Chapter 32: It's Time To Face Your Fear

"Don't worry. I won't let him hurt you anymore." Pyre hugged Blade tightly. He glared at Shadow. "You're gonna regret hurting Blade like that. I'll give you the same punishment my Shadow would."

"Oh thank you…thank you so much…" Blade seemed relieved as his arms released Pyre.

"My oh my, trying to take my prized breeder away?" Calamity Shadow chuckled. "Oh how cruel fate is."

Without warning, pain exploded in Pyre's side. Glancing down he found Blade's claws stabbing into him.

"I got him!" Blade tried to pull away, but Pyre held him still.

"He's hurt you so much." Pyre pressed his head to Blade's, and his aura began enveloping the sneasel. "I'll never let Shadow hurt you…I promised him I would."

*Flashback*

"Pyre, I have a request." The darkrai took a somber tone. The sneasel cradled in his arms slept soundly. "I love him, I am in love with him. So please, no matter how strong I am, no matter the odds…do not allow me to hurt him. And if I have hurt him…" the darkrai trailed off. "Promise you will punish me for it."

"Shadow…okay, I promise, if you ever hurt Blade, I'll make sure you pay for it." Pyre gave a sweet smile.

*End Flashback*

"I promised." Pyre stared daggers at Calamity Shadow as he felt the sneasel weaken in his grasp. "This is all I can do to free you from him. I'm sorry Blade."

The sneasel slipped out of Pyre's arms and fell onto his back, his body crumbling to dust before them. "I…I don't feel so good Shadow…" And just like that the sneasel was gone.

Pyre let out a single tear. "I'm sorry Blade."

"Do not waste your breath. He may have been the best breeder I had but that was all he was."

"What? So you just don't care?"

The flames surrounding them had dimmed allowing Ivy and Cobalt a better view beyond the sapphire flame barrier.

"Why should I? He was a breeder, nothing more, nothing less. He existed to birth an army for my ambitions." The Darkrai spoke coldly.

Pyre stood silent.

"But I suppose I need to replace the worthless little fuck toy do I not?" Calamity Shadow taunted. "Perhaps I will take that snivy of yours for it."

The charmander felt his blood boiling, his rage building. The last time he was this angry was when Cynder died. The flames surrounding them flared brighter.

"Or maybe the mudkip? Oh I may as well use both." The calamitous darkrai chuckled.

Pyre felt himself move without thinking. In almost a split second he was face to face with the darkrai. But the pitch black pokemon had caught him by the neck hoisting him up with one clawed hand. "Now now, do not be rude, I was still talking." He squeezed Pyre's throat tight as he stabbed a claw into his stomach and twisted. "You will learn your place." Without warning he felt his back suddenly slamming against the stone floor. "When you see your world in flames, when you are made a monument to all your sins, when you watch your world die. Only then will I grant you death. Only then, will you have my permission to die."

"Chaaaaar…" Pyre gasps desperately trying to refill his lungs.

"Now then, I shall address our spectators." As Calamity Shadow hovered toward Ivy and Cobalt the sapphire barrier began to waver.

"We have to go!" Cobalt grabbed Ivy and began dragging him away.

"No, I'm not leaving Pyre alone with him!"

"Well I'm not letting all of us die!" Cobalt pulled Ivy onto his back and rushed back down the mountain.

"Oh dear, fleeing? That simply will not die. Well the rest of my children will kill them at the base of the mountain." Calamity Shadow turned back only to be immediately engulfed in flames.

From his position on his back Pyre had managed to hit the darkrai with a flamethrower.

"Still conscious? Impressive." Shadow hovered over the charmander quickly pressing his claws around Pyre's throat strangling him. "But I suppose I should not play with my food."

Despite the lack of oxygen Pyre began throwing punches again and again, striking the darkrai in the face multiple times.

"The power in fire breathing comes from the breath right, so the less you have," Shadow pushed harder, cracking the ground under Pyre. "The less those flames can do. So perhaps I simply need to remove a lung." The darkrai held him in place with one claw as his other began gently caressing Pyre's torso, silently searching for the right entryway.

Suddenly Pyre let out a cough, which revealed he had secretly held back on his last flamethrower, allowing for an immense explosion of flames at point blank range. The resulting explosion forced them apart.

Acting quickly Pyre rolled back to his feet and took a deep breath.

"You are growing rather annoying, I must admit. You have resilience that even your whore of a mother couldn't compare to."

The darkrai was baiting his anger, trying to make him make a mistake. He wasn't lying; however, the pressure he'd used to strangle Pyre would've snapped a normal pokemon's neck easily, but it had only caused discomfort.

"Hehe." Pyre chuckled. "I was right, you're nowhere near as scary as my Shadow. And you certainly aren't anywhere near as strong as he is."

Calamity Shadow suddenly appeared behind Pyre grabbing one of his arms and twisting it cruelly behind his back. "I will snap your limbs like twigs, you will suffer and watch your world die. And the best part, your beloved mother and father will be watching."

Pyre cried out as the darkrai twisted his left arm until a sickening snap was heard and he let go. Pyre fell forward, unable to feel his left arm. "What the fuck are you on about now, stupid Halloween decoration!" Pyre distracted himself from his own pain with a joke.

"We exist together now." Calamity Shadow raised his arm to his chest. A glow appeared where he touched a mix of vibrant violet, and gentle sapphire. Pyre remembered them vividly, it was the color that surrounded his parents when he saw them in his dreams. "Three corpses, in one grave."

"That's…"

"As I said, I shall travel until every light has been consumed. Just as my idol does. Such a magnificent creature, so dark that the light itself dies in their very presence!"

"But, that's my…"

"Yes, their aura is rather rich with light, so much hope. It is rather intoxicating. I crave more, and I shall consume more."

"Well this isn't going my way." Pyre forced himself to stand, feeling his arm dangle uselessly. "Looks like I'll lose, so if you don't mind, can I at least know your idol? It might let me understand my Shadow better, before I go…" Pyre was playing for time, hoping the calamitous darkrai would monologue long enough for him to catch his breath.

"A dark creature, who hungers for the light." He held out his hand as a human skull appeared in his palm. "A human had followed it here, and managed to claim a small sliver of its body. And said human blessed me, by infusing it into my body." The darkrai crushed the skull in his hand. "I was blessed with more power than any other in this world, but cursed as they were. Now I too hunger for the light. But no matter how much I eat, my hunger is insatiable." Shadow suddenly kicked Pyre in the gut, forcing the air out of him. "Apologies, I'm spouting exposition again. The name the human used, before I took their life, they called it, Necrozma."

"Chaaaaar.." Pyre gasped for breath.

Shadow kicked him again, this time in the face, sending him tumbling back to the ground.

"Are you done catching your breath? Or do you still believe I am an idiot?"

"With that face? You look like one!" Pyre stood up again, focusing his attention on the darkrai. Suddenly he lunged forth, once again getting caught by the throat and hoisted into the air.

"Have we not been through this already?"

Pyre smirked despite the strain on his throat. He grabbed Calamity Shadow by the claw, and using his tail to swing for momentum, twisted prying himself from the darkrai's grasp only to quickly strike his face with his right fist. The attack hit its mark forcing the darkrai to float back from the force of it.

"Whoever taught you to fight was rather genius."

"Yeah, my Shadow knew what he was doing."

"So it seems." The calamitous darkrai once again appeared behind Pyre. "A gift. Dark Void." A sphere of darkness enveloped Pyre as Calamity Shadow hovered back in front of him. "Let us see your worst fears given form."

Pyre simply sat in the sphere. The nightmare simply didn't take him. Just as it hadn't when Eclipse tried. Pyre assumed it was due to Shadow's DNA inside him protecting him, but that wasn't the case.

"You should be writhing in terror. Strange, why are you not afraid?" The darkrai sounded agitated.

"Why should I be afraid?" Pyre stepped out of the sphere. "You're a cheap knock off. A bootleg. A weakling that has to steal aura from others because he's too weak to win his own fight. I mean, you did hide behind your own children. And Blade. Now that you're all alone, you can't even beat me."

The taunt had the intended effect. Calamity Shadow rushed him. Pyre took a deep breath and fell onto his back, successfully ducking under the attack.

The Darkrai spun in place sweeping across the ground, but Pyre with only one hand managed to roll back and jump, once again dodging perfectly.

"Stay still you little wretch."

"Can't help it if you're slower than my Shadow too." Pyre cocked back his arm and met Calamity Shadow head on, slamming his fist into the darkrai's guy, sending him sliding back.

The calamitous darkrai wasn't done; however, he retaliated by lashing out, firing off several orbs of darkness.

"Oh, shadow ball, he likes that too, but he prefers using his claws. And his legs. And he's a better fighter." The darkrai pinned him to the ground suddenly and raised his claws to strike the charmander, but Pyre suddenly roared a massive stream of blue flames into his face, sending him stumbling back. "What's wrong? Can't handle the heat? Ya know, my Shadow is a lot stronger than you, an attack like that wouldn't even graze him let alone make him stagger."

The darkrai was enraged as a large claw erupted from the ground to grab Pyre. The charmander didn't move, because it wasn't real.

"He also made a point to show me when I was under the effects of a nightmare."

Before he could continue, Calamity Shadow grabbed him by the tail and slammed him violently into the ground over and over again, once, twice, three times, four, five, and six more times. The darkrai suddenly lifted one spindly leg into the air and slammed it down. Pyre had just enough time to block, but with only one hand it still hurt. The impact of the attack shattered the stone flooring.

The sapphire tailed Charmander bounced back, jumping up and grabbing the darkrai, spitting fire into his face.

His counterattack was short lived as the darkrai threw him down.

"Master! Master! We've brought the prisoners!" A voice called from beyond the flame wall.

"At long last." A group of weavile and sneasel had brought Ivy and Cobalt back. "Now, if you want your friends to live, stand down."

Pyre saw them and frowned, resigning himself to save his friends. "Okay, you win."

"Good." With that word, Pyre felt a sharp stabbing pain in his right leg. The Darkrai had stabbed him, and quickly twisted his claw sending more pain through the charmander. Pyre fell to one knee as he felt quick stabbing pains in both shoulders, his chest, and stomach. "Fret not, you'll live, I just want you to bleed." The calamitous darkrai slashed his face.

"I'm sorry guys…" Pyre apologized to Ivy and Cobalt.

Xatu's words rang out in his ears. 'If you face him now, you'll die, I have spoken!'