After finishing Chapter 62, I had to wait a couple of days to post it as my beta is busy. After having dinner, a strange thought popped up in my head.
"What I keep going?"
It has been a while since I've done that. So, here we go! Chapter 63 has been continued not long after I finished writing Chapter 62!
It's been a long road to get here.
Thank you all.
Also, I was just wondering, has anyone else noticed anything… odd about the chapter names? Like… if you read the first word of every chapter of Arc 2, Chapter 35 onwards, doesn't it… sound a bit foreboding?
As Team Ion and Beheeyem stepped through the crack in space and disappeared into its twisting corridors, Chimecho sharply turned towards the east.
"They're here," she gasped.
"Now?" Sean asked, spinning back as well as Striker and Guardian turned too. Screams were crying out and crossing over Treasure Town as a distant mixture of colours began to make itself known.
Striker grit his teeth and took a half-step forward, but a telekinetic pulse pushed him back. "No," Chimecho said, trembling slightly as she floated along. "You need to go in after the others, Darkrai must be stopped."
Sean slowly gripped his muzzle in horror as Team Sunrise stood frozen. She was right.
Chimecho closed her eyes. "I must guide them, but I must grant you the right time to enter. You have to enter as soon as it is safe, I must remain. Five minutes."
"Surely…," Guardian began, but he didn't know what to say.
"We held the ferals at the front of the town for some time with a wall of fire," Sean said, closing his eyes. "But you barely had any time to get anything in place."
Shockwaves blasted out, and pokémon could be seen flying away from blasts. The town shook as Wigglytuff charged the horde himself. He was powerful, but he wasn't very tough. Sunflora's vines began to break out of the ground as panicking pokémon ran for cover from an attack far sooner than they could be prepared for.
It was breaking into carnage immediately, there was simply not enough time to prepare. Sunflora couldn't warn them in time, for her vines hadn't spread far enough. They truly were on Seedot's heels.
"Four more minutes," Chimecho whispered, the wind was beginning to blow.
They were on a sheer cliff, but a river snuck through town and ferals leapt out of it, catching the defenders off guard. This was more than just a blind attack of feral beasts. This had to be planned.
Wreathed in flame-like a charging inferno, Ponyta barrelled into a horde going for the tents bellowing. "BEGONE FOUL BEASTS!" A ring of fire turned grass to ash as Ponyta stomped and bones snapped. "YOU WILL NOT HARM ANYONE!"
Something landed on his back and bit down, causing Ponyta to whinny in pain. Green energy flowed off his body and into the zubat; the sky was attacking them now as flying ferals descended like a cloud of vileness.
A bolt of electricity knocked the zubat off him, and Ampharos began rotating his arms rapidly, building up friction as the swarm of zubat began to break and fly at different opponents.
"Mawile, now!" Ampharos called, and a sweet pink mist began to seep from her horns, driving the zubat into a fever, but also causing them to all come for her.
Ampharos let loose the lightning and a thunderclap rocked out as zubat fell in droves.
"Three minutes," Chimecho called, the wind was ruffling her body as she and Team Sunrise could only watch.
Vines pulled themselves up from the ground to tangle the feet of everything rampaging over the ground, where the refugees had already passed. Wigglytuff came crashing back like a walking earthquake, jumping right into the middle of them and unleashing a Yoom-TAH that sent ferals flying miles away.
The ground was cratering from Wigglytuff's actions, and he was coughing.
A mienfoo and mienshao double-teamed up, coming at both angles with sharp punches and kicks, the mienshao using its fur to wrap around Wigglytuff's paw when he went to strike back and pull him off-kilter before he could react. He took a devastating kick to the belly and then a rising punch to the jaw while still snared by the fur.
Fine for him. Wigglytuff pulled sharply, immediately throwing the mienshao up with him and he spun it around as it screeched before smashing it into the mienfoo.
He landed and another mob of ferals charged him.
"Two more minutes," Chimecho said as refugees neared them. They weren't aiming to get cornered, but there weren't many places to go. Several pokémon hid in Kangaskhan's Storage before fleeing in mounting fear, two manectric jumping out from the trees.
Chimecho's eyes flashed, and the manectric froze in mid-air, right before landing on the cowering ralts. They got up and ran as Chimecho threw them as hard as she could, right over the side of the cliff. One of them tried to discharge on her, but it bounced off a Protect.
Seeing this, a few pokémon ran for them. They understood that Team Sunrise wouldn't be there forever, but Chimecho would be.
"Those that can use any ranged attack, stand close," Chimecho ordered the six pokémon that approached them. Two of them, a boltund and piplup, nervously stood by Chimecho as the other four hid further back, Team Sunrise moving to give them room. "When any feral comes into range, attack," she directed, and she got two shaky nods.
"I-I'm not a fighter," Piplup said.
"You don't have a choice today," Chimecho replied. "None of us do. They'll have to go through me before they get to anyone else. One minute," she added.
Guardian raised his hands, and Striker's arms glowed. "We'll give you some breathing room," they said as more ferals broke free of the chaos to charge them.
Guardian caught their legs with Shadow Sneak, the tendrils wrapping around various appendages. Striker's Leaf Blade's flew from a distance, striking every position they could while Chimecho tossed another light pokémon off the edge of the cliff.
Sean did his best to copy Guardian's move, but Guardian could control the attack far more elegantly than he could. He was able to pin a rhydon in place for Striker's Leaf Blade to finish it off.
"Leave the battle to us," Chimecho said, the seconds ticking down. "This is our fight; you have yours. Fourteen seconds, get ready to go!"
The trio lowered their arms and culled their attacks, sharing a nod. "Hold out for as long as you can," Guardian said, sending a shadow further through the town to give Sunflora some sign that help was needed here.
Chimecho gave them a shaking smile. "End the threat of Darkrai. We can end ours here."
"Good luck," Sean said and Team Sunrise, missing a member, dashed into the Spacial Rift, the portal closing behind them.
The Spacial Rift was silent.
"What is this place?" Rai asked, stepping carefully on platforms that shivered in place. Ripples spread out like he was walking on something as fragile as water.
Thoughtlight floated above the inky ground, not eager to touch it and fall into an unseen gap. He was slower than Team Ion, but they were walking carefully anyway.
"Not quite what I remember it to be," Scout admitted, paw tangled in Mane's tail to hold onto something stable.
"What exactly did you expect this to be, oh wise Meowth?" Thoughtlight asked, sticking very close to them. The walls were… uncertain, and the ground felt as fragile as a soapy bubble bobbing down a stream.
"Stone. Floor. You know, more of the entry?" They had charged into the crack in space, finding themselves in a stony cavern. Stepping into a dungeon portal from there had brought them into this dreamlike realm, where things felt as thin as a passing thought.
"This place looks awful," Mane said, the most forefront of the group. "But the ground is fine; nothing's happening."
"That's just asking for something to happen at a dramatically mistimed moment," Scout said, yanking Mane's tail when he tried to speed up.
"Yeah, keep tugging."
Scout yanked him harder, and Mane yelped. "Okay, fine!"
"He talks a big talk, huh?" Thoughtlight whispered to Rai as Mane grumbled mutiny.
"You have no idea," Rai replied.
"Sounds like Volt," the beheeyem sighed. "Although he isn't just talk."
"Oi! I do more than just talk!" Mane snapped, overhearing the tea being spilled all over him. "You want some stories? Okay, first time me and-" Scout tugged his tail, and he yelped.
"Really not the time," Scout said. "And even if it was, talk about something else."
"Oh yeah, you knew exactly what I was going to say, didn't you?" Mane leered.
"If anyone deserves to tell THAT story, it's Rai," Scout replied, sticking his tongue out when Mane gave him a faux-hurt look.
"Fine, fine. Storytime can be later." Mane took a defiant step forth and then tilted face-first into nothing. "AH!"
Scout yelped and yanked his tail, feeling Mane's bulk suddenly pull at him. Scout wasn't weak, but he was a fair bit lighter than Mane, and he was getting pulled forth as well.
"Woah now!" Thoughtlight waved a hand, fingers flashing. He tried to get Scout on reflex, but the Psychic slid off the Dark-type. He grabbed Mane next, squeezing the air out of his lungs as he pulled him out. Psychic was not a pleasant move to be under.
Mane took a few hard breaths, partially out of the psychic squish and partly out of the adrenaline rush of nearly falling.
"Are you alright?" Rai asked, bounding over carefully to press his forepaws on Mane's shoulders.
"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Mane said, breathing a little more calmly. "Thanks, Scout. And, uh, Beheeyem for grabbing me in time."
Thoughtlight waved it off. "It was nothing."
Scout raised a paw. "I'll accept the gratitude for both of us."
Rai gave him a dry look before licking Mane on the cheek. "Looks like we do have to be careful."
Mane rubbed his cheek, a little static zapping him, with a frown before nodding. "Yeah, yeah, I've learned my lesson."
"Let's all hang on close to each other?" Scout suggested as they began to walk again. They were already close, but Scout now had a paw on both of his partners.
"You know, this place kinda reminds me of the Hidden Land," Rai said. Mane blinked in confusion. "When I came here the first time with Sean and Striker."
"It does?" Scout asked, looking around. He'd heard the stories, and they weren't pleasant.
"Just in how… weird this place is," Rai explained. "The Hidden Land was still… well, it was still a 'normal' dungeon with rooms and corridors and such. Time was breaking, so we had weird sections where… things. I can't really call them 'pokémon' were breaking through tiny little cracks to bombard us."
"I always felt like that had to be some sort of Dark Future bleed over," Scout said, looking about for any attackers. "Those things in the dungeons weren't pokémon. Not really."
Mane nodded. "Looked like them for the most part, weren't even Shadow Pokémon. Just… wrong."
"Sounds awful," Thoughtlight said, wanting to be a part of the conversation. "Pokémon reduced to such a manner; even ferals are still pokémon. Even Shadow Pokémon are still pokémon."
Team Ion nodded in unison.
"Whatever those things were," Mane said, shivering. Some things couldn't be forgotten, paradox or not.
"They weren't pokémon anymore," Scout said.
They continued in silence for a little. Despite the similarities of this shadowy realm to other, terrible, places, silence did not invite madness, only focus.
The Spacial Rift was distorted; there was no question of it. The realm was unsteady, there were more holes in the infinite blackness around them, but Thoughtlight was immune, and Team Ion were all connected.
Scout hoped that Guardian would be enough to fulfil Thoughtlight's role for Team Sunrise. "Maybe Guardian will carry Sean and Striker?" Scout suggested, wanting to hear it.
"He's definitely big and strong enough too," Mane agreed.
After some time of wandering in the darkness, something began to change.
There was no light, yet they could see each other without difficulty. The ground was just nothing, and the distant walls seemed to be forever away.
But then they weren't.
They passed a doorway, and the area around them shifted. Purplish stone created a spiral on the ground, leading into the centre of the room.
The walls were still blurry, waving in and out of existence, and when they looked away, there tended to be slight changes.
But the floor was stable. This was good and bad. It was good, except it was all bad because that's when the foes began to appear.
To Rai's relief, the enemies were still pokémon. Unfortunately, that meant panicking ferals were attacking them.
Jets of ice and poison, lightning and esoteric pulses of energy battered the four spelunkers. Thoughtlight, always a supporter, erected a Protect in front of himself and charged forth to block the majority of the attacks. Energies were mixing into a deafening bang when it all detonated.
Thoughtlight's shield cracked, but the volley was paused enough for Team Ion to jump into action.
Rai and Mane blasted pokémon away while Scout delivered surgical slices into the legs of lumbering pokémon, causing them to crash to the ground.
He pulled an orb out of the Treasure Bag and called. "Get clear!" As he tossed it.
The orb shattered and exploded like a grenade, the noise and pain of it driving ferals away from the only exit to the room, which Rai and Mane dashed for with Thoughtlight hanging onto them.
The corridor closed behind them, and they caught their breath.
"At least that's like old times," Scout said.
"We can handle attackers," Rai agreed.
With no need to rest, they trotted forwards with a touch of speed to their step.
This was the Spacial Rift, a distorted Spacial Rift at that. The dimensions were not normal here, and as they stepped out into the next room, they found the walls to be rising like a sheer cliff, the distant sky unviewable in its distance, and a titanic apple right near the door.
"Holy-" Scout began. "Wigglytuff would LOVE that."
"Why is it so big?" Rai asked, trotting up to it and poked it. The apple shifted.
Thoughtlight waved his hand, and the apple rose before he set it back down. "It feels no different to lift than a normal apple," he said, levitating one out of Scout's bag as well.
"So, we're small?" Mane asked.
"This is weird," Scout said, nodding as they began to make their way through the vast room. There were no ferals in sight, which was a relief.
No one said anything, but even thinking such thoughts were dangerous in a dreamlike realm.
A weedle appeared out of thin air, dropping what looked like dozens of metres to hit the ground, when in actuality it would have been barely a third of a metre.
"Weeeee!" the weedle screeched, booming yet also high pitched. It caused Rai and Mane's ears to flatten, Scout to clamp his paws over his head, and Thoughtlight to drop to the ground, his focus on levitating snapped like a string.
"L-let's just edge away," Scout began, but the weedle spotted them and immediately vomited a stream of consuming white.
String Shot was annoying at the best of times, but when they were smaller than it and capable of being drowned in it?
Mane spat back a tiny, little, stream of embers that nevertheless detonated with the force of his normal Ember, causing the String Shot to light up and burn all the way back to the weedle, setting it on fire.
It screeched and flailed, fire fading quickly as its Power fought off the Infinity Energy Formed Fire. It glared back at them with its eyes going red.
"Well now you've made it mad," Scout said, forming a Shadow Ball. It was like a dot of dirt on a clean screen, but when it hit the weedle, the Bug-type went flying.
"At least we're no weaker in this form," Thoughtlight said, rubbing his head.
"Could even be useful?" Rai said as they continued. "It's harder to notice us like this!"
He taunted the devil, so the devil sent a scolipede.
"I think we should just stop talking altogether," Mane said, as the four stared up at the titan-sized monstrous bug in horror.
It pounded the ground, the shockwave proving to be all the more terrible at their size, sending them flying. Quite effectively splitting them up.
Sat laid on the ground, limbs spread dramatically as various items were strewn about him. He considered the fact that he'd love to just go to sleep and wake up with everything fixed. Sadly, he knew it didn't work like that and pulled himself up.
The scolipede, proving that Darkrai, that devil, had to be behind this to some ironic degree picked him as its target and it was stampeding after him like it was a wildebeest and he was Mufasa.
Scout hit it with a grapeshot Shadow Ball on one of the forelegs, and it stumbled. He tried Hypnosis, but he was simply too small.
A tiny jolt of electricity hit it from a vast difference, and the scolipede shrieked as it was jolted.
Pulling everything back into his bag, Scout palmed a sleep seed, formed a Shadow Ball around it, and lobbed it for the beast's head.
It took some time to reach it, but Rai kept up the discharging long enough that the scolipede was paralysed. Scout's Sleep Shadow Ball hit it in the eye, and poisonous blood oozed from the grapeshot blast.
It staggered, limbs still locking up from the Thunderbolt before the seed was absorbed through the eye and it dropped, causing the ground to shake from the impact.
"Okay." Scout nodded, satisfied with the great big bug's defeat. He pulled another item out, their Rollcall Orb. It hadn't been tuned to Thoughtlight yet but activating it teleported Rai and Mane to him at least.
"You both alright?" Scout asked, considering that both of them were weak to Scolipede's Ground-type attack.
"I'm fine," Rai said.
"Ditto." Mane nodded.
In the far distance, they could see Thoughtlight, so the three began to sprint across the giant ground, hoping to get out before the scolipede woke up.
Despite their size and the distance of the room, other ferals were easily dispatched. Team Ion was no longer the rookie team that struggled to coordinate as an effective team.
They had saved the world, and no one could forget that.
Thunderbolt. Fire Blast. Shadow Ball. Even Thoughtlight's Psychic forced their enemies aside, and they escaped the spatially-challenged room.
And nearly immediately got crushed against each other when their sizes reversed in the next room. Instead of being tiny among giants, they were the giants.
"What do we do?"
"Ow, get off me!"
"Why is Meowth so bony?"
"I have trouble eating sometimes, sue me!"
"When I said I wanted to be crushed, this wasn't quite what I meant."
"Mane, shut up!" Rai and Scout snapped in unison.
"Just let me…" Thoughtlight levitated Scout's bag up and around their limbs, it couldn't be released entirely, but he was able to open it. "Have any warp seeds?"
"Yep."
He was able to pull out the squiggly seed and tore it into four pieces and shoved it in their mouths. The four vanished.
They appeared in a room they hadn't seen before. It was beautiful. Crystal-like structures spread out in every direction, glowing azure, cerulean, lavender, topaz, even emerald and sapphire.
The ground crunched as they dropped on it, the floor was made of countless crossed wafers of crystal. It wasn't very comfortable on Team Ion's feet, but it didn't pierce their skin at least.
Cracks spread outright from their landing and continued to spread. "Oh shit," Scout gasped, the four only taking a moment to adjust to not being crushed together.
"RUN!"
The cracks touched the walls, and an ear-splitting snap rang out as the whole room began to shatter. Running only made it worse, but it was already falling apart. Thoughtlight deflected falling crystals from hitting himself and the others, and they reached the middle of the room as the majority of the floor simply crumbled into an abyss.
Thicker rows of crystal hadn't broken yet, forming bridges for them to dash over, but they were splintering as well, and each push off the floor sent shards flying.
Thoughtlight, at least, could float but he couldn't bring himself to look down. Darkness was absolute down there.
Team Ion dashed for the doorway, and Thoughtlight yelped, but Rai stopped them before they exited entirely to wait for him. The way had closed each other time, they weren't going to risk leaving him behind. He got through after him, leaving the sounds of smashing glass behind them.
"How much farther do you think?" Thoughtlight panted, the tetrad pausing to catch their breaths. "Pardon me, but I'm rather sick of this place. I would not have thought that the journey to reach the villain would be more difficult."
"Don't start tempting fate again," Scout said. "This place… I think part of The Dream must be affecting it. Just talking and thinking about the horrors are causing them to happen."
"At least if it's happening more," Mane said, first to catch his breath, "we must be getting somewhat close?"
That was a comforting thought at the very least.
The Dream. Warping of space in Palkia's very heart, built under the strength of the reflected dream deities, Cresselia and Darkrai. It was a place for sleeping minds, their power protecting the functionality of The Dream from the chaos of the slumbering mind.
It was a new world for those sleeping. Even those aware, they were still sleeping. Sleeping minds were protected from the onslaught of lucid compromise.
Waking minds are not.
A great deal of tension was high among Team Ion and Thoughtlight. They wanted this to be done with. They wanted to adventure in safety again, help others without fear again. Thoughtlight wanted Team Gazer back. They wanted this to be done with.
They were awake as they began trespassing further into a distorted space-dream dimension. Darkrai had chosen his stronghold well. Not only was it the only place The Dream could be formed, but by retreating here, the sheer magnitude of reality was its own defence.
There are no fears that Darkrai could create that would be worse than the dreams you can make.
The walls began to tighten, rooms becoming more akin to corridors. Feral pokémon rose in great numbers, many were blending into monsters unnameable, and their ferocity was cumulative.
The fear of falling took all of Team Ion down a chasm, but Thoughtlight was just able to grab Rai at the top, his teeth around Scout's tail while Scout held onto Mane with all his strength.
The beheeyem nearly got broken in half with a Brick Break to the spine, but Rai was able to zap it away from him before it knocked him down with them.
Thoughtlight panicked when the heavens unleashed on them, and they wound up in a room that was filling up with water. Scout, the most capable swimmer somehow, scratched him and they dove for the exit.
The deeper mind is a place of instinct, of half-forgotten thoughts, of memories long past. It is rougher, coarser, like sand but far greater in number. But it's the waking mind where the real horrors lurk.
An electrike split Rai off from the others, wreathed in a vile purplish shadow.
"Tell Beldum I said hi," it said, smarmily to Thoughtlight, before the light of evolution took it from electrike to Manectric.
"Y-you-you-you live. Lie. Die. Die. You. Did. Die." It stuttered before tossing its head and screaming before charging Rai enveloped in shadow.
Rai could not even begin to evade, stunned before it smashed into him and darkness exploded off it like an eclipse.
"RAAII!" Scout yelled, squinting against the blowing darkness. "HOLD ON!" He dashed for it, Mane joining him before another shadow cut between them and knocked them back a maroon blaze.
"Oh sweetie," it said, darkness sinking away into tan legs, black fur, shining claws, and a red and yellow stream of fire for an extended length of hair. "You've got your own problems to deal with."
Mane made a soft, weak, sound and Scout hesitated before she, before Pyroar, spat an Ember at him and knocked him away from Mane. "This is between us."
She prowled forth as Scout rolled to a stop near Thoughtlight.
Thunderclaps shook the room as the darkness severing the pokémon from each other was lit up from the other side. Rai, bleeding and burned, clashed with Manectric's Shadow Bolt. Crackling purple lightning met shining golden electricity in a clash of wills.
Rai had his head bent slightly, pushing with all his might as lightning splintered and began to break off the match, tearing up the ground and knocking the dust and lighting it on fire.
Manectric continued to scream nonsensical words, but Rai was refusing to listen. The lightning bolts rose up, flicking around as Manectric tried to blast through Rai's. Still, the shinx refused to yield, matching the Shadow Move with every bit of fury a pokémon had.
His claws dug into the ground as his entire body vibrated from the effort, Rai's fur was curling and smouldering from the sheer heat of the clash, and his right paw twitched.
Shining white, Rai double-tasked with two moves. Multi-wielding Thunderbolt and Quick Attack, he sprinted forth in a burst of speed, bathing himself in the electricity being surrendered to the area around them. He struck the Shadow Bolt, and for a moment, all he knew was pain.
Rai screamed and then screamed louder as the Shadow Bolt splintered everywhere, shattering the shadowy veil in an explosive purple shockwave.
He collided with Manectric, cracking its skull with his own. Manectric recoiled, its attack ceasing, but it was not finished, and it smashed back against him, roaring.
Rai was thrown back from the shadow-infused headbutt, and Manectric lit up with terrible lightning again.
It reared up, calling to the shadows before it was grabbed in a light pinkish field and then slammed into place, legs cracking the ground as Thoughtlight intervened. "GO!" he yelled, Scout pouncing as Rai landed on his feet.
Scout snapped from point A to point B, curling his arms as a Night Slash burned off his paws. Six sabres slashed through Manectric, from its legs to its belly to its neck.
Vapour seeped instead of blood as Scout nearly decapitated it, Rai pulling himself up as the nightmare staggered.
Rai roared and unleashed Thunder.
The light burned away the darkness, and with a thunderclap, the shadow of Manectric's memory was obliterated.
Rai growled before roaring, surging with electricity for a moment before coughing, the charge fading and his wounds disappearing. It was just a dream, after all.
Scout got to him and helped him up. "I'm okay," he said, eyes a little watery. It wasn't Manectric, and it wasn't vengeance. It wasn't even defeating his demons, for they were already gone. Rai smiled at him. "Let's help Mane!"
As Scout had been thrown away by Pyroar, Mane couldn't move. She sauntered up to him, waving her hips in the way she always had to everyone.
"How remarkable," she said, with an air of surprise. "You here, me here. Now."
Mane's lip curled. "Right. Because you're DEAD!"
He blasted a fireball at her, she cocked her head, and it missed, hitting the shadow veil far back.
"Is that any way to treat your mother, Mane?"
"Mothers love their children!" Mane yelled back, firing another Ember ball.
"I hatched you," she said, stepping closer and Mane stepped back. "I fed you on my milk." Another step, he stepped back. "I raised you." Her legs were longer than his, she was getting closer. "I taught you everything you know. I am the reason you are you."
Mane shook, he opened his mouth to retort, but he had no words.
"Oh, sweetie," Pyroar crooned, reaching him. She nuzzled him. "Mother's here."
"No."
She raised a paw and put it on the back of his neck. The touch was not light, nor gentle. She put pressure and his legs buckled. She pushed harder, and he gasped, his ability to breathe being restricted.
"Stay in the dirt," Pyroar snarled. "You and Rumble were my instruments and look what you've become? An explorer. A guild brat. You don't even use your popularity and fame to draw others to my cause, you turned your back on it."
"I-I," Mane wheezed, finding the strength to push back. "I never was a part of it!" He forced himself up and used a Fire Blast at point-blank range. It blew him back, it didn't even move her.
"Oh, Mane," she sighed, shaking her head. "Such a disappointment. At least Rumble takes what he wants when he wants, you've given yourself up in every way. Truly I am ashamed to have sired you."
"GOOD!" Mane yelled, causing her to blink. He snarled a cracked grin. "I never wanted your approval," he spat, saliva sizzling on the ground. "I never wanted your attention. I never wanted your love or affection."
"I taught you to lie better than that," she scoffed, walking for him again.
Mane raised his head, defiantly. "You did. But you're not Pyroar." She paused. "Just a memory. A nightmare. BECAUSE THAT'S ALL YOU WILL EVER BE! YOU FAILED!"
He breathed an Ember. Except it wasn't an Ember, it was a full-on stream of fire. Pyroar's eyes widened as the Flamethrower hit her directly, enveloping her in fire. Her eyes glowed darker than the flames, and she began to walk forth again, unopposed.
"You can't defeat me," she said as Mane's fire burned harsher. "You never could. It was the town, and you didn't even see it. You don't truly know."
"I didn't defeat you," Mane agreed. "But others did."
With Manectric destroyed, Rai, Scout, and Thoughtlight came for Pyroar. She was caught in a Psychic and thrown up, as Rai discharged on her in mid-air. As the lightning took precedence in the sky, Scout formed a massive sabre of darkness as Mane jumped forth.
"Take her apart!" he yelled and boosted Scout. Scout cut her in half and the dream dissolved.
Once she was gone, Mane closed his eyes and buried his face in his paws, screaming into them for a moment. By the time Rai and Scout got to him, however, he was already pulling himself up.
"We can't talk about it later," he said. "Darkrai has fucked with us for long enough. Let's go."
The Dream was roiling around them, touching the edge of their senses but the quartet was done with distractions. "Just push on."
Siren calls sang out. Chatot fluttered by, but Scout ignored it. Cobalt and Volt called for Thoughtlight, but they pulled the beheeyem along. A lightning field opened up with a family of shinx-line pokémon dashing towards the thunder, Rai turned away. Mane smiled a little sadly, there was nothing that could call out to him that wasn't already by his side.
A normal meowth stepped into view as the corridor of dreams was abandoned.
They stopped.
The other Scout smiled sadly at them. "This is the final obstacle," he said, opening his arms as if for a hug. Or to say he caught a magikarp THIS big. "Me."
Scout stepped forward, they both did. "I guess this one's for me then?" he asked. "Rai and Mane had their stuff, but I didn't."
Scout smiled, shrugging. "Must be. I never was entirely sure if I was Scout or an interloper stealing his body. Now that I'm here, in front of me. What do you think?" The normal meowth stepped closer again. "Am I only another dream to try and trick you, or am I the real Scout alive because of the infinite nature of the dream? Or did Darkrai take something out of you, me, and I'm here now?"
Scout hesitated then he smiled. "Heh. Darkrai always did know me too well. If you are me," he said, voice hardening. "Then you'd step aside. I was willing to die to stop the Dark Future." Rai and Mane frowned.
Scout nodded and stepped aside. "Very well. But part of you will always wonder if I really am Scout and you're inflicting the final killing blow. It was never you who was willing to die."
Scout began walking forward. "I would wonder that anyway," he said. "Because I can never be entirely sure."
Scout watched Rai and Mane sadly as they passed by, the two giving him a searching look. Thoughtlight kept his eyes firmly on Scout, watching him for any sudden movements. He made none, simply watching them.
"Before this begins," Scout said. "Let me go first. We must be near the end, and Team Sunrise isn't here yet. But Darkrai and Cresselia will know we're coming, we can't just do nothing and let them get the jump on us. I'm going to go ahead."
"Absolutely not!" Rai barked. Scout turned to give him a tired look. "We're doing this as a team! We came here as a team, got through here as a team, and we are going to fight them as. A. Team!"
Scout smiled. "I'm not saying I'm going to start fighting all of them on my own. I have an idea, I'm going to stall. You'll be close by, in case it doesn't work."
"Scout," Mane said, voice tensed to the point of snapping. "What is it?" he forced out. "This plan?"
"I'm going to talk," Scout said. "I still know a thing or two to trip them up!" He smirked, getting a confused exchange of expressions from the others. "Just give me five minutes. I'm tough, remember?"
"You can't die again," Rai said, voice cracking. "No. Not again. You're not sacrificing yourself again."
Scout took him into a hug. "That's not what this is," he insisted, rubbing Rai's back. "I'm not dying, I'm not even close to that. I promise. Please. Just trust me?"
"…okay."
Armed with his Treasure Town, it had been through hell itself and was frayed and repaired all over. It was shouldered and comfortable, and Scout walked forth, ready to have one final conversation. He wouldn't think about Scout.
"This is The Dream. Isn't it? Why does it feel so real? Why does it feel so fake? I must be getting close."
The Spacial Rift had returned to the grey stones they had seen when Scout had first entered. Dark stones, dungeon entrance, and then after that, it was confusion and chaos. Now? It was like he'd taken one step, fallen asleep, and woken up from the dream. Even looking back, he could see the entryway they had all stepped through, but no sign of the portal.
Sean and Team Sunrise were in then. That was good to know.
"All I have to do is stall," Scout thought. He was confident in thinking, he was a Dark-type after all. No mind readers could get him.
The path began to open up, just like your normal dungeon. Scout didn't hesitate, but he did take a deep breath, and he stepped into the heart of the Spacial Rift.
Greystones curled like bony fingers around rocky outcroppings in the far walls. The ground was an ocean of stars, hard as fact but as boundless as fiction. Far within, a pair of pearls gleamed brighter than any star, a lighter path of space forming between them.
In the way spikes of stones jutted from glassy panels on the dungeons walls, glitters of hope and wonder of sleeping minds shone. While whispers of something beyond a mortal pokémon's comprehension was scripted in the way the air felt against his fur.
Reflecting the infinite ocean below hung a tapestry of colours, spanning the distant sky, close enough to seemingly touch but far enough to never feel. Songs swam like swans through the colours, blending into a million-million different hues and shapes. The richest of purples and brightest of yellows clashed with the darkest black and whitest rays.
The Dream was here. The ground flowed, and the walls beat. This was the heart of the Spacial Rift, and it was spreading The Dream further.
The Dream, a solid spike of diamond, jutted out of the ground and roof, nearly meeting in the middle where a yin-yang of light and darkness swirled, sending out gentle pulses every few seconds that ruffled Scout's fur and made him remember forgotten dreams.
It was not empty.
Cresselia swam through the lights in the sky, sending glitters of thought wafting down into The Dream. A shock of pink, unlike anything, was Saniya, for there was no one quite like Saniya. She floated serenely, with her eyes closed, in front of the Crystal Dream.
And Darkrai was here. Where? Scout couldn't know. He only knew that he was.
Neither Cresselia nor Saniya reacted as Scout stepped in, defiantly walking where no mon had the right to walk uninvited.
"Well?" Scout called, voice loud and brash. "I'm here, just as I was always going to be."
The infinite stars beneath blinked out for a moment as the darkest one rose up.
"Scout," Darkrai crooned, two-armed and forever dangerous. "It is rude to invite yourself in."
Scout flashed him a smirk, and he formed his Night Slash sabre and held it out, ready to skewer.
A drop of blood fell, and Scout flicked back, throwing a Shadow Ball right into Cresselia's face and blasting her back. "Nice try."
He ducked underneath an Ancient Power. "Try again."
He jumped up and swung out, free of Darkrai's Dark Pulse and delivering a Shadow Ball back. While in the air he clashed against Saniya and another Shadow Ball to guard against Cresselia.
He landed on his feet, successfully forcing three legendary pokémon back for a moment.
Cresselia, uninjured, readied herself for another go but Darkrai held his hand up. Saniya froze, and Cresselia sneered.
"Why do you think you can face us?" Darkrai asked. "I'm willing to indulge your attempts at stalling us. I am a kind pokémon, I'll give you a chance to try."
Scout smiled and crossed his arms. "You always were too nice," he jested. "The kind to plan and plan, never act unless you are certain, with two, four, ten backup plans at the ready. The fact that I'm traipsing in here is enough to make you hesitate, Darkrai."
Darkrai's visible eye narrowed. "Despite your words, you aren't unafraid of death. You cannot survive Cresselia, nor would you harm Saniya."
"Darkrai!" Cresselia snapped. "Stop talking to it. He spoke of his desire to stall us already!"
"With information, he's told no one," Darkrai argued back, Scout's eye gleamed. Darkrai paused and spun to Scout again, waving his hand for chains of darkness to snare Scout. His arms and legs were restrained, but he didn't let them pull him to the ground. "Ah, I understand. You seek to lie to cause me to hesitate?"
"Of course," Scout replied, still grinning brazenly. "After all. Isn't that something I'm known for doing?" Despite his own words, Darkrai hesitated. "You said it yourself, we're not so different. You turn the truth to manipulate, and when have I ever said the entire truth?"
"…A lie," Darkrai denounced, the chains of darkness grew tighter. "You would never willingly compare yourself to me."
"Darkrai," Cresselia growled, shaking. "I am done with talk." She moved, wings shining white to slash the restrained Scout in half.
A flicker of fear went through Scout's eyes, and Darkrai knew.
A Thunderbolt struck Cresselia in the eye, causing her to scream and recoil, missing Scout by inches and crashing into the ground. Darkrai spun around as a double Flamethrower burned the darkness restraining Scout away.
"Oh thank god," Scout sighed in relief as Rai and Mane dashed in, Sean and Striker inches behind. "I really am not as good at stalling as I thought I was."
Rai tackled him. "Don't you dare convince us to let you be this stupid ever again!" he shouted.
Mane breathed a line of fire around them. "Make out later! Get ready!" Rai sprung off Scout, and he pulled himself up on Rai's tail, Team Ion standing together as Cresselia returned to them.
"You have done it now," she uttered, a line of blood trailing down her pristine head.
A tendril of darkness wrapped around Darkrai's midsection and held him in place as Sean ran up and delivered a brutal Force Palm to his head.
Thoughtlight raised both of his hands, fingers flashing, as he cast a powerful Psychic, freezing Saniya in place as she moved to divebomb Sean. He gasped as she slowly began to jitter forth, turning slowly to face him even as he put everything he had into holding her.
She threw her hands out as if she was declaring that to be begone. And her Psychic snapped. A glowing stone of energy formed between her hands and she lobbed it right at Thoughtlight's big head.
A blade of green cut it in half as Striker stepped between her and Thoughtlight. "Saniya!" he called. "Stop this! This isn't you."
She floated back, right into Darkrai's outstretched hand. "Be careful you seven," he crooned, claws closing around her neck. "I have something valuable, and fragile, right here."
Sean bit his cheek, Guardian's eye flickered, Scout hissed, and Striker's expression became stormy. He sighed and stepped forth, one arm beaming out a Leaf Blade. He raised it. "Saniya… would understand," he said before firing it.
Saniya waved her hand, grabbing him in a crushing Psychic of her own. The air was squeezed out of his lungs, and she gestured with a finger, floating him over. Striker flew for a few metres before he flicked his wrist, sending a weak Leaf Blade through the air at her.
It splashed harmlessly against her, but he dropped to the ground.
"That's how it's going to be?" Darkrai asked, readying himself for battle.
They seven raised their heads, Striker nodded, Thoughtlight floating up determined behind him.
"Then let's go."
"I wager that big crystal is what we need to destroy," Scout said as Team Ion split apart, putting distance between themselves so Cresselia couldn't bombard them all at once.
"Go for it!" Rai yelled, discharging a lightning bolt. "We've handled her before!"
"You're fast enough," Mane added, Flamethrower vs Psybeam.
Scout nodded and dashed for the crystal, but Cresselia jinked backwards to get between him and it. "Begone!" she roared, rotten darkness beginning to seep out of her. He was headbutted and sent flying. She followed up, zooming after him with bladed wings.
Scout matched the Slash with his Night Slash, and Mane blasted her away before the second wing could go for a repeat. Cresselia gurgled something, and a blast of darkness left her body like a shockwave.
It hit Scout, and for a moment, he saw hell, then the effect broke as he hit the ground.
"Are you okay!?" Rai yelled, discharging a lot of electricity into holding Cresselia back as Mane dashed for him.
"You went all stiff for a moment," Mane said, pulling the bag open. Scout accepted an oran and mashed it in his mouth.
He swallowed, eyes narrowing. "So, she did get somewhere with that game?"
"What are you doing?" Darkrai bellowed, being thrown back by double-hit from Sean and Guardian. "Stop floating in place!"
Cresselia was burning with a crackling aura of building darkness. It wasn't the purple wrongness of a shadow attack, however.
Scout's eyes snapped wide. "Everyone, DON'T LET THAT HIT YOU!" Scout bellowed as Cresselia unleashed a vortex sphere of hatred.
Scout grabbed Rai and Mane and threw them back as the sphere closed in on them. He threw a Shadow Ball back, and it connected, erupting and shaking the sphere but not destroying it.
They weren't running far enough, and this sphere had locked onto them somehow. Rai began to crackle with electricity.
Shadows wrapped around Rai and Scout's midriffs and Scout grabbed Mane as Guardian tugged them away, the sphere colliding with the ground and turning it to solid stone.
"Okay, she can turn us to stone," Scout said. "Great."
"That's new," Darkrai said. Cresselia turned the crazy eyes on him, and he flinched. "Whatever dark powers you've tapped into, turn them on THEM!"
She turned a bloodthirsty gaze on them and began to crackle again, generating power.
But Team Ion was quicker. Fire Blast mixed with Thunderbolt with a Shadow Ball tail. The electricity caused her to rear up, the Fire Blast burned feathers, and the Shadow Ball's extra kinetic force thanks to her poor typing knocked her flying, the aura not building up further but remaining as it is.
Cresselia fell smoking, near where Saniya and Striker were before shaking it off.
Saniya choked Striker and was pelted with hard psychic spheres. "Here!" Thoughtlight yelled, throwing his arms out. The room was titanic, and Trick Room could only go so far.
To get it as big as he could manage, he had needed to loiter in safety behind Striker as the rest of them fought the legends. But he was here for a reason, and a twisted room of elements spread out to touch the corners.
The legendary pokémon suddenly found their speed turned against them. Scout zipped forth, faster than he'd ever been and he slashed a cut through Cresselia's side, ripping out several feathers as he did so.
As Saniya shook off the attack and began duelling Striker with Magical Leaf vs Leaf Blade, Scout came for her. "Striker!" he yelled, holding a feather up. Striker nodded and tackled Saniya.
She was a lot stronger than she looked and at least one of his ribs snapped when she broke his hold and threw him off, but the distraction slowed her enough for Scout to reach them and slap a feather on the back of her head.
He had to hold it there until she awoke and she thrashed, but his Dark-type body refused to yield to a Psychic attack and the feather disappeared.
Saniya suddenly stopped writhing and paused. "Wha?"
She gave a big yawn. "Oh. I'm awake."
"And in the middle of fighting!" Scout yelled, pulling her away as Darkrai lobbed a Dark Void. It missed Saniya and almost hit Striker.
"Oh that son of a whore," Saniya growled, spinning around to Darkrai. "Yes. YOU! You're going down, clown."
"I liked her better when she wasn't talking," Darkrai muttered, disappearing into a shadow to dart around the room, avoiding Saniya as she charged after him.
Rai and Mane continued levelling Cresselia with firepower until she accepted that the time taken to charge her fetid prize from her attempt of summing Dark Matter wasn't going to help. Yet.
They unleashed so much heat on her that smoke billowed out from burning feathers, enveloping Cresselia in a smoky fog. Things went silent from that side of the battlefield.
"It's raining." Rai and Mane tensed.
"You're bleeding." Not much, but they were.
"Cressssselia is starving."
She was slower due to the Trick Room, but not so slow that Rai and Mane were able to avoid her when she came for them, wings flashing. Twin Psychic's tossed them back together when they tried to split apart, and Cresselia cracked their heads together for good measure.
She powered through the elemental barrage they unleashed upon her, wings shining and ready for blood.
"Throw me at her!" Sean called, jumping into Guardian's grip. Shadows pooled and tossed Rai into Mane to pull against the Psychic hold as Sean was thrown at them.
His body glinted white and then silver. Cresselia slashed out, twice with a wing each. It was Sean who took the double shot, Endure deflecting the worst of it. He flashed a violent red and then Countered.
A devastating bang twisted Cresselia's head brutally, and she was introduced to the dirt again. Sean landed on three limbs, protecting Rai and Mane.
Saniya teleported after Darkrai, not letting him get anywhere close to whatever escape plan he had. He did not approach the back of the room, only around the front, but she couldn't spend valuable time thinking about it.
A wretched hand burst from the shadows around them and grabbed Saniya. She shrieked and vaporised it, but then took a Dark Void to the face and dropped asleep once more.
Cresselia's stolen feather retook control, and he revived Saniya under his control once more. "Better," Darkrai muttered. "She's stopped yammering on about pounding my face like a wishiwashi melt."
Saniya teleported in between Rai and Mane, them not quite ready for her to be an enemy again and she threw them both apart, bouncing them off the walls like the world's most unhappy bouncy balls.
Scout, who had been reunited with Guardian and Sean, were next to be targeted and Saniya flew at them. Scout grit his teeth and formed a Shadow Ball, hiding one of the other two feathers he'd ripped off Cresselia in it.
It was popped by a barb of shadow, courtesy of Darkrai, and the feather was vaporised. Saniya clubbed him with a levitated rock and Guardian caught it after Scout was already knocked to the ground and crushed it.
His own shadow reached up and grabbed Saniya's legs, she tried to kick them off, but she continued to skip leg day. She blasted it with a pure Psychic blast, but Guardian had already readied another hit.
Socking her in the body with a Shadow Punch the size of her head, Saniya was knocked back. "You are my friend," Guardian sighed. "Therefore I will beat you, so you don't harm anyone else."
A Dark Void came for Guardian's back, but he evaded it, Scout's warning shout unneeded.
Scout spun on Darkrai, the nightmare bringer sneering as he sunk back into a shadow. This was his domain, there were shadows everywhere for him to hide in. Scout glanced at The Dream and prepared a Shadow Ball for it.
Striker, who had thought of the same idea, threw a Leaf Blade at it.
Darkrai appeared in front of it, tanking both attacks without even a grunt. "You seek to challenge me?" he said, floating down. "Come."
Scout, Striker, and then Sean raced for him.
Scout was faster, but Striker was closer. His arms burned with green and he slashed out, Darkrai ducked. He spun on the ball of his foot and lashed out again, the nightmare ruler evading again.
Striker began to deliver a rapid flurry of cuts and slashes that Darkrai evaded with ease, swimming around them as if they were bubbles in a river. Scout reached him and jumped up, one Night Slash, one Shadow Ball.
He threw the ball, Darkrai ducked and slashed out as Striker came in for another volley.
Darkrai caught both of them by their wrists. "Cute," he said and squeezed, causing their wrists to crunch and pulling at the same time to throw Striker into Sean's Force Palm and slamming Scout into the unyielding ground.
He followed with a Dark Pulse through the ground, blasting the three back. "You cannot fight me in my own domain," Darkrai uttered, levitating hands ripping out of the air around them to grab arms, necks, and tails.
Cresselia, having pulled herself up again, churned with her stolen power again. She turned her gaze to Guardian, battling Saniya with punches and shadows. His back was turned. Rai and Mane were too far away, even as Rai shocked Cresselia she didn't cease. Dark Matters stolen gift burned again.
The power reached an apex, and she unleashed it, anchored onto Guardian's source. Rai and Mane couldn't stop it, shouting out Guardian's name.
Scout, Sean, and Striker couldn't stop it, dazed from Darkrai's assault.
Saniya wouldn't stop it, under Darkrai's command.
There was one other. "Dusknoir!" Thoughtlight raced in between, and the vortex struck him head-on. Enveloping him in a blast of dark magic, it sunk into every part of Thoughtlight and took everything away.
It faded in seconds, and all that was left was a statue.
The Trick Room around them shook, no longer being fed by its maker. Darkrai threw a barb up, as did Cresselia and Saniya. The Trick Room broke, and they took their speed back.
Scout stared in horror at Thoughtlight before his eyes stringed with blackness.
Guardian's own eye had flickered between the dull light of horror, the yellow of anger, and then glowed a deep vermillion red.
"You will regret that," Guardian spoke as Scout raced away from Darkrai. Saniya took advantage of his distraction to pelt him with leaves, stones, and blasts of psychic energy, but Guardian didn't even seem to feel them.
Scout clashed with Cresselia, Night Slash vs Slash. He broke his own move and split it into shining white claws, slashing out with a violent Fury Swipes and blinding Cresselia in the eye Rai had zapped and drawing her shining blood.
Rai and Mane looked between Cresselia in rage and Saniya alone. As Guardian focused on Cresselia and backed up Scout, they turned to Saniya. Mane's fire knocking the Grass-type back.
"I really hate to fight a friend," Mane panted, breathing smoke.
"She'd hate it too," Rai agreed. They couldn't focus on Thoughtlight yet.
"I agree," Saniya said, teleporting between them and herself. "I DO hate it."
They flinched back from the sudden appearance, and Saniya gave them a thumbs up before punching her sleeping self in the face.
"News flash everyone!" Saniya yelled, capturing her own self in a powerful Psychic. She couldn't hold it for long, but long enough to speak as Darkrai called out in fury. "This place IS The Dream! Thanks for waking me for long enough to home in on it, Scout!"
Saniya broke her dream self's hold and created a swarm of Ancient Powered stones. "Oh cool," Saniya said, grinning. "I CAN DO THAT TOO!"
Once Darkrai had set her back to sleep, she'd woken up in the time-frozen location she last remembered, only unfrozen. With Giratina's gift and her unrestricted teleportation in The Dream, it was child's play to get back here.
And this WAS The Dream as well as reality. She existed here on both levels.
And Saniya a theory as well.
She sent her sleeping self, clumsy and unfocused, into a wall and winced. "I'll be feeling THAT tomorrow." Before turning to Darkrai. "Hey, you! Yeah, I've got your number." Saniya smirked, flying forth as Darkrai tossed Striker and Sean aside and formed a Dark Void.
"Want to dream in a dream?" Darkrai scoffed and threw it, she teleported through it.
"You don't fool me, Darkrai!" Saniya said, slamming her head into his and throwing him back, near to the source of The Dream. "You put YOURSELF to sleep! This isn't your real body, is it?"
Darkrai shuddered, and Saniya knew she was right.
"FOCUS ON ME AND CRESSELIA!" Saniya yelled. "I'll handle Darkrai, legendary dream apparition vs legendary dream apparition."
"You are no master of dreams," Darkrai scoffed and matched her Psychic with a wave of darkness. "I rule the sleeping mind."
"I'm not into the master/slave play," Saniya shot back, teleporting around him to deliver quick punches in the face and crotch.
"Stay STILL!"
"If you are so powerful then MAKE ME!"
Shockwaves as they clashed ruffled the colours around them, pink and black met in brief, brutal, clashes.
Striker and Sean, ignoring Saniya's loud command to focus on other opponents, returned to help her. With an understanding of what Darkrai was, they focused less on taking him out and more on sheer damage.
Sean had confirmed they still felt pain while in The Dream, and that was no different for Darkrai.
Bolts of lightning and fire held Saniya back, she teleported past them, but they pursued until she focused purely on them.
Scout, eyes blank but expression twisted into a snarl, was slashing Cresselia apart with every chance he got. She did not appear to be a dream Cresselia, her tangible and physical form was bleeding and sagging in the air.
A flicker of fear was entering her eyes, and she tried to charge up another Dark Matter attack, but Guardian caught her with painful shadows.
"How are you doing this?" Cresselia choked, speaking again. "How? HOw? HOW?" She screamed and sent a shockwave that didn't move Scout in the least. "You are not natural! You are filth upon filth!" She ripped a stalactite of diamond off the walls and began trying to beat Scout with it. "DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!"
Scout dodged around it, Guardian intervened, but she bashed him to the ground with it, and he couldn't get closer. She turned the object on its axis and threw it out wider, finally clubbing Scout in the chest. Cresselia's eyes gleamed, and she raced forth, with Scout trapped like a bug on a windscreen as she approached another wall.
"I hear you're tough!" Cresselia screeched before Scout was smashed into the wall with the stalactite. He just barely manages to slide far enough off it that the impact didn't crush him, most of the stalactite simply hit blunt wall and not his squishy body. She ripped it away and turned it, so the point was facing him, Scout groaned from the impact. She speared it forth.
A tendril of darkness tugged the point away, and it crashed uselessly against the wall instead, shattering.
Cresselia threw it aside, caring not and resolving to finish it with her own wings. She flew it and rotated, slashing out like a spinning blade.
Scout raised his paws, forming Ghost-type energy but not a Shadow Ball. He caught her Slash partially, but it partially moved from him as well.
Dreams were easy to remember here, and Scout suddenly remembered in painful detail how Cresselia ejected him from The Dream. But cutting him in half. His muscles, organs, and bones severing underneath the wrath of the dream deity.
She slashed in, piercing his belly, but he thrashed back, flight or fight kicking in and pushing back with everything he had to just barely hold her back from cutting him in half completely.
But she still slashed deeply, severing a clean line in his lower abdomen and Scout's blood began to leave his body again.
Guardian, dazed from having a stalactite beat him into the ground, slowly rose up and his eye fell on Scout, bleeding, and Cresselia's manic grin as she screamed for him to give in and die.
A pin could drop and he'd hear it.
"That's my son."
Scout's shadow turned solid and shot up, spearing Cresselia through the chest and out her back. Guardian's eye had frozen as he had pulled the shadows up and through Cresselia. "THAT'S. MY. SON!"
Faster than he should ever be able to move, Guardian flash stepped through the shadows, wrenching his fist back cloaked in darkness. Ripping the Shadow Sneak out of Cresselia, he forced her towards him. He delivered a devastating haymaker to her head, snapping her neck from the sheer impact, breaking it towards the left and knocking her flying.
Guardian was not done. His belly mouth opened, and his fingers clenched rapidly as the air around him began to shake as he formed his Fell Shadow Ball, bigger, and bigger, and BIGGER.
Scout, still conscious, eyes still swimming in darkness as it dripped down to the wound on his stomach, stopping the blood flow and beginning to stitch the wound up.
Scout stepped forward, unhalting, and reached Guardian and formed his own Shadow Ball from the blood that he was losing, mixing with Guardian's own to create the Father/Son Fell Shadow Ball.
Cresselia, a Psychic-type, was not down for the count entirely. She was giving off soft gasping noises, her head tilted unnaturally far to the side and hanging, but her eyes were just as crazed. "I. Will. Not." She levitated still, charging something bright.
Guardian unleashed the Fell Shadow Ball as Cresselia fired a Psybeam with all the Power she had. The might of the legend met the might of the father and son in a crackling showdown, shaking the entire room and causing parts of The Dream to crack from the pules rippling off.
Darkrai screamed at them to stop, but neither pokémon were listening, and Saniya smacked him in the face.
As the attacks tried to overpower each other, Scout pulled a paw back from his stomach, marvelling at the blood as an old lesson returned to his mind, crystal clear.
"Blood that is given express permission to use can be utilised in the same way as your own."
Scout had never done so for Guardian, not the Scout he was now. "Hey!" Scout yelled, flicking the blood drenching his paws to Guardian. "Use my blood!"
It landed in Guardian's hand, and he clenched his fist, the blood freely given smoking as Guardian called a second move on top of the ultimate attack.
A thin barb of shadowy Ghost-type energy speared right through the middle of the clashing attacks and struck through Cresselia like a sniper shot. She flinched, jinking in place, as her attack was distorted by the Dark-type blood and Ghost-type move.
The Fell Shadow Ball enveloped her, and her eyes briefly widened. "I see oblivion again," she whispered, unheard before the attack took her entirely and Cresselia died.
And then the rift cracked.
"NO!" Darkrai bellowed as everything shifted two feet to the right without them, causing everyone to stagger.
The white of the yin-yang disappeared and the entire dream fractured with Cresselia's death. The chorus above them shivered and began to seep away, only the infinite below them remained as it was—the real Spacial Rift.
"This isn't over!" Darkrai cried, a ripple of darkness belched out from the back of the room, and a one-armed Darkrai came sagging over in chains of darkness. Another feather, one Darkrai had, was pressed into Darkrai and the real Darkrai's eyes opened, while the fake one remained there.
Saniya floated between them, a shield in Darkrai's grip as Darkrai took to the field in doubles. "I CAN HOLD THE DREAM MYSELF!" he shrieked, filling the white up with more darkness. Immediately, Saniya screamed as The Dream became a complete nightmare. Twice the darkrai and none of the cresselia.
Scout had one other feather still, and Guardian took it off him and sent it along in a shadow to Striker. With the feather in hand, he ran for Saniya as both of them screamed and thrashed in the air.
With Cresselia's death and her connection to Dark Matter not true, the stone around Thoughtlight began to crack and peel off.
Darkrai began to laugh hysterically as the cracks broke and were repaired by a void as dark as nothing. It was melting off him as his skin bubbled, and his eyes broke like glass.
Striker forced the feather into Saniya, and they both stopped screaming, one disappearing and the other one opening her eyes properly. She did not yawn cutely and give a cheeky comment, just shook in horror in Striker's arms.
"It's infecting The Dream," Saniya whispered. "I don't know what It is, but It is. It always was. We have to end this now before it goes any further than the heart.
"How are you okay, Scout?" Guardian asked, the wound Cresselia dealt was still bleeding, but it wasn't a brutal cut as it had appeared.
"This dream," Scout said, understanding. "They're more powerful in it, but what they do is still… a dream. I'm okay, she didn't get me too much."
Seven pokémon, and one statue peeling off, stood before two Darkrai's as the world around them began to break and melt into something worse.
Darkrai was screaming and silent, gazing and unseeing. He raised his arms. "It will never be over," he cried. "I. Will. NOT."
Darkrai was melting, merging together and splitting apart and laughing and laughing. And so the shadows twisted, hands appeared, Darkrai's eyes burned a bright blue and he came at them twice.
Clawed hands ripping out from the space around them snared everyone by their limbs, and throats. Guardian, larger than anyone, ripped the arms off him as Striker backflipped and destroyed several by draining them to husks.
Grabbing Striker out of the air, Guardian charged them both forward, letting Striker loose to dash up to the darkrai duo. He received a double Dark Pulse to the chest and smashed into Guardian, knocking them back.
"Do. Not. Come. Closer." Darkrai was cracking and splitting, more hands were appearing and melding into where the twin darkrai's shadows met. Something was opening eyes in there.
Saniya began to scream and Mane staggered as well, howling and clutching his head with his paws. "Mane! What is it?" Rai yelped, rushing to him but Mane exploded with fire and warded everyone back.
Sean's tassels began to rise and quiver and he couldn't force them down. "Ow. Ow. AHHH!" He grabbed his own head as well, beginning to scream. His paws closed around his tassels and he nearly went to rip them off but Saniya grabbed him in Psychic.
Whimpering in pain herself, she could barely control the strength and Sean gasped weakly and jerked and twisted as Saniya's control over her attack went rampant, something snapped and Scout popped a Shadow Ball on her to break her control.
Sean dropped, twitching on the ground.
His eyes met Rai's from across the battlefield. They weren't affected by whatever Darkrai was doing, and Guardian and Striker were getting back up themselves.
Darkrai gestured and his dream self charged forth, trailing lines of ruddy dark slime in his wake. He was melting. His claws were revealing the bone. He was becoming an actual nightmare.
Scout formed a double Night Slash and leaped forth, bringing them up as an X to cut Darkrai into four pieces. He took a ring of Dark Pulse that knocked the wind out of him before a devastating wind that pulled as his very soul.
And then Darkrai reached him. Clamping both hands around Scout's midsection, he squeezed until Scout squeaked and then did it again. "Fhahahaaha, that's adorable."
He squeezed again and Scout continued gasping and squeaking in pain.
His hands formed new Dark Pulse's and Scout was blasted out of the sky in a rain of dark rings. They crashed down on the pokémon, raining pain and terror down upon them. Dark Pulse, made of a mon's worst thoughts, was a terrible thing to be from the nightmare lord himself.
Scout hit the ground and stopped moving.
"Pokémon these days," Darkrai gurgled, turning to face Rai as he unleashed a thunderstorm on him. Darkrai floated serenely through it. Guardian unleashed a Shadow Ball on him, it was also unable to move him.
"Wrong Darkrai!" Saniya yelled, still on the ground. "Attack the real one! You can't harm that one!"
"I am beyond pain," Darkrai said, grabbing a struggling Rai as he shocked him over and over again. "I am beyond restraint." He grabbed Rai's throat and began to crush it. Rai unleashed all the electricity he could, didn't even move Darkrai. "I am beyond the end, and I've come for you Raigeki."
Striker took Darkrai's arms off with a double slice. His whole body was burning with green, Overgrow had finally activated. Rai fell to the ground and stopped moving as an armless Darkrai turned to Striker, the arms floating back up as ten more appeared out of the air around him.
"I hear you are a powerful grovyle," he said, casting his hands down to snare Striker. "One who's heart never gives in. A heart such as yours would be useful." He slammed his hand forth, tearing right through Striker's chest."
He gave a sharp, high, keening gasp as Darkrai ripped his heart out. "What a marvel," he said, admiring it as Striker staggered back, no wound on his chest at all. An illusion, yet the heart was still there.
He pointed dismissively and struck Striker through the throat with a barb of darkness. "You have begun to accept your folly," Darkrai said, floating back up between them and The Dream. "You could never have won."
The shadow with eyes was beginning to set into a painful shape. Painful to look at, to simply exist near.
Thoughtlight fell to his knees, the stone finally leaving him. He gasped for breath, eyes crazed. He could see them. The things of the void. Charging him. Consuming everything. Everything. Everything.
He looked up and saw the darkness manifesting and screamed, a blast of pure Psychic power cascading into a wave-motion beam that collided with it. Darkrai was silent as everything else shook and roared.
"No," he uttered as Sean, Mane, and Saniya's eyes snapped open.
Darkrai closed his eye in contempt and waved again, his real body rising up. "Look what you've done," he said, gesturing to The Dream. "Immortality. Freedom. Safety. My world was granting it all. And now? The pokémon are shaking in horror as terrors invade it." He gave a brief, sad, chuckle. "Was this what you meant, Scout?"
Two darkrai floated down together as four pokémon stood to fight. Guardian, Saniya, Sean, and Mane met two darkrai in mortal combat.
Fire and leaves clashed with darkness. Shadows and fists met a battered body.
Darkrai caught Sean from behind, wrapping both arms around him in a full nelson to pull him away from his sleeping body. Guardian delivered a neck-snapping haymaker to Darkrai's back and he released Sean.
A whirlwind of leaves swam around Saniya like a thousand motes of light. She flew into Darkrai's personal space and slashed into his throat, his chest, while Mane powered blasts of flames after her. She teleported away and the fire exploded on Darkrai. She reappeared, further back with a magical stone she slammed into the back of Darkrai's head.
A tendril slashed through his belly as a ring of darkness wrapped around Mane's throat and Darkrai pulled them both up, slamming them together before he and the dream Darkrai unleashed a double serving of ringed hate upon them.
Weaving around Guardian, Darkrai grabbed Sean again and squeezed his skull before throwing him into the path of a Shadow Ball. He spun back and formed legs, hard ones, and speared through Guardian's abdomen. The Ghost-type wasn't done and he grabbed the leg before it could fade and pulled Darkrai towards him.
The dream was unharmed from anything Guardian could do, but he blasted a hole through and used that hole to fire another Shadow Ball.
The real Darkrai couldn't see it coming and was jarred as Guardian, Saniya, and Sean homed into the real one and unleashed a Team Sunrise special on him. Palms blasted shockwaves into stones into fists into leaves and into fire.
Mane turned his gaze away from the fight. There was still another darkrai regenerating, but he was closer to The Dream than anyone else. He narrowed his eyes into a keen-eyed glare and his mouth crackled with fire as he raised his head.
Darkrai came to his own aid and they blasted a shockwave to force the fighters back. "You cannot win," Darkrai began, ready to threaten and postulate again.
Mane's Fire Blast hit The Dream.
Darkrai wailed as an explosion rocked the entire Spacial Rift and he desperately attacked Mane with hands, blasts, anything he could to force him away. The Dream was spinning, cracking, but it wasn't broken yet.
"NO!" Darkrai bellowed, arms ripped out from the ground to grab the fighters legs and drag them down into space. Bolts of electricity and slashes of green broke them before anyone could go far.
Striker and Rai were standing again.
Darkrai grabbed his head. "No, no, no!" Blasts of pure Energy flung pokémon away and rolling. "Get away! Get Away! GET AWAY FROM IT!"
Scout was only barely stirring and Guardian were tapped, Saniya was thrown back to Guardian and they collapsed together, they'd done their job. Striker, deciding that Scout could not one-up him on stubborn ability to move, charged forwards with Rai.
"Destroy it!" he yelled as Rai ran to the left and Mane crawled to the right. "I'll hold him off."
Striker ran up, stepping on-air as he had to move, and this was a dream. He slashed out six times, moving so fast afterimages remained, and then they remained longer.
Striker slashed the two darkrai apart from each other then took the two-armed one's head off. The dream jerked and spasmed as the other Darkrai reached for him with his one arm.
He grabbed Striker by the throat as the afterimages began to move after him. The afterimages grabbed Striker from behind and began to drag him down, pressing against him and beginning to bubble and melt as well.
Sean was moments behind him and blasted the false Striker's off his friend. As he did so, afterimages of himself grabbed onto his head and tassels and pulled savagely, Striker slashed them off him in return.
Yet, more Striker's began to appear until they were surrounded by melting versions of themselves, flinging themselves onto the real ones.
Rai and Mane, splitting in both directions, didn't charge Darkrai. No, they both took aim at the core and unleashed fire and lightning.
A plasma blast struck the core of The Dream, and it shook from the violent impact.
Darkrai wailed, one voice crying out as his dream was silenced. Desperate as the pokémon were still ready to fight, he called upon the powers of time and space he'd stolen from their masters and ripped open a Dimensional Hole.
But time travel was impossible now. The crystal dream shattered from the attack and opening of the Dimensional Hole and the pieces were all sucked into the core before the core was drawn in by the distorting Dimension Hole, turning to nothing and then that nothing began dragging everything else it.
Scout was getting up and he saw them in danger "Sean! Striker!" Rai and Mane were already retreating, but those two were being overwhelmed by false versions of themselves.
Scout broke from Guardian's hold and rushed in. He left blood behind, Guardian fuelling another Shadow Sneak to try and rip the pair out of the horde. Striker burned green, and he grabbed Sean and threw him up before a Leaf Blade knocked Sean flying, bleeding, but away from the chaos.
The wind began to pull them all and Guardian saw Striker's choice and redirected the Shadow Sneak to grab Sean and pull him to safety.
Scout, who had already stepped too far, got caught in the wake of the vortex, Rai and Mane fleeing back from it as they destroyed the core.
Striker tried to Dig into the ground, but the ground was not ground, and he could not shift it. He looked back at Darkrai, who had stopped laughing and screaming. The false one had evaporated into nothing, and he was standing, silent and still, watching Striker struggle.
Their eyes met. Darkrai's dulled and Striker's still wild with the will to live.
Darkrai raised a hand and blasted Striker free of the grasping hands, sending the grovyle rolling and smoking but away from the vortex.
The hole rippled and collapsed further, the Spacial Rift cracking in space and shattering like glass as a distant, howling, cry began rattling the very souls of the pokémon. Darkrai glanced back at it, not moving yet but not trying to flee either.
Darkrai was being ripped back, the shadowy body being torn from the sheer weight of the pull dragging him back. And yet he was silent until his eyes fell on Scout.
Scout, who had stepped forward to help but had stepped forward too far. He was scrabbling, pokémon were crying out for him, as he was pulled and lifted.
Scout slammed a Night Slash into the ground, desperately anchoring him in place as Guardian charged forward, ghost-like body resistant to this black hole of a nightmare.
Not entirely resistant and Guardian was scrambling for purchase, knowing he couldn't help with his weight if he was to be sucked in as well. He could feel his Power waning under exhaustion, but he formed another Shadow Sneak, sending the rippling shadow to wrap around Scout's other arm.
"I've got you!" he yelled and began pulling him back.
That was what made Darkrai move. Lashing forth, as there was not much space between Scout and him now, he was suddenly grabbed in the gravity of the collapsing hole in space/time, but he grabbed onto Scout with the arm he was anchoring himself into the ground with, the other arm captured by the Shadow Sneak.
"I know what you are!" Darkrai said, voice shrieking with madness. "I've figured it out, Scout! I know! I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE!"
Scout desperately lashed out with what little movement he had, but Darkrai's grip was the strength of absolute madness, and Scout could feel his weight begin dragging him.
"LET'S DIE TOGETHER!" Darkrai bellowed, his one arm crushing the bones in Scout's arm. He tried to do anything. Shadow Ball. Foot Night Slash. Cut off his own tail, he couldn't, he was pulled from every direction, and he couldn't release from the ground.
"Because if we don't," Darkrai continued, voicing faller to a whisper. "We both live. And if you knew. If. You. Knew. Then you'd let go right now."
Scout struggled, but there was nothing he could do. His heart ached as he broke his promise to Rai and shouted. "GUARDIAN, LET ME GO!"
"NO!" his father bellowed back. "NO! SCOUT! SOMEONE GET DARKRAI OFF HIM!"
Rai unleashed a Thunderbolt, but it only shocked Scout as well, and Darkrai still wasn't letting go, his arm almost fusing with Scout's as it warped in the anarchy around them.
The vortex shuddered again, the pull getting stronger as it neared its climax.
Scout bit his lip drawing blood, and then a Shadow Ball formed in his mouth. He spat it at Darkrai, and it jolted him but didn't shift. He did it again and again and again, but nothing moved Darkrai.
So, a Fire Blast hit him in the chest.
Mane, breaking from the group ran around to the side. He was caught by the gravity and as he was pulled in as well, he aimed and unleashed fire. The extra oomph of an explosive detonation finally ripped Darkrai off Scout. Still, it also snapped Guardian's Shadow Sneak and they both, and Mane, began to fall.
Guardian reached out again, extending the Shadow Sneak, but Scout slashed it away, eyes on and mouth screaming. "MANE!"
Scout sprinted after him as the litleo flailed in mid-air. He was a Normal-type, Guardian couldn't grab him.
Saniya tried to grab him, but the sheer gravity was breaking space around them, and they were an infinite distance away from her.
Scout's paw grabbed Mane's, and he clung on as one final band of shadow wrapped around his chest. The two were slammed into the ground, Scout holding onto Mane with all his strength.
Guardian was pulling them towards him, but the portal was turning violent colours as Darkrai fell into it.
Darkrai's final screen echoed across space itself as two massive towers appeared in the sky, being constructed in the middle of a town.
Guardian launched them and himself together and slammed them into his chest, spinning around and crouching over them as the portal imploded and then detonated.
Across the Grass Continent, hundreds of pokémon suddenly woke up. Within Treasure Town, the battle against the feral horde turned in an instant.
In Evertrail Town, Team Go-Getters immediately got pokémon moving to areas they knew were at risk.
At Blackstone Village, Abra and Indeedee breathed a sigh of relief as pokémon woke up and the Psychic Network began to light up with hundreds of messages from confused pokémon.
Pokémon breathed a sigh of relief as they understood that the danger had passed. Lives and towns would be rebuilt, and things would return to normal.
In the Spacial Rift, two little feline pokémon lay underneath the unmoving form of a dusknoir.
A green arm tipped with talons was able to move him off, and the gentle light of a pink creature spread drops of living dew onto him. The dusknoir stirred but didn't wake up.
On the backs of a canine with tassels and another feline, this one with a star-tipped tail, they carried the other two felines.
A strangely shaped, oddly coloured, bipedal creature floated slowly after them, rubbing his aching, pounding, head as if something was knock-knock-knocking on his very mind.
The canine magically unzipped the air and the eight pokémon crept out, injured and exhausted.
They were met with the world they had fought for, saved from the grasp of darkness.
They had won.
The epilogue won't be too long after this.