Chapter 15: Demon of The Dark

Shadow had been wandering for weeks, and still no sign of Blade. The pokemon around him were more distant than ever. As if they could feel the seething unbridled rage within him. Finally he stopped for a moment by a river and looked at his own reflection. He could see how terrifying he looked, the red collar over his face seemed to become sharper similar to jagged fangs, the white plume billowing from his head came to point in multiple jagged tips, and the black cloak-like veil of his body had extended in the back taking an appearance more similar to a tail-coat jacket than a cloak. He looked like a different person. No…he looked like he should, he looked like a well dressed monster, the thing he became when Blade was around…was that really him? At the thought of Blade, his reflection went back to his real form as a darkrai. 'That is what I am. A monster, even if I do care about him' Shadow sighed at the thought, he didn't actually look any different, but he knew what he looked like to the people he hurt 'That is how Blade will see me, for letting them take him…'

"Shadow?" That voice was feminine and familiar.

"Cresselia. What do you want?"

"You're darker than usual, you and I are two halves of one whole, I know how you see yourself and you can't hate yourself like that."

"If I don't hate myself for leaving, the only other person the blame falls to, is the one that called me away."

Cresselia understood all too well what Shadow meant. If he wasn't enraged at himself, his rage would turn him to her. "Shadow…I know what you're thinking and it isn't going to help."

"No, it wouldn't, but it would bring me joy in seeing you suffer….you couldn't come to me?"

"You didn't have to come, Shadow, and you know it."

"Oh I didn't, despite you using our bond to pull me to you?!" Shadow was becoming agitated.

"You could have left whenever you…"

"The bottom line, sister" the word carried more venom than a poison type "Is that you knew it would happen, you knew fully well that they were taking him, I can see your memories Cresselia!" He had teleported right in front of her and grabbed her long slender neck. "This will never happen again."

"Okay, I won't pull you ever again just let go." Cresselia was afraid, even more so when she felt Shadow's grip tighten and got the feeling he had a manic grin behind his red collar veil.

"You misunderstood. That was neither an order, nor a suggestion. It is the truth." Shadow began to squeeze "I will sever our bond, by severing you from this world." Without looking away he held a dark orb in his hand touching it to Cresselia putting her to sleep almost instantly. "I grant you this single reprieve, you don't feel it when you part from this world."

*An hour later*

Shadow finished burying Cresselia in a very shallow grave leaving her crescent wings sticking from the ground. "Well Arceus, it seems you need to replace her, you might as well create another darkrai as well. I'm not your pawn, even if I am still following your path." He started floating away seeing hundreds of pokemon around him, he took the time to make himself known. "She was my sister, and I killed her without remorse. You mean nothing to me, so I won't hesitate to do worse to any of you. Now flee!"

At his command they scattered, running in every direction to avoid him. Then he landed at the river's edge. He was lost in thought. All his memories of Blade came rushing to him. That Sneasel meant more to him than the world itself. "You only know how you truly feel, when the person in your life is taken away. It shows who you really are. And if the world will give he, and I nothing but heartache and pain…then I shall do so in kind. I will tear this world asunder to protect him if I must." He hovered off the ground only then noticing the moist feeling on his face. A single tear, shed out of sorrow of being separated from his love. He started floating forth following the same path he had been. The trail Crystal left behind. Whoever had taken Blade had met her, so he could track her scent back to wherever they met. And from there, he could track them to wherever they had taken his Blade. His Blade, yeah that Sneasel was his, he refused to let anyone take him away. So he will save him, no matter what.

*Elsewhere*

Two humans were speaking, both hiding their identity in the dark of an abandoned building.

"So you have my Sneasel?"

"Yes sir, we can deliver him to you in about another week."

"I'm afraid I need him sooner than that."

"I'm sorry, as things stand I simply can't get him to you. You simply have to wait sir."

"Then you should know, there's a darkrai after that sneasel, it will not hesitate to kill anyone and anything in his way."

"I'm sorry. What?!"

"Now you see why you need to send him to me. You can't handle this darkrai, but I have the equipment to do so."

"I can send him in two days."

"I'll be waiting. Don't waste any time, and don't worry about the cost. I can't afford to have any more time wasted on this matter." And with that, he left the building.

Hours later, With Shadow*

Shadow found a small cavern with a labyrinth. Crystal's scent had crossed over dozens of times. She tried to cover her tracks well. Not well enough to stop Shadow however. Despite how the scent had been jumbled and blocked by other scents and also strewn about the labyrinth, he still knew where she was, he could still smell the residual ectoplasmic blood despite having killed her so long ago. And with that scent so fresh for him, he could track it easily.

"You've been wandering for a while, what are you looking for?" It had been a Magmortar. The scent had been faint, but he recognized it, Magmortar was present when they took Blade.

"I'm looking for a sneasel. Taken by a group of pokemon. Helped by a female sableye. Did you see anything like that?"

The Magmortar staggered back now realizing that Shadow was the pokemon they were warned about before taking Blade. "No, definitely not…."

"Oh dear, are you afraid? Because you're guilty? Well don't worry, you get to live, if you tell me where you took MY BLADE!" Shadow slammed him into a wall. He suddenly felt his rage erupt, almost going in for the kill, but stopped himself. "Now start talking, or you die."

Magmortar nods vigorously. "A facility on the other end of the continent!"

"That requires incredible speed? How did you manage it?"

"Multiple teleportation pokemon! Please just don't kill me!"

"Which way!?"

"East of the labyrinth!" Magmortar was still terrified until Shadow disappeared.

*Even Later*

Shadow traversed throughout the moonlit field. The dark was his only companion at the moment, but as he floated forward he became aware of the group of pokemon around him, ten, fifteen, thirty-one, fifty. Grass, Bug, Fire, Dark, Ice, Poison, and Fighting types every one. They were silent, focused on him. They smelled like the others that came before, they wreaked of human scent. They were with the people that stole Blade. They were going to suffer. Every.Last.One of them.

An Arbok slithered forth beside a human and a Feraligatr.

"It'sssssss the darkrai….kill him!!"

Shadow had no patience for their trivial attacks. He slipped around their weak attacks, not that he had to dodge them, they were weak after all. But he countered their attacks with brutal precision. A nincada jumped at him and he ripped off the bug's head. Then an Ekans tried to bite him only to be grabbed and twisted into a knot several times. Shadow dropped it and continued decimating their forces easily. He cut them down with ease. Like a hot knife through warm butter.

"Feraligatr, go!" the masked Human ordered and Feraligatr chomped down on Shadow's arm easily punching holes into his arm. Shadow kept fighting regardless, holding the horde back with one free hand.

Arbok did something beyond incompetent, he taunted Shadow "That Ssssssneasel of yours was quite tasty! Truly delicioussssss. Until I had to puke him out. Poor boy almost suffocated in my gut, if only you could save him."

"When Feraligatr bites down on a target, it cannot ever release it's jaw until the targets limb comes off or the fangs fall out." Shadow spoke slowly looking at Feraligatr. The water type began bashing Shadow with it's limbs. The other Pokémon stepped back avoiding getting close as Feraligatr pummeled Shadow down. The darkrai was becoming slowly less and less patient. Upon seeing Shadow unfazed by the onslaught Feraligatr tried to pull away. Shadow looked to Arbok. "You ate my dear Blade?" The pitch black pokemon's cloak-like torso began to ooze darkness emitted from his body like black smoke. He grabbed Feraligatr by the jaw and pulled up, finding it impossible even for him to pull the pokemon off. "Did you know there's another way to get out of this grip?" Shadow brought himself and the water type to the ground. Then he lifted his arm and slammed the head down shaking it's skull, then again, and again, and again. Then he lifted the scaled pokemon and slammed it's head into a rock.

"Hahahaha foolish darkrai" the human spoke up "you cannot escape, you've lost and besides, that Sneasel is likely being dissected already."

The black smoke billowing from his torso seemed to drastically increase in smoke plumes. Then he grabbed Feraligatr by it's jaw again, staring the human down. The human laughed heartily, believing he had won. Until Shadow yanked down with such force the scales of Feraligatr's face were torn clean off. Feraligatr struggled trying it's best to escape. But then Shadow grabbed the lower jaw again. This time squeezing and crushing the lower jaw effectively pulverizing the bones and forcing the jaw to loosen, still not giving way. He gripped just under the fangs and with a ruthless powerful pull separated the what was left of the jawbone from the fangs leaving several fangs in his arm. He pulled them from his arm one at a time, then stabbed one into the slowly suffering Feraligatr's eye. Then he casually pulled it off by the upper jaw. "I believe I have just proven as the first, and currently, only exception to that little fact. You were only following orders, so I shall make your death quick." The pitch black Pokemon jammed another of the fangs into Feraligatr's head twisting it until the water type went limp, then before it hit the ground Shadow grabbed each side of it's head and twisted snapping the neck and causing the body to spiral from the sudden motion. Then it hit the ground, dead. The human and Arbok reeled back from the sight. Arbok lunges at Shadow, being caught by the mouth which Shadow pried open with ease. "Now then, you will pay dearly for harming my Blade." Without a second thought the darkrai jammed his clawed hand down Arbok's throat and into its gut. Both the human and Arbok were surprised by this. Shadow didn't break eye contact as he dug his claws in after reaching down the snake's gut as far as possible. His claws gripped tight and in one decisive movement he pulled, turning the poison type inside out. And without skipping a beat he teleports in front of the human. "Where is Blade!?"

The human was terrified. Standing, no floating just before his eyes was a ruthless killing machine, that had brutalized his two strongest pokemon. The human sat in stunned silence as his memories flashed before his eyes.

"And so, you have outlived your usefulness to me." Shadow coated his claw in darkness and swept the human. They dropped dead and the remaining horde of pokemon turned tail and ran off, but Shadow wasn't done. Holding his claws over his head a small dark orb formed firing off dozens of small dark spheres putting the pokemon to sleep. And he killed them, slowly, painfully. And with cruel, sadistic precision. As he wiped the blood from his body he noticed a drone in the distance. In a second the dark type teleported plucking it from the sky and looking into the small camera. "Return my Blade to me, or you will suffer, not only you, but everyone and everything you hold dear as well." And with that he released the drone.

Author's Note: to explain something before I start getting questions about it, the description I gave of Shadow wasn't an actual physical change, it was how he saw himself. He did not physically change his body, however as a mental image Shadow could project it into the minds of others, thus making himself look more menacing.

Anyway, thanks to everyone that keeps reading this. I know I'm slow to update and I don't have an actual schedule, but your support means a ton.