Chapter 6: The Truth in the Dark

Roughly a month or two had passed as Blade and Shadow reached the opposite end of the mountain range. Blade had become much stronger in that time, his body more muscular. Not in the way a human's body did, he wasn't by any means larger or bulging with muscle. He was simply toned, his muscles worked into a more fine definition. Strong abdominal, arm, and leg muscles looking as though an artist had added more pressure on drawing the lines of his arms, legs, and abdomen to make the muscle there more noticeable. And he was moving naturally despite the rock weighing him down so much. In two long, brutal months of training with Shadow, Blade had become quite the specimen of a sneasel. His body, nearly perfect for survival, his abilities honed and made to last should a fight drag on, and his movement had become fluid and graceful, again despite the heavy stone on his back.

"You've come quite the distance Blade, and you've persevered through a most grueling training regimen. I admit I'm impressed by your progress."

Blade gave a bow and smiled at Shadow blushing from the compliment "I wouldn't have made it this far without an excellent teacher Shadow, this is your hard work as much as mine!"

Shadow scratched behind the sneasel's ear in a comforting rewarding manner "Wouldn't have happened, not without an excellent student." Blade found himself blushing at Shadow's touch. Two months was a long time when you were slow going and constantly together. Blade was, more than a little infatuated with Shadow. The few feelings Blade showed when they reached the start of the mountain range had blossomed into quite a crush on the larger male. Shadow, despite never showing it and never being able to show it, did reciprocate, but he decided to let Blade move at his own pace. The two locked eyes, Shadow gazing down into the magnificent silver of Blade's eyes with his own deep desiring red eye. Two months was not enough however, no amount of time would ever be enough for Blade to understand Shadow. Even friends that knew Shadow for years could never tell how he was feeling or what he thought, but he read them like books. So, poor Blade was too terrified of rejection to tell Shadow the truth of how he felt. Too many people had hated him and abandoned him to risk such a thing. He settled for just being around the darkrai. "Two months seems to be more than enough time, at least if you asked my opinion, brace yourself." Shadow touched the stone on the smaller male's back and it slipped off, no longer held in place by Psychic "Now feel free to move around and test the difference, this newfound freedom will take time for you to recognize and use properly. So lets start on the basics, attack me."

Blade did as he was told attacking the larger male. His speed and precision of attacks were far greater than what they once were. Shadow truly was impressed, in those two months he made Blade a match for any sneasel in one on one combat, but he knew Blade needed more. If he were to ever encounter his father again, he'd likely be…'As if I'd let him die.' Shadow decided in the closing days of their time in the mountains, that he'd not attack Blade, even in training. He'd simply push the sneasel to move faster to avoid getting hit. Of course one accidental swipe while Shadow was lost in thought, saw a boulder destroyed. Behind this boulder as the mangled skeleton of a dragonite. Some of the meat hadn't yet been taken, but Shadow did notice something, that particular dragonite had a satchel, neither it, nor its damaged remains were about. Someone had collected them. Blade was, well, disgusted in short terms. Some of the flesh had rotted away and other bits were strewn about just behind it. The thing that struck him was that the scales were sitting rather close to the corpse. As if they weren't part of the recent devouring. Which meant this dragonite had been dead for a while. "Only two months, I expected him to decompose..well a bit slower, though clearly someone has been eating my little warning." Blade was honestly not surprised in the slightest at what Shadow said.

Considering Shadow wasn't the type to take claim of someone else's handy work. He didn't care to be famous or renowned, so there would be no point for him to claim any accomplishments not his own. And he does have a long history of cruel, unusual murder. "Do you know how long it takes to peel the scales off a dragonite? The prevailing answer is, if they struggle, an hour. Perhaps longer if you don't rend their wings from their backs." And he confirmed it with some cruel disgusting trivia. Well, Blade may not be eating for a while. "Well, no time to waste. Come along Blade we haven't got all day." Blade quickly followed the darkrai as they moved down a steep slope. Even from behind him Shadow seemed to be nearly perfect in Blade's eyes. And though Blade didn't know it, Shadow felt the same way about him. The larger male held out his claw "Come along now Blade." The smaller male reached out grabbing Shadow's claw.

A sudden sensation enveloped Blade, almost a tugging and pushing feeling at the same time. As if his entire body was both opened and closed. And on top of it all, it felt as though an eternity passed in a moment. They were now at the bottom of the mountain. "Fret not, you will certainly become used to the feeling of Teleportation after the third time." Blade dropped to all fours vomiting from all the sudden sensations.

"Fuck, that was horrible!" Shadow chuckled at Blade's reaction. "Don't laugh you jerk!" Shadow offered Blade his claw again. Blade took his claw and felt the darkrai lift him to his feet gently moving him away from the pool of vomit. "Thank you…."

"I wasn't trying to laugh at you, I apologize for being rude." Shadow had his...flaws, but despite how dark and cruel and, allegedly vindictive he could be the darkrai, unless provoked was a very well mannered pokemon, treating those he encountered with respect. One could say that Shadow was a gentleman. Always reserved and respectful, at least until threatened. That said, someone clearly hated the darkrai very much as a Charizard barreled down throwing his fist at the nightmare pokemon. With a sudden pressurized gust downward from the abrupt contact Charizard felt his fist held tight in a clawed hand. "I do so despise.." he spoke slowly putting extra malice behind the next word "Interruptions!" With a sickening crunch Shadow crushed the fire lizard's fist in his claw and threw the charizard into the ground hard.

"Ahhhh, I'll kill you, you bastard!"

"You may want to stand back, the first few rows are a splash zone." Shadow said, hesitantly releasing Blade's claw before turning to the already injured Charizard. "I must apologize, I can't say I recall what I did to offend you, or who I hurt to make you this angry." The charizard spat a fire breath at Shadow only for the darkrai to enclose the stream in darkness condensing it into a ball.

"You killed my brother!"

"Oh was he the one fighting a single charmander, while backed up by roughly six other higher evolutions? Yes, he got what he deserved. After all, if you still struggle when your opponent is both outnumbered and at a natural disadvantage you have no business fighting. You clearly have no honor."

"Shut your mouth! You murdered him in cold blood, you talk of honor, you didn't even give him a fair chance."

"Well, my dear friend Pyre would disagree, and considering he prefers the fairness of a one on one fight, I think he'd agree, hiding behind a group is cowardly."

"Well your little pet is sitting there hiding behind your skirt like a scared child."

Shadow let out a blood chilling chuckle. "I remember your brother better now, I only killed him well, I suppose the reason doesn't matter, but you should watch your tongue, your issue lies with me, so refrain from insulting my friend." Blade blushed just at that word, friend, it made him happy, Shadow didn't claim people as friends often so it just made the boys heart beat even faster.

"You took my brother, the least I can do to repay it in kind is!" Charizard charged a flamethrower in his mouth this time taking aim at Blade. Before he could fire it off he was met with a blood red eye, nearly blazing with anger. Shadow jammed the ball of fire engulfed in darkness into the charizard's mouth.

He whispered as he slammed the fire lizard's mouth shut holding it closed with one claw "Don't try to break what doesn't belong to you." The ball seemed to explode in the fire pokemon's mouth. "That sneasel is mine" charizard managed to pull himself away

"Shut up I'll kill you and your little bitch!"

The sentence ended as Shadow gripped the charizards jaw with one hand and pulled it open. He grabbed the fire lizard's tongue with his free claw "I recall advising you to watch your tongue. Your mistake to not heed that advice, so I'll at least warn you that this will hurt." Shadow slowly pulled his jaw down bringing the fire pokemon desperately to his knees. The darkrai sprouted his legs pressing one to charizard's right shoulder. Charizard felt the grip on his tongue get tighter and he tried to pull away. There was no escape, then he felt Shadow push against him still holding his tongue. Panic set in and charizard tried desperately to push himself closer, but the pitch-black pokemon was far stronger pushing him back and gently pulling his tongue. The strain on the organ was unbearable he thought the stress would never end, but he prayed that it never did because he knew how it would end. Then pain overwhelmed him and blood flooded his mouth. Shadow slammed the flame pokemon's mouth shut once again holding it so it could not open. Then to taunt the charizard Shadow held his now removed tongue in front of the fire lizard. "Well, I suppose if you didn't want to drown in your own blood you should have listened when I told you to watch your tongue." Shadow covered charizard's nose as well cutting off his airways. He was effectively drowning the flame pokemon with the blood from his own tongue. Minutes passed charizard thrashed punching Shadow but the darkrai didn't budge. "By all means, struggle, it makes watching you die more entertaining."

"Hey, don't you think you're overdoing it a bit" Shadow stopped releasing the charizard from what the sneasel had said.

"Does my cruelty scare you?" He grabbed charizard once again this time simply wrenching the fire lizard's head until it was snapped backwards.

"No, I just…..you already beat him..."

"Sweet naive Blade, I killed his brother, he hated me, he wasn't going to let go of that hatred, they never do. Hate born from the loss of what you hold dear does not simply pass, often it stays with them forever. And I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel the same hatred when my friends are harmed or insulted." Shadow faced away from Blade letting himself walk through his thoughts 'And yet, I've never felt that hate nearly as strong as I did just now, when you were insulted.' Blade simply looked away. "I regret to remind you, however, I did tell you that I am quite cruel. Or did you forget the last time I did something similar."

"I remember, just, nevermind"

Shadow hugged Blade "I apologize, but it is in my nature to be cruel. Make no mistake, I'll endeavour to not be so in front of you again."

"No."

Shadow leaned back "What?"

"No! I'm not like all these other pokemon! I'd never ask you to be different from what you are, err who you are! Cause you're awesome as you are!" Blade covered his face blushing and looking away out of embarrassment.

Shadow released Blade from his embrace "Why thank you Blade, quite the compliment considering you are the one saying it. Now then, the day is long ahead of us and the nights becomes extremely cold, even to ice types like you. At least this time of year they do." Shadow floated onward away from the mountain 'And I suspect that even then you could likely sustain yourself in that condition for quite a while. You've come a long way, my dear sneasel, I truly am impressed with you.' The two pokemon continued travelling forth viewing a large mixture of forest, open plains, caves, and lakes. Considering the now increased speed of their mobility due to Blade not being weighed down they could likely make it a great distance before nightfall. "Run full speed, don't stop until your legs can no longer handle the strain." Blade nodded and took off running forward. A glance to the left showed the darkrai flying forth beside him. In that moment for Blade, everything seemed to just stop. Like nothing else mattered he found himself…..happy, he didn't quite recognize that feeling at first, but he's gotten used to feeling it, but only when he and Shadow are together. Strange….did the darkrai really make Blade...happy? Maybe it was something else, but what the small sneasel was feeling was unbelievably strange, as if he had butterfrees in his stomach. This darkrai had to have done something to him that he didn't tell him about. He'd have to ask later, for now he'd just enjoy himself. And he did just that. For seemingly hours the two moved at high speed through the grassy biome.

Of course it had only been minutes, but even after they stopped moving at top speed they pressed on until the sun began to go down. "I suppose we should find a safe place for you to rest" Shadow said watching the light suddenly fade away. The world had seemingly become pitch-black and Blade couldn't see more than a few inches in front of himself.

"Hey Shadow, did you blind me?"

"No, can you not see?"

"No I was asking because I can definitely see everything around me!" Blade was scared, he had lost sight of nearly everything around him. "Unnatural darkness, fret not Blade, darkness is my own little puppet"

Shadow covered Blade's eyes with one claw veiling them in a small mist which seemed to bestow upon him sight once again. "It's so dark and yet" Blade was in utter amazement "So beautiful. So, perfect….just like.."

"Just like what Blade?"

Blade hesitated a moment "Just like you Shadow." The sneasel blushed uncontrollably as he realized what he'd just said.

"Hehe, funny, you really think I am perfect?" Blade blushed an even deeper red. "The feeling is mutual." Blade managed an even deeper blush than ever if that was even possible.

"R-really"

"Yes, is something wrong, you look rather red" Shadow pressed a claw to Blade's head "You don't seem feverish, are you alright?"

"I'm fine, it's nothing really..."

Shadow reached behind Blade's ear giving a gentle scratch causing the sneasel to suddenly relax. "You can tell me Blade, you know I don't mind whatever you have to say." The smaller male stared into the larger's eye.

Minutes passed, perhaps even an hour, Blade was lost in the gorgeous red color of Shadow's eye. Without thinking Blade blurted out his feelings "I'm in love with you!" Both stood speechless, Blade was still processing what he'd just said and Shadow, well he was waiting for Blade to catch up to it. The sneasel seemed to blush such a deep red one might think his cheeks were on fire. The smaller male looked away hiding his face from the larger male. Shadow gently embraced him from behind, pulling the sneasel close "Would you like to know something interesting Blade" he didn't respond "I believe, I am also in love with you."

Blade wiggled out of Shadow's arms "Don't do that..." Shadow gave him a moment to explain himself "Don't tell me what you think I want to hear..."

"Simply put my dear, its not what you want to hear, but it is the truth whether you accept it or not is entirely up to you." Shadow turned Blade to face him and pulled him into a warm hug "And if this love is real, then let it light your way through the dark and cold of the night."

Blade felt his blush start to fade "Do you really mean it?" Shadow pulled away from the hug and pulled Blade close, holding the sneasel close to the crimson veil around his face, and he kissed him revealing that he did indeed have a mouth and lips. After breaking away from the kiss Blade had little doubt in his mind that he was cared for. The darkness seemed to lift and the veil over Blade's eyes vanished "Well, I believe that is a good sign." And the two set off into the night.