Chapter 25: The Magic of Betrayal!
Another enemy on the greatest of all journeys, a traitor from their own ranks. In the battle for the second part of the Plot Armor, Team Polarna vatra was now facing Team Nordika's very own Darkrai, behind whose facade the Black Mage of the Plot Elite was hiding. What no one realized about this fight was that it was the first. The first for whom no mercy could be shown again, even if Darkrai had never intended to do so. But the hour had come. Chapter 25. And even though Epsilon was currently in a place where only the Plot Elite themselves could suspect it, it was clear to him too. If he met his opponents again, it would all end. The Plot no longer demanded mercy.

But this meeting with Epsilon was a matter of the future, unlike the fight against Darkrai. Before the latter even fired an attack, he had already split into countless copies. An illusionist would not fight with fair means, Aurora had already known this before the actual fight. But now she had a question: Was this illusion as powerful as Marshadow's Double Team? Were all the copies able to attack on their own, or would it be like a classic Double Team, where only the original had the power to wound Pokemon?

In a room that was now glowing bright black, all the copies of the Black Mage were scattered almost randomly. The appearance of this room seemed as unreal as the color bright black could describe. Only now did the hail of attacks begin from all directions, which quickly made one thing clear: The fake Darkrais were not able to wound Pokemon. However, all of their attacks, which were visually identical to those of the real Darkrai, were a distraction and made it a guessing game to avoid the real attacks.

However, Team Polarna vatra was not a team that was intimidated by such a silly trick. Aurora had already worked out a plan.

"Kel, help me cover Marshadow. Marshadow, use your own Double Team. Let's show Darkrai how these clones are really supossed to look like!"

Since Kel had never seen Marshadow use this technique, he didn't fully understand what the plan really was, but he understood his role and wanted to fulfill it. This was his fight. This was the moment he could prove that he was no longer the arrogant and cowardly Pokemon that Epsilon was facing here weeks ago. And he would do whatever it took.

As soon as he saw that Darkrai wanted to go on the offensive again, he decided that attack was the best defense in such a case. However, due to the fakes, it was difficult for him to counter Darkrai without simply guessing. But maybe that was exactly what he needed now... With this new plan in mind, he immediately jumped at one of the Darkrais, who was firing Dark Pulse. Kel did not let himself be deterred, knowing that this was probably not the real Darkrai and that the attack would therefore be ineffective. His plan was to attack one of the fake Darkrais and thus leave himself defenseless. If the real Darkrai decided to punish this "mistake", then this would give Marshadow all the time he needed.

However, this plan immediately fell apart when the Dark Pulse did not spare Kel, contrary to what he had hoped, but hurled him straight into the opposite wall. An amused glint could be seen in his attacker's eyes before all the copies mixed together again. With his luck, Kel had actually caught the one real one out of the twenty or so Darkrais, which would have been lucky in any situation that wasn't this one.
While Kel picked himself up again, Aurora frantically tried to protect Marshadow and herself with various barriers. Defensively, this was effective and both remained mostly unharmed, but Marshadow had to actively dodge himself, which took up the time he needed. With the Darkrais now completely reshuffled, Kel was ready to give his plan a second try. He jumped straight from the wall at the next Darkrai. This time he hit his target, but it disappeared immediately. Finally! And a quiet, electric-sounding crackle right behind his back showed him that the real Darkrai wanted to use this situation. Only that Kel immediately turned around and struck. Darkrai was hit unexpectedly... and fizzled out again, only for Kel to take a violent blow to the side.

"Fool! Did you really think it would be that simple?"

The counterattack had failed, but despite his pain, Kel was satisfied.

"Don't worry, Darkrai. I was just buying time anyway."

As the copies looked around in confusion, they saw that they were no longer the only fakes on the battlefield. Marshadow had been able to use the time and now the battle was more even in terms of numbers. But not for long. Because the various Marshadows had quickly destroyed almost all of Darkrai's copies that were unable to defend themselves.

"What's that? What is this technique? Copies are not meant to attack, Marshadow! You are spoiling my master technique!"

Obviously not noticing the bait, the shadow warrior replied spitefully.

"If it is your master technique, then why is my version simply better?"

Without hesitation, Darkrai took the opportunity and attacked the Marshadow who had spoken up. But Polarna vatra's shadow had also thought further than Darkrai had expected. The copy of Marshadow disappeared into nothingness and Darkrai immediately found another Marshadow behind him charging up an attack. The Black Mage almost wanted to strike, but he stopped himself.

"You really think I am going to fall for my own trick, don't you?"

The Marshadow in front of Darkrai just shrugged his shoulders.

"If you think so..."

The Hammer Arm that hit Darkrai was just as real as the Marshadow that carried it out. And Aurora already knew from her own training sessions that there were few bigger mistakes than letting Marshadow knock you into the air, as long as there were clones present.

Immediately, all of his copies were ready to fire a combination of attacks at the defenseless enemy. His team members also joined in the series of blows until Aurora froze the Black Mage with an Ice Beam, ending the combo. A motionless Darkrai remained encased in ice. The Black Mage had fallen.

"That was awesome, team! Is everyone unharmed?"
"Mostly. Nothing that I'll feel tomorrow."

Marshadow also shook his head in denial.

"Well then... let's get the Plot Armor! We really deserve it today, don't you think?"

Kel was just about to agree when a sudden burst of dark energy interrupted him, pushing him back and hurting him more than all the previous attacks. He picked himself up again, but only shakily. Darkrai was floating in front of the entrance to the tunnels, now back in an area that looked like the iceberg itself. His body was filled with orange light.

"Why are you even trying to resist? Do you really think it has a purpose? Your failure is predetermined! So stop resisting!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Kel saw that Aurora and Marshadow had obviously not been prepared for the fight to continue. But Aurora seemed confident and Kel knew why. With his Plot Energy, Darkrai would destroy himself if he dared to use it for an attack.

But it seemed as if this time not only Aurora herself knew this, but also her opponent. And of course this almost completely nullified her advantage. Simply because the Black Mage decided to use his Plot Energy differently than all previous enemies. Because he did not center it, did not use it for a powerful attack, but rather absorbed its energy into himself. In this way he created a kind of constant strengthening, a permanent source of energy that kept him in the fight. His attacks were stronger than before, but did not come close to the powered attacks that Aurora was looking for. But it was obvious that these techniques still contained Plot Energy, because although Aurora was wounded by them, a slight glow began to surround her. However, no member of the team knew to what extent this power could do much damage.

Even in this form, Darkrai decided not to abandon his previous tactic, which is why a whole battlefield full of copies was soon found in this cave. However, this now seemed completely useless, because the copies of Darkrai did not have the same orange color as the original. They were no longer necessary for the Black Mage to have a chance in the fight anyways. Marshadow tried to find a moment in which he could bring back his own clones that had disappeared when Darkrai reawakened, but the fighter of the Plot Elite now knew about the technique and did not let Marshadow out of his sight for even a split second.

The fight continued, Darkrai's attacks left traces not only on the cave walls, but also on the Polarna vatra team. Aurora managed to wound Darkrai with the power of the moon and almost knock him out, but in exchange for attack power his wounds disappeared almost immediately.

"How can you expect to defeat a Pokemon from the strongest of all teams? And by this I don't mean Team Nordika. I mean the Plot Elite!"

An orange flash lit up and Kel almost had the impression that all of Darkrai's wounds had disappeared and all of his energy had returned. How were they supposed to win this fight now that Darkrai was almost invincible?

Kel looked around uncertainly. Aurora and Marshadow didn't look like they were in any better shape than the Arcanine himself. Darkrai, on the other hand, seemed incredibly confident of victory. This fight was not won by fair play. Not by morality. Reason. Emotion. And all of these thoughts gave Kel an idea. But... what if it went wrong? Everything about this idea was uncertain. And yet...

The Arcanine stood shakily in front of his teammates.

"Stop! Darkrai, give it up! Otherwise I will do what I have to do to destroy you!"

For a moment the enemy looked surprised, but not intimidated.

"What's this? Is this some cheap attempt to scare me? Do you think I don't see how much you're inferior to me?"

Instead of answering the question, Kel persisted, noticing that Aurora didn't understand what he was thinking either.

"Last chance."

"You really think you impress me? You are too weak to defeat me, we both know that!"

Kel had not expected his words to have any effect. Now there was only one way.

"I am too weak, that's true. But…"

Shocked, Aurora watched as Kel abruptly took the helmet off his head and a wild roar ripped through the cave. Flames began to glow around the lion's body, all reason seemed to have given way to frenzy. While Darkrai was still looking at what had happened in confusion, the possessed creature pounced on the first thing it saw, which was the Black Mage. The dark-type Pokemon was shocked when he found himself in the incessant hail of scorching heat, with no chance of defending himself. After just a few seconds, all the orange glow around his body disappeared and he lay motionless.

For a moment, complete silence fell in the cave before Kel turned around. The flames were still blazing in his eyes, his anger seemed not to have been repaid yet.

"Kel? Can you hear me? It's us, your friends!"

The answer came only from a threatening growl as the Pokemon crouched closer. Thinking quickly, Aurora grabbed the helmet that was lying on the ground in front of her and almost hit Kel on the head with it. The glow faded, Kel stopped, but still didn't seem to be completely under control.

"Au...rora...?"

The Pokemon addressed recognized the situation immediately and turned to her second teammate.

"Marshadow, quickly get the leg protection. I'll try to calm Kel down until he has the second part of the armor."

With a short nod, Marshadow disappeared into the ground.

"Kel, can you hear me? Is it still you?"

To her relief, her question seemed to reach the recipient.

"Yes... it's me. But... the voices... they are so loud. So strong..."

She approached him carefully.

"Just keep calm for a moment. Sit down and try to hold them off. They'll soon become weak again."