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As happy as Rok was that Darkrai was joining their group, his presence quickly presented a new…complication. When they returned to the bowl that they rode on to get to the island, the orange dragon sailor took one look at the phantom and screamed in terror before trying to fly away. Only Reaper firing arcs of purple energy from her scythe managed to prevent him from leaving them stranded, and he still insisted that Darkrai not get on the boat, so he ended up having to just fly overhead.

Things only got worse when they reached the docks. Pokémon screeched and scrambled in a wild rush to put some distance between them and the God of Negativity who just…floated there and sighed as the paths rapidly emptied.

When they finally got out of the town (followed the whole way by shrieks of fear) Reaper groaned and scowled up at Darkrai. "Okay, this isn't working. If we're going to make any progress here, we have to find some way of hiding you."

Darkrai cringed. "I'm afraid that is easier said than done. I'm very big, and hardly subtle."

"Can you shapeshift or something? I think I remember the Elders telling us about this one Mythical Pokémon who could shapeshift." Rok suggested.

Darkrai sighed. "Unfortunately that ability is unique to Mew. Believe me, if I could shapeshift I would have left my island a long time ago to live a comparatively strife-free life."

"Well we can't have you just floating around like some sort of death omen." Reaper said firmly, "There's no other option, we have to figure out some way of disguising you."

"I believe I heard somewhere that you are capable of sending pokémon to another dimension." Smoke said, "Maybe if we are in populated areas you could hide in that dimension?"

Darkrai shook his head. "The Dark Void is a realm of pure, well, darkness that sends whoever is inside it to sleep. I can manipulate it enough to bring pockets of it to this realm and trap pokémon within them to force them into slumber, but I am not exempt from its effects. If I were to go inside, I would fall into an eternal sleep."

"The hiding idea does have merit though." Rok said, "Until we can tell more pokémon that you're not actually a bad guy, you'll probably just have to duck out of sight whenever we reach a town. One of us can stay with you to keep you company."

"That is…very considerate of you. Thank you."

"So…" Silvo began, trotting up to Darkrai, "You're the God of Negativity, right? Does that mean there's a God of Positivity?"

Darkrai nodded. "Yes, her name is Cresselia. She's lovely, I believe you would like her."

"Wait, "she's lovely"?" Reaper echoed incredulously, "Isn't she, like, your sworn enemy or something?"

"Not at all. In fact, I consider her to be a good friend. Back in the early days of the world when she and I were responsible for all emotion within it, we decided it would be easier to learn to work together than to constantly battle to have our powers reign supreme. We've had the odd fight of course, we are polar opposites after all, but we generally get along fine."

Reaper huffed in shock. "Great Arceus, next thing you're going to tell me is that Xerneas and Yveltal watch TV together in their spare time."

"Who's Yveltal?" Rok asked.

"What's TV?" Silvo asked at the same time.

"Yveltal is the God of Destruction, TV is short for television, it's like a metal box that shows images, and no, they do not get along, those two do fight for supremacy." Darkrai said patiently.

Reaper slumps in relief. "Oh good, at least one part of my world view is correct."

"Wait, Yveltal's the God of Destruction? Is he a Dark Type too? Can he join us as well?" Silvo cried, sparks jumping from his fur in his excitement.

Darkrai flinched. "Well, Yveltal is a Dark Type, but he's also currently imprisoned in a crystal cocoon for attempting to destroy the world so, no, he can't join us."

Silvo's ears flopped in disappointment. "Damn. It would've been cool to have two gods on our team."

Reaper glared at him. "No, it really wouldn't have. Were you not paying attention when we were discussing ways of keeping Darkrai hidden?"

"What does that have to do with it?"

Before Reaper could reply (or claw Silvo's face off, judging from her expression both options were equally likely) Smoke stepped between them. "Any Mythical or Legendary Pokémon we can bring into our group generally have rather fearful reputations. You saw how everyone reacted to Darkrai, if we recruit another Dark God we probably won't even be able to get within shouting distance of another pokémon before they bolt."

"And that wouldn't be very good for making new friends and having them join our community." Rage finished, picking at his claws uncomfortably.

"That reminds me of something I've been meaning to ask you about this whole…endeavour." Darkrai said, "What exactly is your plan besides recruiting discriminated pokémon one by one?"

Rok smiled up at him. "Well, we hope to one day form a settlement populated entirely by abused types, so they-so we don't have to suffer anymore because of who we are."

"I understand that, but how are you going to make that happen? The "abused types" as you put it are mistrusted for a reason. If anyone were to catch wind of a large group of them amassing, regardless of your explanations they will assume that something nefarious is happening."

"He has a point." Smoke said, "There's a good chance that the other pokémon will think we're building up an army or something."

"An army?" Rok echoed incredulously, "But-why would we do that?"

Reaper rolled her eyes with a soft growl. "Because we are the big, bad Dark Types of course. Why else?"

"Well, what can we do to convince them that we-well, you're-not going to try and attack everyone?" Silvo asked.

Smoke sighed. "I don't know. The prejudices against us have been around since before we were born, there's not a lot we can do against them."

"Not in one fell swoop at least." Rok agreed, "But we've known that since the beginning, that we need to take small steps to reach our goal. So, what's a small step to making everyone believe that Dark Types aren't out to get them?"

Reaper wrinkled her nose. "I don't think there are even any small steps we can take to get there."

"Well, what if we just convinced people that we don't want to hurt them?" Rage suggested, "Like, everywhere we go we do nice things for the people there and so they won't hate us, and they won't think that we're doing something bad by giving other hurting pokémon a place to stay?"

Smoke smiled sadly. "That's a sweet idea Rage, but I'm not sure it will be enough."

"Unless they're very big good deeds." Darkrai said suddenly.

"What do you mean by that?" Silvo asked, sparks jumping from his spikes in his excitement.

Darkrai chuckled sheepishly. "Well, it's just a thought but…explorers generally garner a very good reputation."

A/N: I don't know why but I really like the idea of Darkrai always talking super old-fashioned and formal.

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