rok bounded forward, trusting his hopefully future ally to do the same. "Hey Smoke!"

The houndoom slumped over in relief and turned towards him. "Rok! Did you find any chesto berries?"

"No, but I found the pokémon that knocked Rage out, and he says he should be able to wake him up again. He only did it because he thought Rage was attacking him."

Smoke chuckled wryly. "I suppose I can understand that. Who is this poké-" his words suddenly died in a strangled gasp, his scarlet gaze trained on a spot somewhere above Rok's head.

The umbreon followed his gaze, and was unsurprised to find the object of his terror to be the large grey phantom floating a foot above the ground.

He tried to give Smoke a reassuring smile, though he wasn't sure he noticed it. "Right. Smoke, this is Darkrai. He's the pokémon who lives here, and the one who put Rage to sleep. Speaking of which," he added weakly, as the incineroar in question suddenly whimpered in pain, "could you wake him up please? I don't know how much more of, um, "Dream Eater" he can take."

"…Right." Darkrai said slowly, eyeing Rage with definite caution. He slowly floated forward, holding a single clawed finger over Rage's forehead, not quite touching his red and black fur. A small tendril of some sort of dark energy rose from Rage's temple to Darkrai's finger. He withdrew his hand, drawing out the darkness as if he was pulling a caterpie from its hollow. It curled in on itself, forming a spherical mass that hovered in Darkrai's palm briefly before he closed his fingers, dissipating it in a small black flash.

Rage groaned, his yellow and green eyes fluttering open. "Ow…"

"How do you feel Rage?" Rok asked.

Rage shivered. "Bad nightmares…hurt…"

Rok flinched in sympathy. "Well, at least you're awake now. Right Smoke?"

But Smoke wasn't listening. He was still staring at Darkrai, his face twisted with terror as he continued to take in the ghost-like pokémon.

And Rok wasn't the only one who'd noticed, if Darkrai's very obvious discomfort was any indication.

"Uh, Smoke?" he said uneasily, "Can you stop staring at Darkrai? I think you're making him uncomfortable."

"Rok…" Smoke said, his voice trembling harder than a tree in a hurricane, "Do you know what that is?"

Rok frowned. It wasn't like Smoke to refer to pokémon without using their names, or at the very least some kind of nickname. "He's a Dark Type. Like us."

Smoke shook his head, slowly backing away from Darkrai. "Rok, believe me when I say that this…thing is nothing like us."

"Who's nothing like us?" Rage said, sitting up and looking around blearily. And just like Smoke, when he caught sight of Darkrai, he immediately froze up in terror.

"S-Smoke?" he whimpered, "Is that-?"

"Darkrai? Yes, yes it is Rage." Smoke replied.

Rok raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Oh. You guys already know him then?"

"Know him?" Smoke repeated, sounded slightly hysterical, "I'm surprised you haven't! This is a mythical pokémon Rok!"

Rok's eyes widened. A mythical pokémon? But…no, that's impossible.

"You guys must be mistaken. We learned about mythical pokémon back in the village, and I've never heard of Darkrai before."

"You've also never heard of Dark Types before, so I wouldn't be surprised if any stories about Darkrai were left out of your history." Smoke replied.

"What's this about Darkrai?"

Rok cringed at the sound of Reaper's voice. Oh boy, this situation was about to get a whole lot more complicated…

Reaper stepped through the bushes, scowling as Silvo trotting happily behind her. "Are you guys trying to wake Rage up with ghost stories now? He's already drowning in nightmares as-"

Then she noticed Darkrai, and just like Smoke, her voice died mid-sentence. Her pale fur bristled and puffed, and she hunkered down. To make herself small, or to pounce, Rok honestly had no idea.

Darkrai, for his part, was no longer looking uncomfortable from all the attention. If anything he just looked…tired. Resigned. He avoided the gazes of the pokémon around him, his own eyes seeming to dim slightly.

Rok got the impression that this reaction, this fear, was something that Darkrai considered normal. He expected this reaction from all the pokémon he came across. That, or he expected them to be hostile and attack.

Rok wanted to feel angry for this pokémon's pain, wanted to scold his friends for their reactions. But…hadn't he been much the same way? Hadn't he stood, completely frozen in terror, staring up at the phantom with pure, unadulterated fear when he first encountered him?

Who was he to scold his friends, scold anyone for being afraid of this pokémon, when he himself had been afraid?

"Oh my Arceus…" Silvo murmured to himself, and Rok winced, preparing himself for the inevitable terror that his friend would soon show.

"You are…" the shiny jolteon continued quietly, refusing to take his eyes of Darkrai, "THE COOLEST LOOKING POKÉMON I'VE EVERY SEEN!"

Wait, what?

Silvo's outburst was enough to snap everyone out of their terrified stupor, and even shocked Darkrai out of his own tired resignation. The phantom stared at the hyper jolteon like he'd just said that trees are made of magikarp. "Excuse me?"

"Are you a ghost?" Silvo asked, bounding closer to Darkrai as his spiked fur crackled with electricity in his excitement. "Do you haunt this island? I've never met a ghost before. What kind of pokémon were you when you were alive? Were you a pokémon when you were alive?"

Darkrai (somewhat confusedly) raised his hands to try and get Silvo to pause. "I'm not a ghost, and I'm not dead, little jolteon." He said, "Though I have often been told I look like a Ghost Type."

"Oh. Still cool!" Silvo said chirpily, "What kind of pokémon are you? What's your name?"

"My name is Darkrai. As for my species…also Darkrai." Was it just Rok's imagination or was Darkrai beginning to relax a bit?

"Your parents named you after your species?" Silvo smirked, "Dang, that must suck."

Darkrai shrugged. "Not really. I'm the only one of my kind, after all."

"How does that work?"

"Because it's a mythical pokémon, idiot." Reaper snapped, interruption the oddly endearing conversation. "Have you seriously never heard of Darkrai? Or is this just one of the many things your Elders tried to block out of your history?"

Rok shifted his paws uncomfortably. "Well, I didn't know who Darkrai was either…"

"So it was your Elders' doing." Reaper groaned, "Well, long story short, this thing is, like, the god of nightmares. Legend says, that on every moonless night, it goes around, searching for sleeping victims to inflict horrific nightmares on."

Rok's eyes widen and he glanced up at the phantom. "Do you really do that?"

Darkrai sighed. "I haven't gone searching for beings to inflict nightmares on in centuries, ever since they started making nightmares of their own. I haven't even left this island in decades, certainly not for every New Moon all over the world, a detail which I'm inclined to believe was only added to that legend for dramatic effect."

"Why haven't you left your island?" Rage asked, his voice still shaking slightly with fear.

"I'm not welcome anywhere else."

Rok looked at his friends. "Does that sound familiar to any of you?"

All of them (except for Silvo) suddenly became very interested in their own feet.

He sighed. "Look, I understand that you might have heard some stories about Darkrai that scare you. I'll even concede that he is pretty terrifying. But he's suffered just like how the rest of us have suffered, if not worse because of his reputation. Don't you think he deserves a chance to leave that behind? To carve out a new life for himself away from all the fear and prejudice?"

Reaper sighed. "Look, Rok, I know you want to help all of us, but this isn't just some abused type. This is the honest-to-Giratina God of Negativity! And it's far from helpless. Have you already forgotten what it did to Rage?"

"I haven't forgotten." Rok assured her, "And I also haven't forgotten that Darkrai told me he thought Rage was attacking him, that all of the pokémon who've come to this island before have tried to kill him even though, as far as I can tell, all he does is just…float around here and mind his own business until someone comes and disturbs him! Plus, unlike the rest of you, I have actually had a conversation with him." He continued vehemently, "And I promise, he's not some kind of nightmare monster. He's just another pokémon who's suffered because of things they can't help and shouldn't be blamed for, like us. Even if he is a centuries-old mythical pokémon." Rok finished a bit awkwardly.

Silence settled over the group after his words, with the only sounds being the crackle of electricity as Silvo still studied Darkrai with obvious fascination. Reaper and Smoke exchanged uneasy looks that Rok wasn't sure how to decipher, and Rage was staring up at the phantom, eyes unusually shiny.

Suddenly, the incineroar stood up, and started walking towards Darkrai. Despite being made of smoke, the apparent God of Negativity visibly tensed as the large cat approached.

Rok, fearing that Darkrai would lose control, took a step forward…

And swore his lower jaw hit the ground as Rage suddenly wrapped his thick red and black striped arms around Darkrai.

But Rok's shock didn't have anything on the expression on Darkrai's face, the dark pokémon's eyes almost impossibly wide as Rage held him tightly.

"I know what it's like for people to be afraid of you." Rage said in a quieter voice than Rok had ever heard him. "And I know that the scared people are the ones that want to hurt you the most. I've been hurt a lot by the scared people, but it got better after I found some friends who weren't scared of me, and who would protect me from the scared people."

Rage finally released Darkrai and gave him a slightly watery smile. "If you want, we can be your not-scared friends."

Darkrai blinked, and looked around at their group, silently asking (maybe hoping) if they agreed with Rage.

Reaper rolled her eyes and groaned. "Sure, why not, let's just ask a literal god to join the team because even immortal lives can suck." She shrugged. "Well, it'll be interesting at the very least."

Smoke sighed, but he had a slight smile on his face. "It would be nice if Rage had a few more friends."

Rok beamed and looked up at Darkrai. The phantom looked as though he couldn't believe his…well, he didn't have ears, but he definitely couldn't believe what was happening. He looked around at the mismatched group, his gaze wary as he studied them for some hint that they were lying, any sort of indication that this chance really was exactly that, and not some kind of trap.

But he found none.

Eventually, he shrugged nonchalantly, though the gleam in his eyes betrayed his joy. "Well…I suppose it would be a nice change of pace."

A/N: And Darkrai is officially a member of the gang! Also, I know Darkrai is only mythical and not legendary, but I still made him the God of Negativity because a) that generally fits his whole deal, and b) there's a poké-god for literally everything else and making Darkrai and Cresselia emotion gods is just too perfect an opportunity to pass up.

Also, I think we can all agree that Silvo and Rage are precious adorable babies that must be protected at all costs.

Please review!