I am sorry for how the last chapter ended.
Somewhat shorter chapter here. It's important, though. Very important.
"Raigeki?"
Rai looked up sharply. The lightning-charred plains smelled of ozone and a tangy smell that he couldn't place otherwise.
The ever-present storm roiled overhead, sending down numerous jolts of powerful, life-giving, lightning. He knew that they venerated the lightning strikes. The might of the thunderclouds empowered them, gave them the energy to fight on, to hunt and journey far.
The lightning had to be respected, no one pokémon besides Mother could handle a lightning strike on their own. The rest of them had to bunch up to withstand the blast, feel its shock and heat pop their joints and fray the ends of their fur.
It was a fool's errand to try and survive a hit on your own, but fools still occurred no matter what.
He knew he would try it one day. It was a test of strength for them. To survive a lightning strike from the heavens was the most outstanding display of strength possible. It was why Mother led their pride, she could not only survive it but was not even disabled from the blast.
"Raigeki, did you hear me?"
Rai blinked again, shaking his head free of strange thoughts. He smiled at Mother and asked. "Yes?"
She gave him a soft look, marred by the roughness of her fur. But he knew the twinkle in her eye meant he wasn't in trouble. "Listen, next time," she chastised, giving a hint a sparking lick on the head. "We're about to travel to the edge."
Rai beamed. It was where he found his treasure, the edge.
"Treasure?" Mother asked, and Rai realised he had spoken his thoughts out loud. "Well, of course, silly thing." She poked at the item he wore around his neck, causing it to swing a few times. "Come on."
They were there, and they stepped into the edged ground without hesitation. It wasn't everyone, just the immediate family. They were heading to the lightning storm, they were going to enjoy a blast as a family.
Rai was excited, everyone else was too. He forgot their names exactly, but he looked at Arashi and remembered.
They walked between looming cliffs that were greatly steep and curving above them. Very steep, actually. Unusually steep.
Rai stopped. He was alone. He needed to warn them, but there was no one there to warn—only himself.
Rai whimpered, a sound as small as he was, as he backed away. Red eyes lit up in the distance and a purplish aura sunk around them, drinking their eyes and devouring their teeth.
He backed into Mother, laying broken and cold, and screamed.
Rai's eyes jolted open, and he gasped, flying up in bed. His heart was pounding in his throat, and he was breathing sharp and fast, but he quickly reminded himself that it was just a dream.
He began to breathe easier, not wanting to disturb Scout or Mane.
"That was quite the experience."
Rai jumped again and sparked with electricity, looking sharply back and forth, trying to spot the voice. The water was distant outside, just a thought, as his eyes fell on a darker patch of shadow.
He felt a thrill of fear as two blue eyes lit up, but they weren't red, and this one didn't have the purple aura.
But perhaps he didn't need it.
"SCOUT! MANE!" Rai shouted, but they weren't there.
"Calm down," Darkrai said conversationally. "You're unconscious at the moment, this is a dream."
"A nightmare!" Rai shouted, discharging electricity on Darkrai.
Despite it being imaginary lightning striking a phantasm, the dream shattered and Rai's eyes snapped open. He took hard breaths of salty air, hearing the loud rumble of water and the distant sounds of life.
No dream could replicate so much, and he began to calm down, looking over to Scout and Mane. Both were sleeping as calmly as they could with the situation as it was. He could see tear-tracks on Scout's frowning face, and it hurt to see.
Mane was less troubled, but a small frown still set his face into a threatening visage. The litleo mumbled something and nestled closer to Scout, their frowns fading into a relaxed look as they took in the other's familiar scent.
Rai managed a smile at them. He didn't get up. They were all on edge, and he feared he'd wake them up, but he wasn't going to sleep after that.
It was probably just a dream built on stress, but knowing Darkrai could enter dreams left him nervous. The worst part was that if it was Darkrai, he had definitely seen what Rai had experienced beforehand.
His family. His life as a wild pokémon. Losing nearly everything to that monster. He shivered and nudged himself closer to Scout and Mane, taking in the latter's heat and the formers sleep-mumbling.
The sun wasn't beginning to rise yet, and the distant horizon was to the west, not the east. He'd try and rest a little more.
Until the day would begin.
Not a single pokémon had an easy night of rest. Still, the anticipation of the goings-on amounted to most of that.
Rai quickly told Scout and Mane that he had, in fact, had a nightmare; however, they did not report the same.
Just to be sure, he brought it up again as the pokémon in the know convened for this send-off.
"I didn't sleep well, but nothing I'd say was a nightmare," Wigglytuff reported, and that was the general response from everyone.
Wigglytuff and Armaldo had risen earlier than the others and met with Cresselia, preparing a bag for Sean to bring in. It was a large bag, Wigglytuff's old one. He had needed the space to carry food, lots of food, but for this, they'd be able to use the space for a better purpose.
Cresselia confirmed the heat of the dungeon they were heading to, so four separate skins of water were set in. Three for the normal pokémon and one backup as Cresselia claimed she would not grow dehydrated.
The fourth one was for her, but Wigglytuff wouldn't say that.
They had a modest amount of food, but the rest of the bag was filled with weapons and healing items. Rawst berries, orans, sitrus', leppas, even three whole reviver seeds were packed in. It was basically everything that the guild had, everything else had been lost, and the marketplace had also been destroyed.
Ara had also joined them, knowing what was going on, and offered her items as well. "Most of it is just weapons, but I've got some sitrus and oran berries." Her gift was taken gratefully by Sean. She rubbed against Rai and licked his face. "Be safe."
Kangaskhan had approached the collected pokémon soon herself, carrying a bundle.
"I may be old and foolish," she said as Cresselia watched her suspiciously. "But I know you are up to something important. Here." She gave them another two reviver seeds and scarves woven from a zangoose's fur.
"It'll be warm," she said, tying them on. "But it'll also protect you from poisonous fumes."
"How do you know such a thing will be needed?" Cresselia asked sharply.
"Word gets around," Kangaskhan replied to the unfriendly legendary. She also offered a zangoose scarf, but Cresselia refused.
"We have sufficient resources to stave off the poison," she said primly. The fourth one was packed in any way when she wasn't looking.
Wigglytuff, Armaldo, Team Sunrise, Ara, and Scout saw them to Sharpedo Bluff.
"How are we getting across exactly?" Sean asked. She had spoken of it already, but he wanted to fill the silence.
"I can fast travel," Cresselia answered. "But only those I can carry." She gave Armaldo a look like he had offended her. "So, the three of you will need to get on my back."
She didn't lower herself to let them jump on, she instead picked them up with Psychic to prop them on her back. Sean breathed out a wince after being released, the Psychic Energy disagreed with his new physiology. He had learned that well from Saniya doing it a few times.
"Are we ready?" Cresselia asked, positioning her body along the invisible stream she'd use to rocket them forth.
"I think so," Rai said, glancing out at the others.
"Give him hell," Scout said, trying to look encouraging.
"You can do it." Guardian nodded, trusting them.
"Good luck," Striker added, his eyes were dark with want to help.
"We'll see you later." Saniya smiled, it was a hollow thing, but she believed.
Armaldo merely nodded.
"If something happens," Wigglytuff said sternly. "There is an escape orb and a rollcall orb in there as well. Don't try and be martyrs. Live to fight another day."
He received three nods in return.
"You keep an eye on each other," Ara ordered, especially to Mane and Sean. "Alright?"
"Of course, what do you take me for?" Mane scoffed. He was actually a little excited. He had been nearly killed in Brine Cave and couldn't journey to the Hidden Land to help, part of him felt a little ashamed he hadn't been strong enough to help when Rai had been.
But now they were heading to the dungeon of his home-court advantage, he wouldn't let this opportunity go to waste.
Sean was the last to speak. "We'll see you later," he said. Team Sunrise would always part ways, however rarely it happened, like that. They would see each other again.
Satisfied, Cresselia began to feel along, shining with glittering power.
"I will contain you three with me," she said as a translucent sphere appeared around her, shielding the pokémon on her back. "But I suggest you hold on anyway. Do NOT rip any of my feathers out."
It was okay that it was Rai, Mane, and Sean going. If this was some sort of trick, then stronger pokémon were being left to protect the town.
This was what fuelled their choices, their acceptance of Cresselia's choice.
They glittered with Psychic power. Then they were gone.
Scout watched them go. This was wrong, he felt. But at the same time, it wasn't.
He wasn't the human, the hero. Sean was. Sean and Rai. And Mane, but he was perfect for this and Scout knew he'd do fantastic. Sean, Striker, and Rai had gone to the Hidden Land. That was correct, but was it anymore? Lucario had told him to stop thinking like that, but it was difficult not to.
And still. Seeing them off, not knowing what was going to happen. Not being there himself to nearly mess up but still pull through. It threw him, this just felt wrong.
"Are you okay?" Guardian asked, seeing the conflicted feelings flashing over Scout's face.
"I… know they're up to the task," he replied.
"It feels wrong to not be helping," Guardian said, sighing. Scout frowned and glanced up to him, Guardian also looked troubled.
"They can do it," Saniya said, floating over to the conversation.
"But it feels strange to not be doing it as well," Striker added, glancing down to Scout before looking back to the winds they had disappeared to.
They all looked up to where the four had disappeared to. Armaldo and Wigglytuff had already left, knowing they had to get back to running the town. The world wouldn't be ending, so they still had work to do.
Ara had also left quickly, not wanting to just watch the horizon blankly. Rai would be okay, she assured herself. She had personally threatened Cresselia in private to be sure.
It took longer for the pokémon left behind to return to town as well.
The zangoose scarves made an immediately noticeable effect.
The dungeon had been a crack opening into hell, spilling out foul-smelling fumes and something even worse. It was something that made their eyes itch. The zangoose scarves had a useful effect, woven from an immune-to-poison one, they worked similar to pecha scarves.
But rather than protecting from direct poison status, these scarves could provide a defence against more insidious poisons—ones in food or the air.
Which was needed here. Badly needed.
The fumes were not the most alarming thing upon arrival, however, but the wild pokémon crawling out of the dungeon in a wave of fury were. They were dispatched quickly, but the scene threw three of the pokémon gathered.
Ferals rarely left dungeons. With no hesitation allowed to give, they headed in.
Even with the magical effect of the scarves, it was still difficult to breathe. Not a whole lot of actual oxygen and the four pokémon found themselves out of breath quickly.
Cresselia erected a Safeguard to ward off the smog herself, but this dungeon was nothing less than vicious.
As she focused and called a protective barrier around her, a houndoom blasted a stream of dark rings—his Dark Pulse cleaving through the Safeguard like a blade through the air and smashing Cresselia into a wall.
Over lava.
She shrieked as Sean and Rai took care of it and came flying out in pain. She refused anything for her wounds until the next houndoom arrived.
"Fine. Restore me."
Cresselia grumbled unhappily for the next few minutes. Sean couldn't catch much, but she was definitely speaking a scathing litany of fury towards houndoom as a concept as well as some perceived weakness she 'wasn't supposed to have' and her anger towards it.
He tried not to listen in, but he knew this was going to be a long day.
With the heat of the lava parching even Mane, they had to take careful sips of water regularly. "Don't guzzle it," Sean advised. "You might make yourself throw up or cramp, and we also need it to last."
Cresselia, as a larger pokémon, drank more and they quickly went through one of the skins of water. It was only getting hotter.
The rawst berries were the most needed things besides the sulphur-blocking scarves. Fire attacks weren't only common, but the ground itself blistered their feet. Cresselia was immune to such a failing of flesh, but her levitation had a downside.
She was remarkably easy to toss around, and there was lava everywhere. Leading to her burning herself after floating over such things after being hit by an attack distressingly common.
Sean kept as much of the berry he could to stretch it out. He gave up on their feet pretty quickly, even as they cracked, blistered, and bled from the heat.
"This is miserable," Rai complained.
"I'm actually glad Scout isn't here," Mane added. "He'd be whining non-stop."
"And the worst part," Sean continued, "would be that he would not accept any rawst for his paws either."
Rai and Mane gave a bitter chuckle. Mane remembered Scout refusing any, and all healing during the blurry Dark Future and Rai remembered something similar even with Scout's physical state after returning as they climbed Temporal Tower.
The first half-hour into the dungeon wasn't so bad, however. Most of the ferals were meandering. There was a lot of houndoom and rapidash, but they could still be warded off with relative ease.
It wasn't too hot yet.
The next trial was impossibly frustrating. Chimchar, charmander, cyndaquil, torchic, tepig, fennekin, litten, and scorbunny were the devil.
Every single one of them knew Attract, and with a mostly-male team, Cresselia was forced into doing the heavy lifting here.
She blasted them away with considerable judgement and shook the dazed pokémon until they snapped out of it. Rai and Mane were easy to remind of each other, and Scout, and Sean was able to disengage from the dazed state with a fancy aura trick Keira had mentioned to him.
Yet the initial hits were always disorientating.
Thankfully the horde of Attract-wielding starters was not powerful, and Cresselia was able to get them through that area.
Then they got hungry.
It was so hot. No one could actually sweat, so they were panting harder and harder to keep themselves going. The battles hadn't been hard, but their bodies were still getting a workout.
A swalot nearly ate Sean, which was a problem, and somehow the bag got tear in it. The resulting hole allowed the beast to devour a bunch of their items.
Cresselia almost destroyed it for that.
Sean had to be stingy with their items past that. The next hurdle hit them with mismagius and aggron as well. Sean was swearing out the Ghost-type's along with Cresselia, and Mane's fire wasn't as effective on the aggron as he had thought it would be.
Living in this lethal lava land helped build up a tolerance to fire.
Sean was the one to hold them off, nearly breaking his wrists in the process.
Their armour was hard.
While he was stingy, Cresselia continued to get herself into trouble, requiring assistance and item intervention.
Once they fought through that came the first good thing to happen.
With the remaining scarf, Sean had plugged the hole in their bag, and he gave out mostly water and oran berries stemming from fear of running out. The swalot's hungry maw had taken more than he could ever be okay with.
But the heat began to recede, and they breathed a sigh of relief as their feet stopped being burned, stepping into a chokepoint of the dungeon.
"Do not relax," Cresselia snapped as Rai and Mane went to lean on each other. "Darkrai could be around any corner."
The room was small, with no markings or objects—just walls. There weren't even any shadows he could pop out of.
Darkrai was a threat, however, so they listened to her.
"We do need to catch our breath," Sean said, passing out a little bit more water. "This place is a nightmare." It was almost actual hell.
Pokémon wouldn't understand that, having no concept of a fire and brimstone afterlife. But the aggressive meaning was there, and they nodded.
"This is rough," Rai said through a dry throat. No amount of small sips of water would smooth that out.
"It's so hot," Mane said, loosening his scarf. He couldn't smell sulphur in this room. At least not as much. He breathed out a stream of fire. "It helps," he said when Cresselia glared at him.
"Eat," Sean said, passing something to her as she went to snip at Mane. "You'll feel better."
"As if I need anything."
"Cresselia," Sean said plainly. "Please accept it? It would make me feel better."
She grumbled but went along with it if just to avoid complaining. She wouldn't admit the water and berries did make her feel better.
"How goes our items?" Rai asked after a minute.
"Not well," Sean admitted. "I've still got three of the reviver seeds, some orans, two rawst, four sitrus. Here, let's have some leppas as well."
He handed one out each. Which was all of them.
"And water. The swalot probably got a stomach-ache from all those effect seeds it ate, but it did take most of them."
Mane groaned a swear.
"We will persevere!" Cresselia called, inspiring to the very tone of her voice.
It didn't help much.
"And the orbs, still have those."
Cresselia didn't comment.
"Alright," Mane said, getting up. "Could you tie this back on?" As Sean did so, Cresselia rose up as well.
"We have dawdled for long enough," she said. "Let us be off."
Sean finished tying and nodded, and they began walking further into the Dark Crater.
"Ferals exiting Crystal Cave, exploration teams in the area needed!"
"The Lost Wilderness Dungeon is exiting feral pokémon en-mass, The Rock is close by, we need pokémon here to help up!"
"Shimmer Town's local dungeon, Shimmer Hill, is being attacked by ferals! It's crazy I know, but they are actually leaving the dungeon!"
"Dawn Cavern has had ferals reported leaving the dungeon."
"This is Baltoy of Quad Town. I need to speak to Chimecho of Treasure Town. Feral pokémon are leaving Serenity River, they risk entering the town!"
"This is Natu! E-Evertrail Town! Ferals from Vastswallow Dungeon are leaving AGAIN, and something is going on in town, pokémon are falling asleep and aren't waking up! We are nearly defenceless here! Someone, please help us!"
"Distant Burrow is-"
"Feral pokémon from-"
"This is Espurr from Barrow Town, feral pokémon are attacking us!"
"Capim Town is being attacked!"
"We need battle-capable pokémon, there are ferals-"
"Feral pokémon are attacking!"
Chimecho hovered in fear. The Psychic Network was lighting up in a continental panic attack. The transmissions were growing so frequent and pulling that she could barely separate herself from the connected minds, she could feel herself being pulled into a storm she may not return from.
"Labyrinth Cave is-"
"Ferals from the Last Fall are-"
"Someone please help us!"
Chimecho couldn't. She could barely help herself against this. She had to warn Wigglytuff, she had to she had to she had to she had to she had to she had to she had to she ha-
Tempers were running hot as they continued further into the Dark Crater.
Almost as hot as the heat pressing from every direction. They were scorched, burned, and overheating.
"I'm dizzy, alright!" Rai snapped when Sean asked him what was wrong.
"Okay fine."
"Don't snap at him," Mane growled at Sean.
"Calm yourselves," Cresselia ordered. "It is miserable for us all here. You will control yourself and urge your fighting at the enemy."
So they did. Fighting aggressively, overpoweringly. Not only warding off ferals, for they were hardly being warded off, but outright knocking several out.
Camerupt was the new devil. Area-of-effect attacks blasting Rai, Mane, and Sean off their feet as Cresselia clashed with mismagius.
A double hit from an Earth Power and Ominous Wind nearly knocked Sean out, but Rai was able to discharge on the mismagius and free up Cresselia to toss the camerupt into the lava.
It didn't go quietly.
"It's best this way," Cresselia growled, shaking her head. "Quiet it for good."
She was angry herself, already aiming her fury on the ferals and as the others let loose, so did she.
Psychic attacks to force ferals into the hazards of this dungeon. Most died on impact.
As they went further, however, it grew cooler. The open lava channels grew fewer, and they could breathe easier.
A numel Yawned at them. A hippopotas Yawned at them. And they yawned back.
Cresselia's Safeguard had spread to them, but the Yawn's were constant and intense. The ferals were large in number, but few in motivation.
They were able to pass through rooms of sleeping ferals without disturbing any, as their anger had run into exhaustion.
They kept Yawning at them.
"We don't have any chesto berries," Sean said, splitting a sitrus. "But this is an eneeergy boost." They ate and shook it off.
"Do not fall asleep," Cresselia said, voice laboured as she maintained a Safeguard around her, the three landbound pokémon sticking close to share in the protection.
With her protecting them, she was the biggest target. For the pokémon who were conscious, they unleashed upon her, exhausting and battering her. She took the last of the sitrus berries quietly.
The corridors began to get wider, and the heat began to return.
"Where is Ponyta?"
Team Flame, minus their sassy equine, was lost to the hustle and bustle of pokémon. They hadn't seen Ponyta since last night and were looking for him.
A great many pokémon were in the town square. Wigglytuff was helping direct activities, they were putting wood and nail to board to rebuild several shops, moving back and forth with dozens of pokémon carrying tools and lumber.
The four pokémon left behind were pitching in as well. It was almost nostalgic to the remaining members of Team Sunrise, they had worked like this when they first returned here to pay off Guardian's debt to society.
For Scout, he was just trying to be helpful and keep his mind off things.
Striker and Saniya were helping hold buildings in place, so he was with Guardian more than anyone.
They didn't talk much but stuck close together. It felt safer for Scout, a thought that no longer filled him with ironic amusement. Guardian was just happy to be with Scout again, giving him lighter things to carry and making sure no one stepped on him.
A third member of their little team ended up being Ara. Despite not having hands, she was capable of running smaller supplies around town.
It was mankey work, she said, but she was also nervous about the events. She didn't know as much of everything going on, only what Rai had told her and what she'd threatened out of Wigglytuff.
When a break period happened, Scout started talking. It was a nervous habit, but something he needed to do.
"Do you remember Danny?" Scout asked Guardian when they had sat down together, Ara still ferrying supplies.
"I… no?" Guardian answered.
"Right, I don't I ever mentioned I named him," Scout said, smiling fondly. "He was… uh… one of your… well." He wanted to say servants, but he did NOT want to actually say that. "One of your…." And now Guardian was looking at him. "Servants."
"Ah," Guardian said, enlightened and then confused. "Which one was that?"
Scout frowned. It was a frustrating thing. He knew who and what he was talking about, but at the same time, he didn't know.
The memory was a cut out in his mind, but as he pulled on it, he could almost remember what he was talking about.
"He helped me," Scout said, shaking his head. "Escape, I mean. When you left one of them to guard me."
"Ah yes," Guardian said. "Everything happened so fast I could barely even notice how you had returned. He was a… well, I cannot say loyal."
Scout chuckled. "I bribed him with food," he laughed. "An apple, half a gummi, and then I think I used Hypnosis too."
"You would think my servants would be stronger willed," Guardian said. "But then you'd realise that it would be the opposite."
"I still think I did pretty well," Scout argued playfully. "You had me entirely stuck, and I got out."
"You are quite tenacious," Guardian agreed. "But… why do you bring Danny up? What meaning is that name, also?"
Scout shook his head. "No meaning. Just a… heh, a reference I guess. Oh!" His eyes widened. "Sableye! That's what he was."
Guardian paused before his own eye widened. "Yes," he breathed. "I had forgotten what they were. All six, sableye."
"They had a funny laugh," Scout said. "I'm surprised I forgot since I know they were your allies, thanks to other knowledge. That paradox does weird things to memory."
"Indeed."
Scout sighed and leaned back. They were on an overturned log, one that was not washed away by Palkia's dropping of the ocean on the town.
"I want to make something for him," Scout said. "No matter why, he did help me escape. If he didn't… I wouldn't have been able to get the Relic Fragment through again."
"And time would have collapsed due to not being able to reach the tower," Guardian said, nodding. "Yes. Some memorial for a near-forgotten hero."
"I hope he woke up in time," Scout added a little sadly. "I left him an apple and a purple gummi. That's what I convinced him to sacrifice it all for." Scout trailed off into a frown upon those words.
"I'm sure he loved it," Guardian said, sensing the change in mood. "One of those sableye, yes, was truly food-focused. It was likely the best moment of his life."
"I hope it was worth it for him," Scout said, smiling a little less sad now.
"I'm sure it was… well, I should get back to work," Guardian said, regretfully. He rose up. Scout joined him, and they began to walk, but he felt a little different.
"You mind if I get a little more fresh air?" Scout asked, glancing behind him.
"Not at all."
"Thank you."
He turned to walk out of town, stepping into line with Ara at some point.
"How do you think they are?" she asked.
"Beating bastards and taking names," Scout answered. It was a good answer for her.
He continued walking until he reached his new home. It was so strange. Just a little over a week ago the guild has been looming strong over town. Now it was a collapsed cliff, the guild was in the middle of the town with no horrifying wigglytuff head.
He felt so bad for Wigglytuff. Losing his home. Losing his belongings. Losing Dugtrio. Losing everything he ever had. Even Chatot's grave had-
Scout cut that train of thought down hard. It was Chatot and Dugtrio that he had been thinking about, that led to remembering Danny.
Chatot's grave had been remade, even if it was empty. Dugtrio's grave had been marked, even if it was empty. He could do the same for Danny. It wouldn't matter that it was empty.
He looked at the twigs on the ground. The trees leading to the bluff hadn't been too damaged but had been stripped of a few branches from the impact those days ago.
He picked up a few, planting one in the ground. He had no twine to connect the others into a cross, and so he placed them down in the vague shape of a gummi.
Scout sighed, wishing he could do more. He would do more, another time, but he still had to go back to town.
He didn't want to. He wanted to help. But it wasn't the town he was thinking about helping.
He knew he should be. Darkrai would be handled, and the town would need all the work it could get.
However, he hated he wasn't there.
"I can't just wallow in misery," Scout muttered and straightened up. He'd run as much supplies as he could and exhaust himself so he could stop drowning in his own thoughts.
Before he turned back, however, something caught his eye.
Walking over, perilously close to the edge, he noticed a feather.
One of Cresselia's.
It was a beautiful thing, curved like a crescent moon and moving from a pale green to a pale yellow. He picked the thing up, admiring the pleasant feeling on his paws.
He turned it over, brushing some black bits of gravel sticking to it and over again. He smiled before freezing.
Cresselia had been watching over them last night. Her mere presence blocked Darkrai, he knew that. He knew that her presence blocked him, awakened those trapped in his nightmares, and all that.
"Rai had a nightmare," Scout whispered, something terrible dawning on him. "Oh, no."
He turned back to town, ready to fall to all fours and sprint before a massive burst of darkness blinded him.
An eruption of black, corrosive, sticky darkness enveloped the whole town in a globe of rippling darkness, lined with purple lines that moved and connected in new places.
Scout stared in horror before noticing the globe approaching, he stepped back and back and back further, standing over the nose of Sharpedo Bluff as the globe grew wider, coming relentlessly.
He glanced down in fear and knew he couldn't go any further. He'd just fall off.
It spread into the home Rai grew up in and across the beds. Then it stopped—a mere two meters from Scout.
It held, then shuddered and faded rapidly.
He stood frozen for a moment longer before falling to all fours and sprinting into town.
The Dark Crater Pit was the end of the road.
Lava bubbled, and the heat was intense. Without their Power and their items, the warmth would be too must. But even now, the temperature was curling even Mane's fur.
"This is the end," Rai panted, stepping out. They all watched a different position. Rai forward, Mane left, Sean right.
"Do we want to walk out there?" Mane said. "Right into ambush territory?"
"We should take it slow," Sean said, raising his tassels and trying to sense around. He wished Striker, Saniya, or Guardian was here. He didn't have Dimensional Scream's often, and when he did, they were randomly useless. But he'd sure love one now.
"We're here!" Rai called, raising his voice. "You wanted this, right?"
"Darkrai… isn't here," Cresselia said.
Sean groaned.
"Well if this was a distraction," Mane said. "We've left the big guys back home." That had been the idea, at least. Justified why it was them going, they should be strong enough to handle Darkrai, but if this was a diversion they had stronger pokémon ready to protect the town.
Sean's tassel twitched as he sensed something and he dove, tackling Mane as an arcing Slash nearly cut him in half. Rai jumped and spun around on the attacker.
Cresselia.
He couldn't even begin to make a word before she grabbed him in Psychic and threw him into the lava.
"NO!" Sean yelled, copying the attack before Rai could go too far and snatching him out of the air, pulling him back with a clumsy Psychic.
Cresselia turned on him and blasted him a beam of energy, sending Sean rolling as Rai fell down to the burning ground.
Mane jumped between them and blasted her with fire.
"What are you DOING!?" Rai cried, legs burned from that close call, and finding his voice.
"What am I doing?" Cresselia whispered before she was screaming. "WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE YOU VAPID, WORTHLESS, CRAWLING CRETINS?" She blasted Mane off his paws and spun on Rai as he blasted her with electricity.
It didn't even phase her before she was trying to choke him the death. "I am making you quiet," she hissed, pulling him towards her, wing shining in a Slash.
Sean and Mane lit her up with a double Fire Blast, knocking Cresselia careening above the lava. It began to set her aflame, and she screamed again.
"W-why is th-this happening?" Rai stuttered, running over to them.
Sean was digging desperately through the bag. They had dust and echoes left. Cresselia had used so much of their healing items with her endless accidents.
He suddenly doubted they were accidents. The rip in the bag he didn't understand how that had happened. Now he knew. They were low on supplies.
What he did have, however, was three reviver seeds. He shoved one in Rai's mouth and split the second into two for himself and Mane. Cresselia, ablaze, was returning from her bath in the fumes, wings burning and pure hate on her face.
She was met with three assembled pokémon, not split apart and easy to pick off. Rai and Sean unleashed lightning on her while Mane held her at bay with blasts of Fire Blasts. While Cresselia had drained their resources through this dungeon, she still had to allow herself to be beaten black and blue for it.
They weren't in much better condition. The reviver seed gave a massive boost of energy with a painkilling bonus, which she didn't have. Still, their bodies were fragile compared to hers.
Cresselia was able to blast them away from each other with a Psybeam and attempt to cut Sean in half. His body flashed white, and the strike slashed through him, carving a deep gash. But the Endure had blocked the worst of it and the resulting jarring she received from hitting that left her open for Rai and Mane.
"Gah, ENOUGH!" Cresselia screamed, blasting them back. "You do not… you do not understand."
"Why are you doing this!?" Rai yelled, getting up and standing fiercely in front of the others. "I thought you hated Darkrai!? Why are you helping HIM?"
"Helping?" Cresselia scoffed. "Pah! He is only a necessary evil I have to endure for now."
"I don't understand," Sean said, coming up by Rai. Holding the fourth and final scarf to his bleeding wound. Mane needed more of a moment to recover. "This doesn't make sense. Do you even know what he's doing?"
Cresselia growled. "I know FAR more than you think you know," she spat at them. Her eyes widened, and her pupils grew large and small. "You three are so… so… noisy," she breathed, voice shaking. "You are so loud. Everything. Everyone. So loud. It is… maddening."
"You are a psycho bitch," Mane coughed, he could see what Rai and Sean were doing. Getting her talking, giving them time, maybe learn something. "You're going to go on about how you want to silence everyone for peace, aren't you?"
"YES!" Cresselia shrieked before she screamed at her own volume. "So noiSY. So. Loud. It. Never. You never shut up. NONE OF YOU. Ever. Be silent."
"Why do you want to silence?" Rai shouted.
Cresselia's eyes grew wide, and she gazed upon him with the eyes of madness. "You do not… understand," she whispered, eyes rolling to a new time. "But you should have. You should have seen this coming, but you are so blind, led astray by your own inane thoughts. You have all the answers and yet none are realised."
"Tell. Us," Sean demanded. The scarf was sticky with his blood.
"You. You know," she said, a yawning stare of oblivion meeting his eyes. "I know you know. You were from the time that never was."
Her voice was entirely level and calm, and it was unnerving how her voice carried with a blunt monotone. "Darkrai told him, that… disgusting creature that he brought back for his plans. Darkrai also remembers that time, because all legendary have some recollection of a change to reality."
She wavered in the air, almost singing now. "But it is us of ruling dreams that know everything. Darkrai, he and I are so different, yet we both command the dreaming mind. Legends through dreams. He knows what he had as if he had only had it yesterday… and so do I."
Cresselia gazed at Sean as his eyes widened. "I know you found me," she said softly. "Your celebi spoke to me. Your dusclops waxed my tales. Your grovyle did not speak, and your meowth crawled upon me."
Sean's eyes widen as the memory hit him, something so long and deep none of them had remembered it. Coming upon a beautiful pokémon, caught in permanent stasis in the web of broken time. He didn't know what it was, but Saniya had been able to name it.
"You were frozen," Sean said, staggered with the memory. "And you… remember that?"
Cresselia beamed at him. It was a terrifying look. "Oh… now he gets it." Her faux-calm façade shattered, and she roared. "I REMEMBER BEING FROZEN IN TIME!" She then laughed, cackling to the bubbles of lava. "You cannot even conceive of something like that, to everyone else. From Palkia to Uxie, to everyone, they cannot remember because they cannot. But I can."
She rose up into the air, looming over them. "I remember what oblivion is, and it was so… silent." The last word was whispered but carried far and wide. "It was peaceful. So… very peaceful. But that is ruined. I am resigned to a world of noise and distraction. That is not fair. That is not fair!"
"You are… insane," Sean said, but there was sorrow in his voice. "You can be helped, Cresselia. Stop this. We can help you."
Rai and Mane shared unsure looks, but she only laughed at him.
"H-H-Help?" she asked, between breaths of a laugh. "When did I say I wanted help? I only forced to work with Darkrai because my own goals are impossible to achieve alone. I will silence you. I will silence everyone. And once Darkrai's corruption over dream has stretched to envelop the whole world… I will be the only one awake."
She swayed back and forth, giggling. "It will be child's play, a Slash here, a drop in the sea there. It will take time, but I am immortal."
She then dropped down to them. "And you are not."
Rai, Mane, and Sean hit her with everything they had as Cresselia bashed through their combined attacks like it was a stiff breeze, slamming into Sean and throwing him in the air.
She twisted and twirled and inflicted a double Slash onto Rai and Mane, their blood hissing on the ground as Sean fell towards the lava.
She was not using Psychic this time. She wasn't going to give him an out again.
But Sean still had the bag.
"ORB!" he cried, throwing the rollcall orb at Mane. He was bleeding, but not mortally, and jumped up the catch it.
Cresselia tried to decapitate him for it.
Rai blasted her before she could slash his neck but knocked Mane as well. Sean began to scream as his fur was lit alight and Rai burst into a Quick Attack, snatching, absorbing, and using the Rollcall Orb.
It warped everyone, including Cresselia, to him.
Sean fell to his paws and knees, crying in pain as his fur burned from the close call and Rai lanced Cresselia through the throat with a sharp blast of electricity.
He knocked her flotation out, and she collapsed, gagging for breath.
Mane was tearing into the burning bag, getting the last reviver out for Sean as Rai blasted her again and again and again.
She splinted the last discharge with her Psybeam and knocked up a wave of ash. "Dammit!" she cursed. "Darkrai, not NOW!"
She unleashed another Psybeam, shaking her head. "Darkrai NOT… uugggghh."
Sean was getting up, and they combined a double Fire Blast Thunderbolt and forced her to the lip of the cavern. "Alright." She knocked them all back, sagging in mid-air, the damage stacking up. She turned around and fled the battle.
"Don't her escape!" Sean shouted, Mane rolled out the Escape Orb and grabbed onto them both and activated it.
They appeared amidst the feral pokémon they had defeated, several more having left the dungeon as well.
Cresselia came rocketing out of the dungeon, sharply evading Rai and Sean's attempts at snaring her and hit the invisible stream she had used, warping away before they could stop her.
And then she was gone. Leaving them behind on Ashen Island. No items, torn bag, badly injured and with no idea what to do.
Scout tripped over an oshawott, landing on the treecko and zigzagoon with him. They were asleep.
"Shaa. Shaa." The oshawott breathed, eyed firmly shut and screwed into a frown. Treecko was muttering about a totodile, and the zigzagoon was just frowning.
They were not the only ones.
Kangaskhan was slumped over in the middle of the street. Machoke had dropped, a heavy piece of lumber coming down with him and landing on himself as well as Kecleon Purple. Green was elsewhere. Scout pushed the lumber off them before continuing.
Scout reached Ara, sighing frustratedly on the ground and she shocked him when he tried to rouse her. She didn't wake up, however.
Going further he found Wigglytuff and Armaldo collapsed, most of the guild scattered around them. Vigoroth and Electivire, Chansey and all of the children. Marowak and Duskull.
He found Striker and Saniya asleep, Striker having fallen on Saniya. He pulled her out from under him. Guardian wasn't far, his eye dark and still but his large chest was moving.
Everyone. Every last pokémon in town and further. Every pokémon was asleep.
He looked left and right, forwards and back.
There was only him.
"Scout?" spoke a familiar voice, and Scout spun on the speaker. Darkrai floated ominously above the throne Wigglytuff had retrieved, the new heart of town. Darkrai lowered himself to the throne with nothing less than a cheeky smirk. "I should stop being surprised at seeing you out and about."
Scout couldn't even give a venomous shout of the villain's name. He only could stare in flaccid horror.
Darkrai leaned over the throne. "Cat got your tongue?"
Scout laughed. He couldn't help it. It was funny, but not his joke.
"We do have fun together," Darkrai said, smiling under his growth. Then he rapidly vacated from the throne before a Shadow Ball blasted him through it.
Scout was still chuckled, eyes stinging with tears. "And I should stop being surprised whenever everything goes wrong," Scout said, shaking his head.
Darkrai drifted closer, and Scout bared his claws, breaking into a dangerous snarl. "I am going to kill you," Scout said, eyes changing.
"Threatening," Darkrai said conversationally. He didn't seem too threatened, but at the same time, Scout was known to be all talk. He wasn't moving, only threatening. Speaking but not doing. "I'd much prefer to talk."
Scout shook his head in staggered amazement. "How could there be anything that you have to say here that I would want to listen to?" he demanded.
Darkrai shrugged. "The lives of everyone here and those you care about."
Scout grit his teeth. "Touché."
"I'm glad you're being reasonable," Darkrai said warmly. "Hopefully, that means we can avoid bloodshed."
"Why?" Scout asked. "Just… why? Why are you doing this? Why are you going to talk? Why?"
"That is a lot of questions without offering any answers in return," Darkrai said. "I have questions too."
Scout's claws were darker than any Dark Void Darkrai could muster, and his eyes were asking him to try.
"Alright. I'll skip the preamble, although I do miss talking theoretics with you. I did get an answer on if Lucario experiences nightmares if you're interested?"
"Skip it."
Darkrai grinned. "Heh, alright. Right now, Raigeki, Mane, and Sean are fighting a battle they cannot win."
"Cresselia, right?" Scout snarled.
Darkrai raised an eye. "Good show, Scout. Seems you didn't know that beforehand…?" He narrowed an eye almost in a wink, but Scout didn't react. "Hm. Well, you've figured it out a little late, but you'll get a gold star for effort."
Scout glared.
"They are nearing the trap now," he said. "I'm connected to Cresselia, unfortunately. If what I'm sensing from her is accurate, they are either doing well, or that she has snapped and is butchering them, or she's merely building anticipation for the showdown. Hopefully, it's the former, it would be a shame for them to die."
"So, you want me to sell myself out to save them?" Scout spat.
"You say it in such a bad way," Darkrai replied, offended. "I'm not asking for your body, I have no interest in the services you are… known to provide." He winked again.
Scout didn't react.
"My-my, you are in a bad mood at the moment," Darkrai chuckled. "We can change that. Trust me."
Scout didn't react to that either.
Darkrai's amusement faded briefly. "You know, I'm laying down so many good moments for you to flip out and act amusing for. You are not picking up any of the material I'm laying down here."
"What do you want?"
Darkrai rolled his eyes. "The theatrics are part of it all, Scout. Play along, please." He added the last word with an edge of danger, a verbal threat without speaking such nasty words out loud.
Scout trembled slightly, his claws flexing and burning for blood.
"Time and time again, you have surprised me," Darkrai began. "You knew who I was, what I had done in a timeline you acted to end. No one else knew that. Not Dialga. Not Cresselia. No one. And I remember everything in the timeline that was gone. It is like I woke up from a wonderful dream."
He looked sad for a moment. "I don't have dreams, you know? I did tell you that, but the Dark Future was a dream for me. And you woke me up from it."
Darkrai took a breath to compose himself. "I never met your little posse. I only knew of you when it was almost too late to do anything, striking at you as Saniya sent you back in time." He turned to look at Saniya.
With Darkrai here, his aura was more potent, and many pokémon was whimpering and crying. Striker was making pained sounds, but Saniya was entirely silent.
Guardian, Wigglytuff, Armaldo. They were not okay.
Saniya was silent.
"I have a special hatred for that one," Darkrai said. "She also sent that audino back. The creature that turned me into this. Fouled my resurrection into a being of malice and hate."
He spun back on Scout. "I am aware of what I am," Darkrai claimed. "And you cannot hope to understand what it is like. From the very first moment of my existence, all I knew… all I could know was malice. How can you blame me for the path I have taken, when it was predetermined for me? By Sooth. By Saniya."
"Anything and everything you've done," Scout spat, hissing, "is on you. Do not try and spin a sob story at me, Darkrai. You think I'd believe it now?"
"Well you believed me the last time," Darkrai said, leaning closer. "And I was telling the truth for the most part. But we circle back to that. You. I never met you. You never knew of me. But somehow… somehow you do now? And it's been an interesting puzzle to work out."
He floated closer, Scout raised his claws more threateningly.
"And yet I still don't understand. You are just… an outlier." Darkrai raised a hand, his right hand. "But such a thing is what I am as well. I am honest with you when I tell you about myself, and I am honest when I tell that I feel nothing but coldness, nothing but malice and… hunger but I resist it. I do. What I offer, what I tried to offer Raigeki earlier today before he rudely ejected me, is a better existence."
He swept a hand behind him, gesturing to the slumbering pokémon. "They are now within my realm. It does not need to be a realm of punishment, merely one where I am in control. Those that deserve it will be rewarded, and those who don't won't even know they are dreaming."
"I'm not believing a word you say," Scout growled. "You tricked me last time, and I don't even know why."
"Yes, you do," Darkrai chuckled. "The distortion. Amplifying that hole in space is how The Dream works. The Dream is not real, but with this control over space… with Palkia dealt with... The Dream now IS real. Real enough, at least. Real enough to plunge the pokémon of this weak reality into the beauty and strength of mine."
"You are insane!"
"Am I?" Darkrai asked, cocking his head. "Yes." He nodded. "Certainly. Obviously," he drawled. "But let me ask you this? Where is Arceus? Why does IT not make the world a better place? Why does IT do nothing as I distort time, rip space, plunge its vassal into my world, and seek to overthrow its rule over this reality with my own?"
Scout couldn't answer.
"Arceus will not help you," Darkrai said, mirroring old words Scout remembered hearing from the false Dialga. "It never has and never would. What there is, however, is the freedom of choice."
Darkrai gestured to everyone again. "This is your choice now, Scout," he said forcefully. "Choose me, and this will not end in tragedy. I have unleashed the ferals from many dungeons, you will have a hungering horde of beasts upon everyone here very soon. You cannot save them alone. You have your companions, you partners and friends, trapped with a psychotic murderer on Ashen Island."
He gazed down at him. "I can call her off, Scout. She will listen, eventually, but I will need your word. You so… cleverly avoided it the last time we met. I tried to work around it, and to an extent, I managed. I never agreed to your demands after all, merely told you to take my hand."
He extended the left. "I brought you back into the world, Scout." He flexed those fingers before raising the right hand. "You owe me. And… if you believe you are above repayment, I can take my gift back." His right hand glowed darkly. "Alive with the left, and back to oblivion with the right. Unable to do anything but watch as everything you have fought for… ends in tragedy."
Scout froze up, he couldn't think. He couldn't reason. He held no card in this situation. Darkrai held the whole deck. He had set this table up, and everyone had waltzed into the rigged game.
Darkrai's eyes glowed as he saw Scout see the truth. There was the prideful route, and there was the accepting route. Scout was never so proud as to not beg. Not when everyone was on the line.
His head bowed, and he began to take a step.
"Oh, Mr Sandman bring me a dream~."
Scout and Darkrai froze as the voice reached them from the far right.
"You brought the worst one that I've ever seen~."
Soft footsteps reached their ears, Darkrai began to tremble.
"You gave him a mouth and made him a joker~."
A stacked deck could only be matched by one thing. Flipping the table.
"Now tell him that his worthless life… is. Over."
A sharp spike slipped into a cream-coloured paw, being gripped tightly as the audino stepped into view.
Soothe stared straight at the trembling Darkrai and stunned Scout and smiled. "Hello."
I would also like to say sorry for how this chapter ends as well… but I'm actually not sorry :P
So many people guessed Cresselia was evil. Hahahaha. If I hadn't planned that from before Arc 2 even began, I might have kept her good just for the extra twist :P but nah. You know me too well, although I think I still have surprised a few of you of her exact stance. Cresselia but she's working with Darkrai… as tenuous as that is.
Several people have also been wondering where Soothe is. I'm glad I already had this already planned!
Results for the last poll! I'm also NOT going to hold another poll for this chapter. I'll give that a rest for a little while.
Almost ALL of you think he deserves all the tackle-hugs, naww. His love of Thunderbolt was well reported. And he's seen as a bit of a badass. Very nice. I'm not sure when I'll do another poll, could be soon could be not. For now, thank you for all the votes!