Chapter 52: A Pleasant Nightmare
Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to the song "Fly Me Too The Moon" all rights go to whoever actually made it or whoever actually owns it. I simply wanted to use it. Please don't get me sued.
Blade felt himself….awaken wasn't the right word, it was more like lucid dreaming, as though everything around him were real. Blade looked around. It was perfect. His friends were there. 'Friends?'
Family as well, and everyone was….happy. Shard was there, as was Cleave, and all of Blade's brothers and sisters, who had been taken away by humans so so long ago. They all gave a polite smile and waved him over. Without hesitation he ran over to them. As though all of the time they'd spent tormenting him had never happened.
Cleave stepped forward and embraced him. "There's our future alpha. Hehe, look at ya, you grow any faster and you'll take over tomorrow."
Blade smiled weakly "th-thanks Da…." Blade stopped, as though his mind were screaming at him.
"I'm so proud of you Blade!" Shard hugged him close. "Just as handsome as your father was at your age."
Blade smiled again at her. He looked around again. Pyre was there, and Cynder was with him. 'But she died….' Blade felt everything shake around him.
He felt two more hands on his back. Two relatives of some sort. Blade gently shrugged their hands off. Before they could speak Blade stepped away quickly. "J-just a sec." He ran off a short distance away keeping the group in sight. It was what Blade had always wanted, a happy loving family, caring friends, and …Shadow…..
Blade instinctively walked over to Pyre.
"Well if it isn't the guest of honor at this little party!" The Charmander smiled happily at him.
"Yeah hehe me….um Pyre, have you seen Shadow?" Blade asked.
Suddenly Pyre's smile vanished and he hugged Blade. "I know it hurts Blade, but you need to let go. I know his death hurts, but look at the upsides…."
"What…" Blade fell back landing on his rear. "D-dead? What possible upsides are there to that?!"
"Well he was a brutal and homicidal nutcase." Cleave's voice came from behind them. "So a lot of pokemon can be safe knowing he's gone."
'This is no dream, it's a nightmare. And there is nobody who cares about you enough to wake you from it.' That voice was….. A-Ashachu.
"I mean really, why would I actually trust or care about some pathetic, love starved runt if a Sneasel." The Pikachu was standing right in front of him now. Everyone around him frozen in time. "Nobody loves you. You're just a means to an end. Making me stronger, being a punching bag for your family, and being some worthless fucktoy for that maniac you call a boyfriend!"
Blade scuttled away, breaking into a Sprint before running face first into an invisible wall.
"You've never been fast enough to outrun the truth Blade." The Pikachu called from behind him.
"You're not real! And you're not him! Ashachu may have lied to me, but even I know he's not that cruel. Stop using his face and show what you really are monster!" Blade screamed.
As he looked at the Pikachu, the small rodents body began to fizzle and distort, like static from a tv as this nightmare's orchestral master revealed himself.
Blade's jaw dropped at the sight, his mind simply couldn't process it.
"You always were slow on the uptake weren't you." The creature said as it stood before Blade holding out it's arms. Scars littered it's body, the gem in its forehead cracked, and it's body damaged. It was a Sneasel….no, it was Blade himself. "I don't know what Shadow saw in you that was worth saving. You're pitiful and you always have been. A waste of life, a waste of space. Pathetic. Worthless. Dad should've killed you when you hatched!"
Blade tried to step back feeling the invisible wall behind him keeping him trapped between It and this nightmare Blade. "Sh-shut up!"
"Oh Blade, I'm not afraid of you. You've never won a fight in your life, you've almost died countless times, because you're too weak to protect yourself. You know all of that fear back there" Nightmare Blade pointed at the still frozen group. "That Shadow could die. It's because if he does die, it'll be protecting you, you worthless, pathetic, piece of shit!"
Blade turned away shaking his head.
Nightmare Blade pulled him to look at him. His eyes were….gone, his mouth filled with rows of fangs and twisted into a disturbing sadistic grin. "Now watch!" He forced Blade to his knees as the world around them faded away, and what appeared to be a dramatic stage took it's place. He held the poor sneasels eyes open.
Upon the stage was a Darkrai, beaten and bruised struggling to hold himself up. Some dramatically created version of Blade was clinging to the side of the stage, as though hanging from a ledge. Shadow was surrounded on all silhouettes all around. Blade could only make out a few shapes. Charizard, Pikachu, and some strange dog holding what appeared to be the silhouette of a sword in it's jaws.
"The future is always in motion, and because of your selfish was, your weakness, you will see your…our beloved die protecting you." Nightmare Blade smiled while gazing into Blades eyes. "It is far too late to stop this now, he will due like this, and you will suffer here with me forever when he does. Until this feeble body dies. Now then, why don't we see his final curtain call."
They turned their attention back to the stage. Shadow, having sprouted legs leapt into the air, and that vile beast holding the sword in it's maw cleaved the Darkrai in half by the waist. The others faded away as Shadow's body fell to the stage. Nightmare Blade released the Sneasel letting him sprint to the stage sliding to a halt over the darkrai's body. Blade was ready to break down but he shook his head. "No! You're just my fears! My pain! Trying to get to me! I won't let you!"
"You can't run from fate Blade."
"I don't have to run from something that's false!" Blade snarled.
"Is it false? You can't even tell if Shadow truly loves you!" The Nightmare Blade smirked at him.
Blade sprinted off stage and tackled the nightmare. "I may have doubts! But he still says it! And hes done more than enough to show it!" Blade pulled the nightmare up. "Now you watch! All you showed was my fear of the future, let me show you real memory then!"
The stage was set once more.
A small microphone on the stage, and Blade standing before it. Pyre was standing a short distance behind him with their friend Rai. The two had encouraged him to sing, or try to in Shadow's absence.
"Fly me to the moon" Blade's voice cracked through the start, but as he closed his eyes and continued he became far more clear "and let me play among the stars! Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars!" A weak smile crossed his lips. "In other words, hold my hand. In other words, baby kiss me."
Blade smiled at the nightmare Blade as his body turned back to the usual appearance Blade had.
"Fill my heart with song! And let me sing forever more! You are all I long for, all I worship and adore! In other words, please be true! In other words I love you!"
As the two watched the stage, Blade released the nightmare version to focus on the performance he so fondly remembered. 'I can't believe I let them talk me into doing that. Heheh, that was a weird night.'
They watched the stage as the music hit a particularly high note.
And as the Blade on stage prepared to continue, he was cut off by a rather deep voice.
"Fill my heart with song, let me sing forever more. You are all I long for, all I worship and adore. In other words, please be true. In other words! In other words! Iiiiiii! Looooove! You." It was Shadow, in thatoment he had appeared, taken Blade by the claw and pulled him close, singing passionately as he gazed in the sneasels eyes. The two leaned in close and faded away with the stage.
"Are you serious?" The Nightmare Blade laughed. "you think love is going to keep him alive when you get in over your head! Hahahahahah!"
Blade frowned at him a moment and closed his eyes fighting back the urge to cry, but the laughter vanished.
"Even in your dreams I'm your rescuer my love." Shadows voice filled his ears. The Sneasel dropped to his knees as the Darkrai embraced him from behind. "Shhhh, let me ease this burden, allow me to chase away your fears. And gift you sweet dreams when next you sleep." As Blade rested against Shadow the world disappeared around him.
He awoke with a start, his heart beating unusually fast. "Where am I?" Blade looked around a moment before he recognized his surroundings. "Not the damned place again!" He was in the place he had destroyed his friends relationship, he was back at Aether's Paradise.