CHAPTER 162 - It Toils

"First thing's first. What was your plan? Do you know where my friends got teleported to?" I asked.

"They were planning on—" he stopped, hissing in pain. "Planning on separating you to take you on separately. The Hunters don't have shit for trainers, so their manpower's spread thin. They thought I'd be able to take you down alone, and they wanted to gang up on your tougher friends—"

"Okay. Where are they?"

"I don't know! Somewhere out in the Arceus damned fields! I didn't get the fucking exact placement! They don't tell me shit!"

I sighed. There was no one to find them out there, and I wasn't going to send Princess to fly alone after what had just happened to her. If I couldn't go to find my friends, then… the best way to deal with this was to get to the mansion and end this at the source.

"Do they have people protecting Shiftry?" I asked.

"They just have Roland with him, but the only Pokemon he owns is an Abra, and he obviously can't use it at the moment. Everyone else is out fighting."

That could have been a lie, and it probably was. I figured he'd change his tone when he realized that we weren't going to separate just yet.

"What happened to Luca Antonovich?" I continued.

"That little runt? He's dead, and his Pokemon are too. You don't want to know what they did to him before he passed. He never spilled anything too," Harry clicked his tongue. "But I had nothing to do with that. That was all them, not me!"

"Spare me your excuses," I said. I felt nothing at Luca's death. Not even a twinge of pain. "What's the end goal with this? What does Shiftry want?"

"It wants the League to leave it the fuck alone, that's what. It's in this sort of… catatonic state, so it's putting everything it has into the barrier around town so that they can't break through."

"How long can he keep that up?"

"I don't know."

"Think a little harder."

"I don't fucking know! Days would be my guess! It might be a thousand years old, but it's no Legendary! It can't do this indefinitely."

"Does it require him to focus?"

"Yes. It can't even move or speak."

Good, so the plan to attack it to stop him from spreading his darkness could still work. Of course, that was if everything he was saying was the truth. It was at times like these where a psychic would have been nice— not that I would have been able to use it here. Plus, that type of skill took years of training to hone, just like shielding minds.

"What's the link between the Hunters and Team Galactic?"

"All I know is that Roland and… Cyrus—" he whispered the name. "Are old friends, and that he didn't mind helping them by rigging the tournament in my favor and giving them high-quality Pokemon for their grunts. They met a little more than two decades ago."

"Team Galactic and the Hunters wanted you to win this tournament. Why?" I asked.

"I'm not exactly a part of Team Galactic, but I'm associated with them," Harry said. "They helped me with money and said that all I had to do was get a job in the League at the end of the year and tell them about the defenses there and how it's organized. If I won this big tournament, then I would have gotten a lot of national attention, so it might have made a few recruiters at the League get their eye on me and would have made it easier for me to join. As soon as I gave them what they wanted, I'd be free from any obligations."

"You're a fucking moron."

"What?"

"Do you really think a guy like you can fool the League? Like a thousand people haven't tried before and failed? Do you think you're special? You're just the first idiot they found and thought would go along with their plan!"

"I needed the money—"

"You were being used, you fucking idiot. You would have gotten caught by a psychic before you even made it close to the Lily of the Valley island. All Team Galactic wanted from you was to distract the League and make them more paranoid about every trainer in their forces. And even if it worked out, what do you think they would have done with that information? They would have attacked the place you work at, or you would have been sent to fight them anyway."

Harry wanted to retort, but he bit his lip.

"That's right. Fucking stew in your stupidity."

I got up from my crouching position and lifted my shirt with a groan. The cut from the Ice Shard was a lot deeper than I thought it was, but I couldn't get bogged down by pain.

"Keep that spear on him," I told Princess. "Buddy, spray the gash with some water— gently."

The water type nodded and let out a gentle stream, washing away most of the blood. I plucked out tiny shards of ice still stuck inside of me one by one, inflicting excruciating pain upon myself. Jellicent cleaned it again with warmer water this time, and I grabbed a bandage from my bag. Electabuzz helped me wrap it around my whole waist. After two minutes, we were done.

"Here's what's going to happen," I said. "You're going to come with me."

"We had a deal—"

"I am altering the deal," I smiled. I crouched to bandage him as well. He'd lost too much blood, and I couldn't have him dying on me while still having his uses. Sunshine protested, but I looked into his eyes to get him to stop. Now wasn't the time for tantrums. We had bigger fish to fry before we could even think about getting him his revenge.

"Angel, grab him."

The grass type squeezed a vine around Harry with none of the usual gentleness he used with me and lifted him in the air.

"You're coming with me," I said again. "Now, if anything you told me was a lie, now would be the time to admit it. If anything happens to me because you misled me, my Pokemon will make sure to drag you into hell if it's the last thing they do."

I wasn't sure Shiftry would particularly care about him being a hostage, but it was worth a try at least. They had invested resources to get him to win, so they at least thought he was of some value even if he was a pawn that could be sacked at any moment. And if they didn't, it was a nice little incentive to get him to tell the truth, and he knew his way around the mansion.

"There are two trainers left in the mansion," he forced out. "Reggie and Lane. They own a Drapion and an Umbreon."

"There you go. Now that wasn't so hard, was it? Let's go."

I stared at that damned mansion lit up by a pale, ghastly light. It was still shooting out a tower of void into the sky, constantly replenishing the darkness within.

An Umbreon and a Drapion? Fighting the former would be akin to battling Sylveon, and I had already theorized on how to tackle Maeve's new Drapion. My Pokemon were tired, but not beaten. Sweetheart was still unconscious, but I doubted that she would have been able to fight effectively with her new body anyway. Plus, she needed the rest.

The point was, I could win against two enemies.

They had better not get in my way.

—

When the shadows took Mira, she expected to die.

But then she realized that she could still breathe. She slowly opened her eyes and saw an endless field of darkness lying before her, with a single human and Mightyena around thirty feet away. Her first instinct was to release Haunter and Magnezone, but a tiny part of her brain told her not to. That a worthless girl like her deserved whatever was coming next. Her hand hovered over her Pokeball, but the trainer's scream pushed her to move.

"Mightyena, get her!"

The dark type rushed forward, almost gliding across the darkened floor.

They'd all be better off without you.

Haunter and Magnezone emerged from their Pokeballs, and when they saw that an enemy was targeting her, they immediately took action. Two bolts of electricity flew out of Magnezone's magnets, but Mightyena sunk into the floor.

"Stick close, it's coming to me," Mira told Haunter.

And it'd be better if it got me.

The ghost angrily cackled, unable to get the permanent grin off of his face. Magnezone hummed, shooting rays of Flash Cannon into the floor at random. Mightyena was nowhere to be found, but it did make the shadows split apart for a few seconds, allowing them to actually track it by revealing the blotch of darkness rushing toward them. Haunter's ghastly eyes narrowed and darted toward the dark, and he sunk into the floor with more determination than Mira had ever seen out of him.

Why go so far for her?

Mightyena yelped as Haunter forcefully expunged it from the ground. The dark type snarled and bit off a quarter of Haunter's body with Crunch, but Magnezone shot out another Flash Cannon that staggered it. The two hated each other's guts, and yet they were working together to save her.

Mira bit her lip. It took her almost dying for that to happen.

Haunter lost his corporeal form, becoming nothing but poisonous mist and slipped into Mightyena's mouth. The dark type slowly choked on the poison, agonizing and writhin against the floor for minutes until it died.

That should have been you.

"Haunty. Haunty, stop," Mira said. He didn't listen, and he moved on to the trainer next. It was too dark to see their expression, but it seemed that they simply accepted their fate. Haunter floated toward her, still in his mist-like form, but an angry metallic clang from Magnezone snapped her out of her daze. She recalled Haunter and fell on her knees. The trainer shrugged and walked off.

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"I don't think I can do this anymore."

Magnezone said something, but Mira was too out of it to care. What was the point? She wanted to lie down somewhere, close her eyes and drift off to sleep.

And that is what she did. Mira recalled Magnezone, got on the darkened floor and closed her eyes. The floor felt so comfortable. It was like she was lying on a soft cloud. This was nice. She could end it here. She would never be able to find her uncle anyway, and convincing him to leave Team Galactic had always been a pipe dream.

Not when he was a Commander. There was no way the League would let him off with a light sentence like she had hoped before Shifty's influence gave her the ability to think clearly. Even if his intentions were good at heart, he had caused the death of too many people.

He apparently called himself Charon now, and he was the only family she had left.

Mira did not know how much time passed, but a loud screech in the sky woke her up. She squinted, and thanks to the mansion's pale light, she made out a Staraptor in the sky, carrying two people. One in his talons, and one on his back, although the person there was barely hanging by a thread.

That was Maeve. As soon as they landed, the person in Staraptor's claws grunted in pain, and Maeve released her Monferno and Drapion for protection, who looked like they'd just been in an extremely tough battle.

"Mira— Star, keep that fucker in your grip! Mira, are you okay?!"

Just leave me alone.

Maeve dropped on all fours and touched Mira all over, probably checking for wounds.

"Where's your Haunter? Did they hurt you?!"

"What happened to you? How did you find me?" Mira weakly asked.

"I got a guide," Maeve said, pointing to the Hunter her flying type was pinning down. "I'm sticking by you. I won't let you give up on yourself here."

"Leave, Maeve. I'll only pull you down."

"Stop it with the nonsense, that's just Shiftry making you say that—"

"Shiftry's a dark type, not a psychic. He just removed everything I was pretending to be and only left the real me. This is how I really am. This is the real me. I'm a broken mess, and you'd be better off without me."

"You're lying to yourself, Mira. Even if there are parts of you that you keep away from me, I know you. I know that you're sweet and want to do good. I know that you worry about everyone else before even thinking about yourself, even if you pretend to be selfish. I know how much you care about your Pokemon. I know—"

"Who do you think you are?! You know nothing about me!"

"I'm just a girl! A girl trying to save her friend!"

Mira sobbed and began to feel again. Maeve wrapped her in a tight hug.

"It's going to be okay. You'll get better."

"I'll try." Mira sniffed. "I can't believe you flew without a license."

"I was terrified."

—

When Cecilia emerged from the darkness, five Pokemon stood in a circle in what she assumed was supposed to be around her. Fortunately for her though, it seemed that Shiftry messed up the exact location of that teleportation trick, sending her around twenty feet away and giving her enough time to immediately release her Pokemon before being torn to shreds. Talonflame was in the air before she could even blink, basking Cecilia in her warm gusts of wind to make her feel something. Zweilous appeared larger and stronger than before, and darkness swelled around his feet. Golett stood, lifeless as always, although he made the point to take a step forward and stand in front of Cecilia. Scyther hissed, fanning his wings and sharpening his scythes.

"Look alive, darlings," Cecilia raged. "It is time to destroy."

She was facing a Skuntank, a Krokorok, a Bisharp, and two Liepard, and all she could think was: was that it? A trainer of her caliber facing mere fodder? If they'd been smart about it, they would have sent more than this paltry force.

Cecilia caught herself and flinched. Why was she thinking this way? Was the dark already taking effect?

She did not wait for the panicked whispers from the six trainers that faced her to fade. Without her Slowking for protection, the best defense was overwhelming offense to take down her enemies before they even had a chance to attack and demoralize them by showing their gap in power.

"Dragon Pulse, Stomping Tantrum, Air Slash, Heat Wave."

With a quick stomp, Golett split the darkness apart, creating a rift that spread until it became a huge chasm which the five Pokemon fell into. Zweilous' throats swelled and lit up for a split second, then an enormous Dragon Pulse barrelled toward Skuntank, who was engulfed in the draconic energy. Scyther took flight and blades of compressed air sliced huge gashes into one of the Liepard, and Talonflame's Heat Wave dealt with the rest of the Pokemon, burning them to a crisp. The nameless trainers had to step back not to get burned, but one still screamed, possibly getting their skin burned— it was too dark to tell. Collateral damage was bound to happen in these situations.

Cecilia watched for a few seconds and then snapped back to reality. She ordered Talonflame to stop, and thankfully the trainer kept running… nevermind, they fell over and died. It probably took a few seconds for their body to even register the damage. Cecilia's eye twitched, but she felt nothing. The human body was so weak, and yet she commanded enough power to destroy it beyond recognition at will, and even then, Cecilia wanted more. Still, all of the Pokemon had already fallen unconscious, and there was no need to go that far if she was no longer in danger—

Wait. A Pokemon was missing in the chasm.

Where was Krokorok—

The ground under Cecilia's feet liquefied, splitting the darkness apart and Krokorok's huge maw opened up, ready to Bite at her leg. Zweilous was too slow to turn, and Talonflame was too far. Golett was stuck in the Sand Tomb as much as she was.

Krokorok's maw snapped shut, sending Cecilia into hysterics. The pain was so much worse than anything else she had ever experienced, but she forced herself to open her eyes.

What would have been a clean cut ended up being a gnarly wound when Scyther sliced across the ground type's head, cleaving it off. Krokorok's head was still attached to her leg, and it took a few seconds for the life to go out of its eyes. The Sand Tomb stopped spinning, and darkness reclaimed its throne.

"Damn it, fuck," Cecilia groaned as cold sweat dripped on her face. Another painful scream escaped her throat as she forced Krokorok's mouth open and its teeth exited her skin. "T—thank you Scyther."

The bug type grunted with a shrug. He didn't have to save her, and yet he did, just like he listened to her Air Slash command. Sol and Zerst lowered their heads in shame. They had failed to protect her, and they felt responsible for her wound.

"Don't let it bring you down. The most important part is that we're alive," Cecilia said, petting their chins. She petted Golett's head too, and the golem's eyes brightened slightly.

The girl turned to the trainers, who were running away. She wasn't capable of even walking at this point, but they needed to be questioned.

"Talonflame, Scyther, stop… two of them from running and bring them to me. You can let the other run."

The two flying types blurred incredibly quickly. In five seconds, they closed the massive gap and landed in front of the group. It was too far to see exactly what was happening, but they seemed to have done a rather good job. They isolated two of the five trainers and forced them to turn back.

It took a while for them to get back here, but when they did, Cecilia realized that they weren't even human. Only shells.

They hadn't run away to protect their own lives. They had run away to act as last barriers of defense for Shiftry. Cecilia groaned, roughly bandaging her leg. Grace had always been better at these things. One thing was for sure, her leg needed stitches, and it would scar. She tried to stand, but putting even a slight amount of weight on her leg was impossible.

"Talonflame darling, try to go find the others. I don't think I can walk in this state."

She could only hope Grace was okay.

—

Denzel was beginning to be known as being quick on his feet. The moment he had control of his body again, he clicked on two of his Pokeballs and released his Sylveon and Lopunny. He heard a loud crash as some kind of attack hit the normal type and caused her to ram into him. He fell to the floor and felt some kind of rocks under the darkness cut his skin and hit his head.

Come on Denzel! He thought with a clenched fist.

He screamed and immediately stood up. Half of the skin on the left side of his forearm had been torn off, and a quick swipe at a wet substance on his forehead made it clear that he was bleeding from there too. His Pokemon were already locked in battle with four others. A huge Pangoro slammed its fist against the ground, and Sylveon gracefully dodged, wrapping his ribbons around the dark type's fists to soothe it before jabbing a paw in his knee joint. The crack Denzel heard made him wince, but he had no time to worry about what Sylveon was doing, he first had to figure out what was happening.

A Scrafty dueled with Lopunny, exchanging blows and a Cacturne kept its distance, swarming her with Bullet Seed. The normal type was on the backfoot for now, but each Power-Up Punch she added equalized the playing field little by little. She narrowly dodged some kind of glowing punching attack and quickly jabbed the fighting type in the throat. Its eyes widened as it struggled to breathe, only being capable of drawing short, ragged breaths, and that was the opening that she needed. Lopunny's ears lit up and she clapped Scrafty's head, knocking it unconscious.

"Cacturn, kill the trainer!"

Denzel gulped as the grass type aimed two fists toward him, but Sylveon stopped everything he was doing and began to beat it relentlessly before Denzel could even have time to panic. Pangoro was on one knee, bloodied and unable to walk, but a Nuzleaf tried to follow him.

He quickly released Milotic, Roselia and Froslass.

"Go help," he weakly said. He didn't have the mental fortitude to go into detail with orders. "Don't kill them if you can!"

The words felt wrong when he said them. Illogical. Yet, he couldn't afford to give into Shiftry's power. Did it even know it was possibly screwing itself up by affecting them like this? He had a hard time seeing Grace or Cecilia holding back in this environment.

Froslass winked out of existence and reappeared in front of Nuzleaf. Her eyes contained more anger and hate in them than Denzel had ever seen, and her mere presence froze Nuzleaf's entire body over. Roselia and Milotic opted to stay back, attacking at a distance. An extremely precise Venoshock hit Pangoro's eyes, and the panda let out a guttural scream and clawed at them until its face bled. Milotic let out a Scald at the same target, burning off its fur and finishing it off.

Sylveon beat Cacturne with Play Rough until it was unrecognizable. With the constant Disarming Voices, it was incapable of fighting back. Sylveon stood atop its… corpse? Unconscious body? With his face full of thick blood and a glint in his eyes. His ribbons flowed in the cold, dreary wind.

The darkness cut his denial in its tracks. That Cacturn was dead, and so was Nuzleaf.

"Okay," Denzel sighed. "I feel a little woozy, so… uh… I'm gonna take a little break."

He stumbled on the floor and barely managed to sit. His head was throbbing, and he was having trouble staying balanced. Milotic carefully pressed against his back to give him some sort of backrest, and he sighed. The trainers had already run away, and he was too out of it to even hope to interrogate them.

"I think I have a concussion."

Roselia sighed, but the hint of a worried look could be seen in her eyes. Sylveon barked and jumped toward Denzel, while Froslass— now having snapped out of her rage— appeared by his side. Lopunny let out tired heaves and sat on Milotic's body.

"I'm worried about the others, but I can't help like this," he said, slurring his words. "I think I'm going to have to try to walk back to the Center. We can go get help at the same time. See if any trainers want to take down Shiftry."

Denzel took a deep breath and stood. He leaned against Lopunny's shoulder, and he and his Pokemon began their trek.

—

"Now don't forget, Harry. Me surviving is in your best interest, so you better give me everything you know on Reggie and Lane," I said as kept walking toward the mansion. "You've told me about their Pokemon, but what about their moves? Their strategies? Are they attached to those Pokemon and vice versa? If I killed one of them, would they start to make mistakes?"

Needless to say, he was being very cooperative.

Harry nervously swallowed. "I don't know about moves, but that Umbreon can travel through the shadows. Since the floor's covered in them, well you won't be able to see where it is and I think it'll be faster. Drapion doesn't have any fancy techniques. He's more of a muscle kind of Pokemon. Hits hard, but your Turtonator could easily handle it, and Umbreon's weaker than anything I own."

"Hm. Hey, do you think I can burn the mansion from the outside to draw out Shiftry?" I asked.

"You could try, but I don't know if that'll work. It probably has protections in place for that kind of stuff, and also, I think it knows you're coming."

"Well obviously. I want him to know. I want him to shiver in fear while it slowly watches his thousand-year dynasty come to an end because it was too much of a coward to let its family actually train Pokemon," I said. "It's time for Shiftry to reap what it sowed."

"You're crazy, you know that? Even with this dark shit, you're—"

"Yeah, I don't care and I don't want to hear that coming from someone who's a part of Team Galactic. Now answer my fucking questions."

Angel squeezed the vine around his waist, and Harry groaned in pain.

"Yes, they're attached… very much so. They've had those Pokemon since they were young or something, but they're not the best battlers since they only have one Pokemon and they don't really get a lot of practice."

"I don't want to fight. Unlike you, they never had a chance to live their lives freely, so they deserve a chance. If they block my path and can't be reasoned with, I won't have a choice."

I was on a mission, and I would let nothing stop me.

Twenty minutes later, we reached the mansion. The obsidian spire shooting into the sky was disturbingly silent, although I could hear the creaking of the old wood that the building was made of. The entrance and the windows were completely darkened, although the door was still open. Good. I had been worried that there would be another impenetrable wall around the house.

"Looks like you got caught," a voice said, looking at Harry. He didn't respond.

Reggie and Lane blocked the way, a Drapion and an Umbreon at their side.

Now would it be the hard way or the easy way? Because I was willing to play hard.

"Out of my fucking way."