Chapter 81: Reunited
Blade had been jogging toward the hellish building he'd become all too familiar with. He noticed earlier in his approach three massive vessels hanging in the sky.
One black and shaped almost like the hilt of a sword, the very front adorned with what looked like a mask. A familiar large red R was painted upon its side.
The other looked more like a pirate ship, massive sails adorned it, though it was strange to see something like that hanging in the air. It was marked with a large P.
The other, he'd never forget, the vessel that took him and his friends through ultra space. The Centurion.
What Blade hadn't noticed was the defending pokemon and people from two of the vessels. And he didn't notice their retreat into their vessels.
*With Shadow*
The Darkrai was too late, by the time he returned from meeting Cresselia, Team Rocket had descended upon Aether Paradise. He only just caught a glimpse of them returning to their ship, with several people and pokemon. He only recognized a few. The primary issue being, Ashachu was with them, he didn't come this far just to let Team Rocket prevent him from helping them.
Just as he made to pursue something, froze him in place, not fear, but a sense of apprehension. Glancing down, he saw a creature reveal itself. It had a lionesque shape, with a brilliant white and gold mane, but its body was covered in black crystalline growths.
Shadow couldn't explain it, but he felt something familiar within the creature, as if he'd seen it before, though he wasn't sure if that was his memories, or those of that other Shadow he'd seen.
Despite his lack of memory, he felt a name grace his tongue. "Necrozma."
*With Blade*
The Sneasel had closed in closer to the building, and he noticed a plume of smoke billowing from the building. And he caught a glimpse of a strange crystalline lion climbing out of the hole. But then, it was as if someone flipped a switch, the world grew dark despite the sun still being high in the sky. Despite the darkness, Blade could still somewhat see. What was clear as day however was the lion-like creature.
A bright beam of red erupted across the sea and blasted the creature lighting the building ablaze, before a bright beam of blue promptly put out the fires and instead froze the building over.
The crystalline beast bolted from the roof taking off over the sea. And the two hostile ships moved to pursue it.
Once both ships were out over the water, Blade noticed a piece of ice shatter on the building as something covered in smoke spiraled out of control through the air until it crashed just a short distance from the frozen building.
That pulling sensation returned, and Blade went sprinting toward the crash site. He wasn't certain, but the further that creature got, the easier it became to see. And the closer he got to where whatever crashed had landed, that pulling sensation only got stronger.
Once he finally reached his destination, he began to furiously shake his head. "Why are you doing this again! I thought you changed!" Blade practically screamed at his mirrored self.
Xiphos held his arms up. "This isn't me, I think we're both hallucinating now."
Standing, or rather floating there, right in front of Blade, was Shadow, his body visibly singed and smoking. The Darkrai was just hovering there. Turning slowly Shadow made eye contact.
Blade didn't know what to feel, that single red eye was staring him straight in the eyes. It felt real, just like every time Shadow looked him in the eyes. Even when it was just a hallucination from grief.
"I can't keep going like this Xi, I just can't, I keep seeing him everywhere, it's driving me insane!" The Sneasel raised his claw to strike himself in the head in a desperate attempt to drive the illusion out of his mind.
His claw was stopped in mid air. "Blade, I am so sorry I ever let this happen." Shadow embraced the Sneasel.
One would think with how desperately Blade wanted Shadow back, he'd be ecstatic. But he quickly pushed the Darkrai away. "You're….sorry?!" Blade shouted, extending his claws. "That's all you have to say for yourself!? That you're sorry!?" The Sneasel lunged forth, slashing at Shadow's face. Shadow floated back away from the attack, but Blade pressed his advance landing and rolled to his feet, as he coated one of his claws in metallic energy and slashed again.
Again Shadow avoided the attack. "Blade…I…"
The Sneasel jumped forth grabbing one of Shadow's arms as he began furiously slashing at the darkrai's midsection. Right where his scar from being cleaved in two was. "That's all you've got, asking me to forgive you?!"
Shadow carefully pushed Blade off not wanting to hurt the Sneasel further.
The Sneasel wasn't deterred, he began slashing again. "You want forgiveness, after you abandoned me!" Shadow dodged each slash. "After you broke your promise!" Blade channeled power through himself and threw several shards of ice at Shadow. The larger male simply caught each shard crushing them in his clawed hands.
Part of him wanted to make Blade stop, but he couldn't. He was right, Shadow had been searching for forgiveness, but everyone else he'd sought it from, they weren't Blade. Despite everything he'd done to those other pokemon, he felt he'd hurt Blade the most. And he didn't care if the rest forgave him, he didn't want their forgiveness, and he knew he didn't deserve it. But now, he felt he didn't deserve it, but he wanted Blade to forgive him, to love him again.
"You promised you'd never leave me! That you'd never abandon me!" Blade began to sob as he attacked, tears blocking his view. Shadow stopped moving, allowing Blade to strike him. "You promised we'd always be together!" As Blade hit Shadow his claws retracted. But he didn't stop hitting him. "You promised!" He pounded his clawed hands against Shadow's chest. "You promised…" He continued pounding his fists against Shadow. "You..promised." he stopped hitting Shadow and just pressed his face into the darkrai's midsection. "You…promised…" tears streamed down his face. "You…"
Shadow hugged him tight again. His deep, usually stoic voice cracked as he spoke. "I know I did..I have hated myself every day for it." The pitch black pokemon was crying as well. "That promise has been the only thing keeping me going…Even when my life was fading away, I did not care that I was dying." Blade looked up at his lover, tears still cascading from his eyes. "I only thought of how I had failed you, how I had broken my promise, how I had left you alone in this cruel world!" Shadow looked into Blade's eyes, tears falling from his eye as well. "I fought death itself, because if I was going to break my promise to you, then I deserved far worse than death!"
The two fell silent, aside from the sounds of their sobs. Neither let go of the other. "I was going to…." Blade spoke up again.
"I know, and it was all because you wanted to be with me again…" Shadow continued crying as he held his Sneasel close. "I have been a sorry excuse for a mate, I allowed that to happen because I did not want to come back to you until I was a better mon."
Blade just hugged Shadow tighter. "You were trying to be better?" Blade blushed as his tears slowed. "For me?"
"Cruelty and death could not keep you safe, could not keep you happy." Shadow's tears slowed as well, and he wiped Blade's away. "And so I believe, if I change, and become a better mon, perhaps I will be capable of protecting you more than I ever was before."
"Shadow…" Blade reached up, wiping the tears from Shadow's eye. The two stared into each other's eyes before leaning in, kissing each other with passion and need. They abruptly pulled apart and simply hugged again. "I love you, MY Shadow…"
"I love you too, MY Blade." If not for the crimson veil around his face, it might have been evident that Shadow was blushing from how Blade had referred to him. "So who's your friend?"
They released their embrace. Blade gave a curious look as Shadow motioned to Xiphos. "You can see him?" He nodded. "This is Xiphos, apparently he was a mental defense mechanism put in my head by this pokemon lunala."
"I wonder if he can hear me?"
"As you are part of Blade, yes I can." Shadow looked in thought. "Lunala, yes, I smelled her scent upon Cleave when I tried to kill him. I had not yet recognized it."
"You actually kept me locked away for a while cause you were worried I'd hurt Blade." Xiphos spoke up.
"So I did."
"So uh…what's happening? Ya know with that creature?" Blade interrupted them.
"Necrozma." Shadow corrected. "I cannot quite place where I know it's name from, but I do believe we experienced an encounter with them long ago."
"We did?" Blade gave a quizzical look.
"Yes, the night we confessed our love." Shadow smiled behind his veiled face, but Blade could tell. He noticed long ago that Shadow's emotions were easier to read through his eye. It was softer somehow, and barely open, he only did that when he felt comfortable and safe, or rather when he was happy. "The night I gave you clear vision in such unnatural darkness. Though I think it has worn off because of my death." The darkrai waved his clawed hand over Blade's eyes, a dark mist enveloping them for a moment.
Once his vision cleared, Blade could see more clearly than ever. "Thanks Shadow. Umm…should we help Necrozma? Those humans were attacking them."
"I amm aware, that would be where these burns came from. As it turns out, drastic changes in temperature are quite dangerous." Shadow winced slightly from the burns across his body. It was strange, he normally hid his pain from everyone, even Blade, but now hovering before him, Shadow felt unburdened.
"Are you okay?" That felt strange, Shadow hadn't heard that from Blade before. "I didn't realize you actually felt pain…"
"My pain is something I should never have hidden from you." Shadow relaxed. "We are partners after all. We share pain, to make it more bearable." Blade smiled at that response. "However, I am not sure Necrozma needs our help, or even wants it. However, I do know someone else that needs help, the last people I had intended to apologize to before I came back to you."
"Hik…Ashachu." Blade shook his head at his mistake, he still hadn't quite gotten used to calling him that yet. "That's why you were at Aether, you were trying to help them?"
"Indeed I was. They had been captured by Aether. Pyre and I had an elaborate plan to aid their escape, however Team Rocket complicated things, as did Team Plasma."
That answered Blade's question about the other humans. "So, are we going to help them?"
"We will certainly try. Unless you'd rather we leave?" Shadow looked into Blade's eyes again.
"They're my friends…and my trainer…I can't just leave them."
"One of them caught you, yes, I think I recall seeing it happen." Shadow nodded. "In that case my dear, I believe we have some friends of yours to help, don't we?" Shadow pulled him close preparing to fly off.
"Yeah! Let's go be heroes!"