(Third Person POV)
Mightyena and Rena rapidly ran up the stairs as fast as they could; their feet were pushing them farther towards what was left of the fight. Upon breaking into the night of the rooftop, a subtle, lemony-colored flash escaped from Rena's bag as if the gem was calling out to something. The final gauge on the floor suddenly lit up all the way as the tower's intercom began to broadcast its final announcement. One that sent haunting chills to all who listened.
"THIS IS ALTRU CORE COMPUTER. THIS IS ALTRURURURURURURU... THE INCREDIBLE MACHINE'S POWER IS NOW LEVEL THREE! LEVEL THREE! LEVELEVELEVELEVEL THREE! THIS IS ALTRU THIS IS ALTRU THIS IS ALTRU ALMIA GHZGZGZ..."
The rooftop was an eerie grey platform that scratched the skies with a large, almost amethyst-looking crystal hovering above a small pool of darkness towards the back of the rooftop. In front of it rested an ominous crystal orb of some sort on a mechanical dais, and standing in front of it all was Blake Hall himself. Standing off to his left side was Wheeler, and on his right was Heath. The mastermind's inky hair was slicked back into a tight ponytail as his true nature was hidden behind a pair of black sunglasses and a matching black suit.
"Ah, welcome!" Blake Hall clapped his hands together maliciously at the sight of Rena as his face twisted into a spine-shivering smile. "Well, I'll be... I seem to be all out of business cards. How careless of me." He took one step forwards, Rena taking one step back. "Well, I suppose that doesn't really matter. You know who I am, don't you, Raux?"
Rena narrowed her eyes hatefully at the man standing a ways from her, on par with the growling Mightyena.
"From what I've been hearing, this commotion... I understand that it's named Operation Brighton?" Blake Hall took another step forwards as he looked around the rooftop, laughing hollowly. "Brighton... That is my father's name. Though a coincidence, I will consider it a family honor."
"Ehehehehheee!" Wheeler snickered with a bitter twist at Mr. Hall's words as his shattering screeches of laughter pierced the night.
Blake Hall turned around to face the Shadow Crystal, his silhouette barely separate from its overpowering darkness. "It's also quite an honor to see someone go through so much just to visit with me."
"Don't flatter yourself." Rena rolled her eyes as she recoiled further from him with a groan. "You know exactly why I'm here."
"Why, because you want to enact your precious little revenge on me?" He mocked her words with a high-toned baby voice, then immediately laughed at his own joke just as a loser would. "Unfortunately for you, you arrived, shall we say...a smidgen too late?"
"Us holding you up did do end up good in the end." Heath commented snarkily, proud of his achievement. Rena shook her head in confusion, having to take a few extra seconds just to understand what the hell he just said.
Blake Hall turned around to face Rena once again, his dark glasses reflecting the crystal in the moonlight. "Yes, I would say it's been only minutes since the Incredible Machine attained full power. But now, its reach extends to the Almia region in its entirety." He chuckled as he looked at his surroundings, holding his hands out to his sides. "This brings all the Pokemon in Almia under my full and complete control. They are all mine to do my bidding, and my bidding alone."
"Pokemon have minds of their own." Rena snapped at him, stepping protectively in front of Mightyena. "No one should be allowed to have that much power!"
Blake Hall began pondering out loud his new skills. "I can have them excavating and mining. I can use them as cargo transports. Pokemon can be used individually to make electricity. Or those that make heat or push great volumes of water can be used to power major electrical plants." He stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Or, consider it if you will, a time of crisis. What if we are being threatened by outsiders? In such times, it would be hard to argue against Pokemon as soldiers."
"Soldiers!?" Rena involuntarily shouted her surprise and disgust. "You can't force them to do that, Hall!" She bitterly expressed her opinion, having Mightyena in mind. She would never send her best friend off to war, even if it meant sacrificing her own life to save his.
"Of course I can!" He immediately dismissed her concerns without giving it a second thought as he spat his crazed words to her. "This is the dream energy machine that is fueled by Pokemon! Wouldn't you agree that description is a fitting one?"
"This is the new dream energy you guys have been working on...?" Rena started to look around at the controls of the Incredible Machine in absolute revulsion and horror, flashing back to all of the prior announcements Altru had made about their new developments.
Wheeler raced in-between Rena and Blake Hall anxiously, his broccoli hair fluttering in the night wind. "Mr. Hall, sir. Mr. Hall! If I may say so, sir, your wise words are but sadly wasted on this... Uncouth child." The pudding-cup man that she had grudgingly spoken with the night before interrupted their conversation with his whining, bumbling voice. "Perhaps a light meal will prompt it to leave us be. Eheheheheeeeh!" He cackled to himself once more before turning to look at Rena with his lopsided face. "Listen, child. Let dear old Wheeler here give you a light snack. For my own satisfaction, really. Now what shall it be? A knuckle sandwich? Or a judo chop suey? Or, or... Why don't you become my friend's snack instead?"
Rena watched as Wheeler used the Incredible Machine's great power summon a Pokemon to aid him in this fight, and she was preparing herself for---
...a Bidoof?
"...what." Rena blinked her eyes owlishly at the agitated Bidoof coming straight for her. Its majestic fluffy mane of chocolate fur whipped in the air as it locked its black orb eyes with the thief. "...Seriously? That's all you've got?" She looped her capture line around the small Pokemon one time with the vibrant Styler line and wasn't all that surprised that was all it took to complete the capture.
"Oh? How very, very odd..." Wheeler scratched his head as he watched the Bidoof come to its senses and flee the scene. "But not to worry. Let me catch my breath, and... Say hello to another little friend! Another Bidoof to take its place!"
Before he could do anything at all, he was violently shoved to the side by Blake Hall, who then marched over towards Rena. "Enough of that." Blake snapped at his sorry excuse for an assistant.
"Ah, Mr. Hall sir, I see, I see, indeed! You wish to toy with the child yourself?" Wheeler tried to make sense of what just happened as he retraced his creepy gaze to look over at Rena. "Child, you should feel privileged. This time, your downfall is assured. Eheeheheeeeehh!" He lost control of his evil laugh, creeping Rena out with just how weird it sounded. Mightyena folded his ears as he crinkled his muzzle at the screeches of laughter.
"Quiet, Wheeler. Don't talk anymore." Blake Hall held out his hand to silence the buffoon, showing that even he could not withstand that horrible noise. "What is this idea of bringing out Bidoof at this point in the proceedings? This isn't Ranger School." Rena sweatdropped at the fact that it still felt like she was in Ranger School right now, since she missed out on all other forms of Ranger training. "By the way, Raux." Blake Hall redirected his gaze to the thief as the corner of his mouth crooked into the faintest smile. "I'm sorry, Rena, was it?" He pretended to forget her name briefly out of disrespect. "You don't seem to realize the power of the Incredible Machine. You fail to grasp the enormity of what it represents. Perhaps it's too much for anyone to truly understand..." Blake Hall trailed off to himself before gathering his thoughts. "But everyone will come to accept it when the new dawn arrives. Very soon now, the date will change. Altru will celebrate its new birth. Let me give you a slight taste of what you can expect." Blake Hall smirked as he walked up to the dark purple crystal ball.
Rena was starting to feel a little uneasy, and the hair on the back of her neck rose in anticipation of what might unfold in the next crucial moments. She quickly shared a look with Mightyena before whispering in a low voice, "get ready for whatever is about to happen, boy."
"Arf!" Mightyena eagerly nodded his head happily to his master, excited that he would get to fight some more.
"Perhaps I should summon a Pokemon that is worthy of this occasion. A Pokemon that is worthy of ushering in a new age of darkness..." Blake Hall placed both of his hands on the crystal ball, and the whole thing illuminated the rooftop, throwing its malevolent light across the skies as the mere force of using it sent gusts of air in all directions. "That said, that Pokemon... No. Not it. Not now. Not yet." He quickly changed his mind and dismissed the idea of using that Pokemon at the given moment. "Ah, but this is absolutely wonderful! From here, I have my choice of Pokemon. They are all available for me to summon. Whether they be in herds or alone, they are mine to control as I desire. Gigaremo? Miniremo? No longer necessary." He suddenly stopped when he found what he was looking for, and a sinister grin crept up onto his lips. "Ah! There! A Pokemon perfect for you! I've spotted it in the Haruba Desert."
The Shadow Crystal started to glow black, darkening the world, as Blake summoned the Pokemon, and large pillars on each side of the rooftop began generating a huge amount of electricity that erupted about with sizzling roars. Rena took a nervous step back as she felt the whole tower begin to power up and release a strong pulse into the air, and it was at this very moment that she began to realize just how powerful the Incredible Machine truly was.
She had to shut this thing off, and she had to shut it off now.
"The development of this enormous machine took exceptional cost and effort." Blake Hall carelessly turned around and leaned up against one of the pillars. "The project only took off when we placed Kincaid as a teacher in the Ranger School. He succeeded at recruiting a genius who appears maybe once a century."
"Isaac..." The name fell from Rena's lips, and she felt her heart get crushed a little at the thought of Blake Hall using Isaac so heartlessly.
Tearing Rena from her thoughts, a Dusknoir descended from the storming sky and hovered above the ground in front of Blake Hall like a guard dog. The looming ghost Pokemon narrowed its hollow eyes at the sight of Rena, preparing himself for any orders to attack.
"Ah, here we are." Blake Hall clapped his hands together excitedly like a little boy on Christmas. "The Pokemon from the Haruba Desert. The Incredible Machine lets me summon any Pokemon I choose, you see." He held his hand out to introduce Dusknoir, whose stomach opened up like a mouth ready to swallow the thief. "Let me introduce you to my Dusknoir. Dusknoir, this girl has come to join in our celebrations." He pointed his finger at Rena devilishly from across the rooftop. "Give our guest a demonstration of our gratitude!"
"Oh shit...!" Rena didn't have enough time to release her capture disc before the Dusknoir came charging right at her, and she barely hand any time at all to jump out of the way, rolling across the stone-cold roof. It only took a moment for Rena to spin onto all fours, and her eyes locked with the monster before quickly rising back to her feet.
She rapidly began encircling the Dusknoir with her capture line with whatever skill she still had from Ranger School, struggling tremendously. All her scars, both new and old, screamed at each movement, but regardless of that she still had to continue this fight. She got lucky with the last few captures, and she was surprised she got this far with her minimal Ranger training. To Rena's dismay, the Dusknoir repetitively conjured up unearthly violet flames to surround itself, making it that much more impossible for her to capture. The ash-shaded ghost constantly fired off its signature purple fire balls and shadow balls towards her, and most of them hit.
Rena was tossed carelessly about by the attacks as she gritted her teeth from the pain and frustration, but she wasn't going to give up. Not after everything that happened in the past two years.
Rena swiftly side-stepped out of the way of yet another shadow ball as it hissed past her shoulder; she barely had any energy left in her to perform this capture.
Unfortunately for her, things were only about to get that much worse.
The Dusknoir completely clothes-lined Rena abruptly and sent her crashing to the floor, and Keith's Styler flew off of her wrist and landed ten feet from her.
"No...!" Rena reached for it from her position on the floor, struggling to pull herself back up, but it was no use. The wounds from only a few days ago were tearing at her sides, and she could feel the blood starting to soak her bandages.
Mightyena lunged for the Dusknoir and sunk his teeth into the ghost Pokemon, making the monster secrete a ghostly cry of pain from the super effective attack. The Dusknoir swung its arm hard to shake Mightyena off, and the wolf Pokemon went flying through the air and bashed his skull on one of the electric pillars. The lightning coursed through the canine's body, and the air began to stink of singed fur. He fell to the floor slowly, and his limbs just snapped from underneath the weight that he could no longer carry.
And he didn't get back up.
"MIGHTYENA!" Rena screamed with tears that fell from her eyes like rain does from the sky. She tried to pick herself back up to rush over to her partner's side,
but could only lift her broken body up so far. So she crawled, pulling herself across the cold roof to where her partner lied.
"This is the end of the line for you." Blake Hall crossed his arms and masked the childish attitude he had earlier with a victorious darkness. "This is what little twerps like you get for even thinking about backing out of Dim Sun." He looked over at his summoned Pokemon and silently nodded his head. "Go ahead. Kill her."
The Dusknoir raised its large hand and began to bring it down on top of her at full speed.
"NO!"
WHAM!
Ice ran up the stairs just in time and shielded Rena's body with his own, taking the hit head on. He was sent crashing hard to the ground off to the other side of Rena, groaning from the intense pain he had endured. His gleaming eyes of the ocean crinkled in agony while his body trembled from the attack.
"Ice!" Rena widened her eyes in shock. What the hell did he just do!? That idiot! He could have died just now!
"Pathetic." Blake spat out his annoyance at the sight of Ice. He shook his head, deeply disappointed in his protégé. "You always were more loyal to that little sister of yours than you ever were to me."
...
"Little...sister?" Rena blinked her blue eyes a few times. "Ice, what is he talking about?" She looked over at the blue-haired man beginning to stand up. She herself found the strength to rise back to her feet, shakily staring at the man who was allegedly on her side.
Blake Hall glanced at the look of terror he saw flash onto Ice's face suddenly and busted out laughing. "Wait, you didn't tell her? I thought she knew, and that's why she tried to leave!" He rested his hand on his stomach as he just kept on laughing. "Now this is just rich."
"Ice..." Rena stood up and stared right at him as her gaze wavered. "What is he talking about?"
"I..." Ice stared down at the floor and jammed his hands into his coat pockets. "I tried to tell you before, but..."
His half-assed answer was all it took for Rena to realize this wasn't just some joke, and it was all true. She felt like someone had just walked up behind her and smashed a vase over her head, because she honestly couldn't believe this. Her whole reality of everything she ever knew shattered around her as she looked into his eyes, which were the exact same icy-blue as her own. She never even noticed that before.
"Are you trying to tell me..." She nervously laughed, shaking with anger as she shut her eyes. "That you're my... Brother?"
Ice shamefully directed his gaze to the floor, not having the courage to tell her the truth. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner..."
"You're sorry...?" Rena stared at him unbelievably as her anger started to bubble over the top. "Sorry!?" She clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. "What the hell, Ice!? I grew up all alone and thought I had been abandoned at that orphanage because no one ever wanted me!" She shouted at him as she angrily grabbed his collar. "I thought I had no family, and it turns out I've actually just had a cowardly older brother who could have taken care of me this whole time!?" She shoved him back with an angry look in her blue eyes. "I grew up on the streets for god's sake!"
"I know, and I'm sorry!" Ice stared at her with his intense look of remorse. "I was fifteen, stupid, and selfish when mom and dad died and left me all alone to take care of you..." He watched her heart break right before him as he mentioned their dead parents.
"My parents," Rena blinked over and over again, but the tears just wouldn't stop coming. "My real parents are...dead?" She almost choked on those forced words.
The time around them seemed to freeze. Nothing mattered at that moment to Rena. Not Blake Hall. Not Operation Brighton. Not the damn Dusknoir. Not the Shadow Crystal, or the flying Rangers circling overhead.
Just...the truth.
"It was a mugging gone wrong." Ice kicked at the ground aimlessly. "You weren't even a year old yet, and I was at home babysitting you when I got the call." He looked dreadful as he relayed this terrible story to his sister. "Mr. Hall, mom and dad's other partner from work, came to me soon after that and offered me a job, a place to stay, and security."
"So he took you in after that...?" She hollowly stared straight ahead at him as the words fell quiet from her lips.
"There was just one catch." Ice nodded his head to answer her question. "I had to leave you behind..."
Rena's watery eyes widened as something dawned on her. "You were the one who left me on that doorstep with the letter and mom's bracelet..."
Ice refused to meet her gaze as she figured it out. "I was a scared kid, and I selfishly accepted his offer. I didn't know how to take care of a baby, so I thought you would be better off without me..." He forcibly jammed his hands further down into his coat pockets, ripping the lining slightly. "I regretted letting you go as soon as I did it, and I started to look for you again a couple years later."
"You were the source all this time..." Rena blinked at Ice owlishly as she tore her gaze over to Blake Hall. "The source that told him how to find me..." Blake Hall watched their conversation with a wicked grin on his face.
"About five years ago..." Ice recounted memories of the past as he looked up at Rena. "He asked me to track down a notorious thief named Raux. At the time, I had no idea it was you..."
"So that's how this all started..." A heavy weight seemed to be lifted from her shoulders as she sighed deeply. "I thought it was strange how the boss found me so easily..."
"Oh believe me, it wasn't easy..." Ice shook his head quickly. "You were virtually nonexistent. Still kinda are."
Rena glared at him harshly as she returned her injured Mightyena to his Pokeball to rest up. "I can't believe you never said anything, or that I never even suspected---"
"I'm sorry..." Ice suddenly enveloped Rena in his arms, pressing his chin on top of her head, wanting to make her not be sad anymore. "I'll never leave you again. I promise..."
"How repulsive." Blake commented to Heath and Wheeler with a dark chuckle. "Sorry to break up such a heartfelt reunion between siblings, but I'm just too disgusted by how much you two remind me of your parents..." He was snide and arrogant about such a delicate matter with every venomous word he spoke. "Having them killed was perhaps the best decision I ever made."
...
Rena's blood ran cold at those last few words as she turned to look at Ice. "I thought you said our parents were killed in a mugging..."
Ice seemed just as surprised as she was. "Y-you..." He stared unbelievably at Blake Hall, the man who had taken care of him for the past twenty years. "You what!?"
Blake Hall chuckled at Ice's fiery temper. "It is exactly as I said." He stepped down a few of the stairs to approach the two siblings. To him, revealing such things to them now wouldn't matter, for he believed they would die soon enough. "They were my business partners way back when I took over running Altru, and when I pitched the idea of Dim Sun and dream energy, your parents flat out refused." He huffed and crossed his arms. "Naturally, I had to have them killed. They knew too much."
Ice and Rena visibly surged with anger, and all that did was amuse Blake Hall to no end. So of course he just had to add more boiling water to the pot.
"They weren't the only ones who refused to support me." He menacingly grinned over at Rena. "Your father, the original Raux, also refused to go with the same job you ended up accepting years later. So of course I had him killed too."
Rena slapped a hand over her mouth as tears streamed uncontrollably down her cheeks. "N-no...! It can't be true!"
"And naturally I tried to have Joseph killed for betraying me." Blake paced back and forth menacingly. "He went through the trouble of designing the Incredible Machine just to refuse to hand over the blueprints to me in the end because it was too 'dangerous.'" He laughed at how incredibly stupid that sounded to him. "We arranged several assassination attempts over the years, but of course that prick just had to up his security and foil every plot we designed..."
Rena was falling apart on the inside with every word he spoke. So many people have died for this cause, and this whole thing was a lot bigger than she could have ever imagined. It was bigger than all of them.
"And you," Blake quickly leveled his snide, grinning face with Ice. "I never actually cared about you. I only took you in because I thought you would be useful in my plans." He glanced over at Rena, deepening his spine-chilling grin. "I wasn't wrong."
Ice could have sworn someone had just stabbed him right through the heart. His parents were murdered by the same man who pretended to care about him all this time, and he voluntarily worked and sided with this man...!? Just how many lies had everyone been telling him about why he was really recruited!?
Blake leveled his gaze with Rena from behind his dark sunglasses. "I hired several other contract thieves to steal the Incredible Machine's blueprint back from Joseph Dazzle, but they all failed." He recounted his intense disappointments of the past. "After I began to lose hope, I had Ice look into the illegitimate daughter Sam Monroe had been training to be his successor so intensely." He looked at Rena in disgust. "But what a disappointment you turned out to be."
Rena's face was so pale it looked like she would collapse from exhaustion at any second. This was just all too much to take in...
Ice was her older brother. Her real parents? They worked for Altru and were murdered by Blake Hall because they didn't want to follow his movement to create the dream energy and Team Dim Sun. And then her father, Sam Monroe, had been murdered because the job he accepted when she was fourteen, the job he had specifically asked her to not go on because he thought it was too dangerous...
It was the very same job Blake Hall had offered her two years ago, which almost got her killed as well.
"Rena...!" Ice quickly caught Rena as her legs gave out, and he winced from the strain that put on his arm.
Blake Hall watched Rena collapse like the Vullaby he was, grinning at just how much his ego was boosted by this. "Don't get too full of yourself. You're sorely mistaken if you think you've won." He watched Ice try to shake his sister to get her to snap out of it and regain her energy. "Don't you understand? I've already won." He turned to face his marvelous Shadow Crystal, basking in its dark luminescence fondly. "So long as I have the Incredible Machine, I can keep summoning Pokemon whenever and from wherever I choose, and I can summon as many as I wish. It's physically impossible for me to lose. Do you understand now?"
Ice pulled Rena to her feet and slapped her face lightly to get her snap out of it. "Rena, pull yourself together!" He shook his sister by the arms violently, desperately trying to reach her in her shocked state.
Rena blinked at Ice tiredly, pulling herself from her thoughts. "I..." She hesitated as she glanced around at her surroundings, suddenly remembering her mission. "No. I can't... No." She turned to face Hall as she gripped her bag that was swung around her shoulder, stepping closer to the Shadow Crystal.
The yellow gem within her bag let out a bright flash of hopeful light in response to inching closer to the dark power, sending Blake Hall into a state of panic.
"What was that yellow flash just now?" Blake Hall's eyes immediately dashed over towards Rena's bag in fear. He didn't need to ask what that was, for he knew. "You... What are you hiding from me!?" His face grew serious as he felt a hinting suspicion of what that was creep up under his skin.
"Oh, nothing really. Just this." Rena jerked the crescent-shaped gem from her bag and presented it to the air as she stepped closer to the Shadow Crystal, causing it to flash again even brighter this time.
Blake Hall seemed so shocked at first, but that look quickly melted into a look of fury as he turned to Heath with an icy-cold stare as the flames of hell shot up from behind him.
"Uh..." Heath felt his confidence begin to falter under such a terrifying glare. "We are meaning to reporting earlier, but we three failing at protecting yellow gem, sir. Not thinking that you will forgiving us, but... But, sir, boss, you having that Pokemon already, so okay, I am hoping..." Heath rambled on and on incoherently, but then again, that was pretty normal for him anyways, considering the dumbass couldn't even properly speak English.
"You blundering OAF!" Blake Hall surged with anger as he gripped Heath by the collar, slamming his back into the crystal ball's podium. "It was crucial that the three gems be kept apart from each other!" His eyes flashed blood-red as he glared at the buffoon. "All we needed was to retain one of them! Just one! If we keep even one, the Shadow Crystal can't be harmed! Did you not understand that?" He shook him furiously.
Heath pulled himself out of Hall's tight hold on him and backed up a bit, intimidated by his intense rage.
"You incompetents failed to protect the yellow gem and the barrier, and now you expect that Pokemon to cover for your repeated mistakes?" Blake Hall scoffed at Heath unbelievably. "This takes some nerve!" He glared at Heath terrifyingly with a deadly venom coating each word he hissed. "You don't even have the courage or the wits to run like Lavana. Yes, you do have a lot of nerve to show your face when you failed yet again!" He only angered himself more with each passing second.
Rena just stayed quiet for most of the time and listened, wondering what was this Pokemon they repeatedly kept talking about. She quietly began shuffling closer and closer to the dark crystal as Blake Hall was too occupied spitting at his subordinates.
"B-but... I staying here because... I am so worrying about you, boss..." Heath stammered involuntarily, holding up a single finger to defend himself with.
"Silence! Save your worthless concerns!" Blake Hall briskly swung his arm to cut across the air, silencing him. "I have no need for underlings now! With the Incredible Machine, all Almia's Pokemon are my servants!"
"NOT A CHANCE!"
Rena flinched when she heard that shout from up above, recognizing that voice immediately. It was unmistakable.
Sven.
"Hall! We can hear you raving even up here! Rena, get ready! We'll put the finishing touches on Operation Brighton!" Sven called down to the brunette, boosting her confidence just the slightest bit as her arms curled in anticipation.
Wendy rose her voice as she waved down to Rena. "The three gems have to be brought close to the Shadow Crystal! Rena, get your yellow gem as close as possible to it!"
"Roger that!" Rena cupped her hands over her mouth, shouting back up to the two flying Rangers with their gems at the ready.
"This is it, folks!" An excited smirk danced across Sven's lips as he directed his Staraptor to do a nose dive towards the Shadow Crystal, blue gem in hand. The tear-shaped stone that held the hopes of the region's future.
Wendy gripped her red gem firmly, its flame shape mirroring the vigor in her heart. "Staraptor, we're going in!" She called out to her partner Pokemon over the roaring winds the Incredible Machine whipped and roared to life.
"You think that's clever, Rangers!?" Blake Hall, who numbingly fell further into his darkness-corrupted insanity, felt unthreatened as the gems grew closer to the Shadow Crystal, having one final trick up his sleeve. "You leave me no choice. That Pokemon will be unleashed."
"What are you talking about?" Rena glared at his back quizzically as Hall marched towards the crystal ball once more.
"Ah, what fortuitous timing... Midnight has finally arrived!" Blake Hall practically sang his excitement when he heard the loud gong of Pueltown's clock tower reverberate throughout the port city, greeting the new age of darkness he believed was coming. "On Altru's day of birth, let your presence be shown in all its dark glory!" Blake Hall began to power up the Incredible Machine as he placed his hands on the crystal ball, withstanding the powerful wind and electricity being kicked up as a result. "Now, awaken from the darkness! Rise, my Darkrai!"
Rena's voice box nearly fell out of her mouth as she screamed her distress over the Incredible Machine's extraordinary loud power. "Darkrai!? Hall, are you out of your damn mind!?"
Both Sven and Wendy's Staraptor got spooked by an eerie darkness that began to seep through the cracks of the rooftop's tile flooring, and they quickly retreated and flew up higher into the sky, despite their Ranger's commands.
"A Pokemon that stores the energy of darkness within its body... That is Darkrai. It is the most beloved of all my Pokemon!" Blake Hall grinned so happily with satisfaction gleaming in his eyes, feeling as if Darkrai was the only one who could really understand him. "Dusknoir, you're dismissed." Blake waved off the ghostly beast carelessly as he watched what was about to unfold with a deadly grin.
Rena fell to her knees as a violent tremor sent her crashing to the floor, and she winced from the awkward position she fell into. Her heeled boots left a skid mark as she was sent flying to the side, and the wind was nearly knocked out of her as her stomach hit the floor hard. The Incredible Machine emitted so many electrical currents that all of the machinery began to release thick plumes of smoke, and the dark clouds overhead only grew more intense.
"Eheheheheeeeh!" Wheeler laughed at Rena from her position on the floor.
"RENA!" Ice quickly dashed across the rooftop and gripped his sister's torso as a dark void began to surface beneath her, and he immediately pulled her off to the side.
Ice recklessly threw his sister out of the way and into safety, but as he went to join her, an oily-black hand emerged from the shadows and gripped Ice's ankle, knocking him off his feet as it began to drag him closer and closer to the center of the void.
"NO! ICE!" Rena shouted in terror as she reached out to grab Ice's hand, but he just barely missed and slipped from her grip.
"RENA!" He looked back at her panicked face, just as terrified as she was.
The brunette watched in terror as more and more of the inky blobs from the darkness shifted into hands and tentacles that wrapped around Ice's body, dragging him down into the pit of darkness. The blue-haired man yelled with surprise and protested the whole way down, only thinking of his sister as he called out to her one last time.
"RENA!" Ice began to be smothered by the dark tentacles that wrapped themselves around his face. "RENA, RUN---" But a deformed tentacle of darkness soon clasped over his mouth to drag him further down, and his screams were muted even though his eyes roared.
He was suddenly sucked in all the way and disappeared from Rena's sight completely as a dark shadow emerged from the void in her brother's place.
Darkrai.
Darkrai's terrifying red eyes looked exactly like Ice's when he lost control of his mind, confirming her devastating suspicion of what exactly had happened to him after she had been shot.
The legendary Pokemon notorious for spreading fear and nightmares had brainwashed her brother, and now that he had taken Ice captive, he was about to do the exact same for her.
Rena kept her brother's last words in mind as she slowly took step after step backwards, nearly falling down some of the small steps behind her as the Darkrai crept closer.
"Go on, Darkrai!" Blake Hall laughed impatiently at the Pokemon who was just toying with the thief. "Invite this hero-fixated child to your world of darkness!"
"Ehehehehehehe!" Wheeler rubbed his hands together as a creepy grin formed on his lips.
"Darkrai, snap out of it..." Rena's warning tone of voice failed to reach the dark Pokemon's ears as she continued to keep a fair amount of space between herself and him. "Don't do this!" She tripped and fell hard to the floor, unable to do anything as the Darkrai pushed the dark void he had conjured underneath her frail and breaking body. "NO!" She shrieked as the black tentacles of darkness shot up and grabbed at her legs, slowly pulling her down into the pits of hell. Rena refused to let this be the end of her as she thrashed about, trying to fight it as best as she could. "DAMMIT! SOMEONE, PLEASE HELP ME!" She yelled in a panic as she became engulfed in darkness, inch by inch.
...
"What are you really afraid of?"
________________________________
The reality around Rena suddenly grew hazy as that...that voice entered her mind, and she wasn't really sure what happened. The last thing she remembered was being pulled into the darkness by Darkrai, but now?
...where was she?
"Hello...?" Rena looked around her at the pitch-black room she was in, only able to see herself from standing directly underneath a small spotlight that was ominously the only thing inside this room. She was surrounded by nothing but darkness. "...Is anyone here?"
Silence.
She shivered and rubbed her arms briskly as a cold chill entered the room, and the hairs on the back of her neck stood up when she heard a familiar voice address her. A voice that froze her blood, and a voice that held her heart with a simple word.
"...Princess?"
Rena's body became almost unmovable, and she nearly refused to believe it. She fought with herself on whether she should turn around or not, but she already knew the answer: she had to. She had to know. And when she did turn around, involuntary tears slipped from her eyes. "FATHER!"
Sam Monroe laughed happily as his daughter leapt into his arms, and he hugged her back so tightly that it was almost as if he ever let go, he would lose her forever. She held him just the same, afraid if she let go, he'd vanish like the ghost he was. "I'm so glad to see you're okay, Princess..."
"Father..." She looked up at his happy eyes with tears beginning to cascade from her own. "I've missed you so, so much..."
"I've missed you too..." He ruffled her hair playfully with a sad smile stretched across his lips. "Wow... You've grown up to be such a beautiful woman. How old are you now?"
"Nineteen!" Rena hastily answered, completely elated to be able to have a conversation with her father again. Her heart was on fire with the joy that this couldn't be actually happening, but it was. Right?
"I've been gone that long, huh?" Sam chuckled depressingly, running a hand through his dusty short hair.
"Yeah..." Rena stared down at the dark floor before hugging him once again. "I've been so lost without your guidance... Mightyena and I both have missed you so much..."
"Hah, somehow I doubt that." Sam shook his head at his daughter with a saddened smirk painted across his lips so delicately. "Not about missing me, but about being lost."
"Huh?" Rena blinked up at him with the confusion of a small child glinting in her eyes.
"You were always so independent as a child. Don't you remember?" He looked at her quizzically, amused by her reaction. "You hardly ever listened to a thing I said, and you usually did your own thing."
"Did I... Really?" Rena wracked her brain for some sort of memory of this from her childhood, but nothing was really coming to mind.
Sam laughed heartily at her forgetfulness. "Oh yeah, definitely!" He patted her on the head in admiration. "You never really needed me for much of anything. Once I was done training you, you were a lone wolf."
"Oh..." Rena's eyes flickered down to the floor in disappointment. "Even so, I... I failed you. I threw my career away all because I..." She choked on the words, not able to make herself say it. "...fell in love with someone."
She was expecting her father to be furious with her, but really...
"You...fell in love?" Sam poked her forehead accusingly with a strange look on his face. "Ah...hah...AHAHAH!" Sam doubled over laughing, and tears were nearly brought to his eyes from just how funny this was to him.
Rena's cheeks flushed red in embarrassment. "Wh-what's so funny!?"
Sam got a hold of himself as he patted his daughter on the head. "I'm just so... Happy for you."
"You're happy?" Rena nearly doubled over in shock. "I thought you would be pissed!"
"Rena, I never wanted this life for you..." Sam shook his head as he looked into her eyes. You could almost see the memories dancing behind his eyes as he raised her, the way his eyebrows furrowed together in almost a depressed frustration. "You did."
All Rena could manage to do in order to form a proper response was blink at him repeatedly. "...huh!?"
Sam rested his hands on her shoulders. "When you were a little girl, I took you in because I liked your fiery spirit, not because I wanted you to be my successor." He smiled at her wryly. "Rena, I became Raux not just because I had the skill to, but because I was lonely. I had no wife or kids, so I picked a dangerous job that didn't allow for luxuries like that to make up for it..."
"Then why...?" Rena shook her head unbelievably at him, unable to comprehend this.
"Don't get me wrong, I lived for our nights of action and adventure together." He lightly punched her in the shoulder. "But...I always wanted a better life for you. Maybe settle down one day and get married, buy a house, I don't know..." He embarrassingly scratched the back of his head with a nervous grin.
Rena just now realized she had been holding her breath as she suddenly exhaled sharply. "So... You're not mad?"
"Not at all." Sam smiled at her brightly. "I just wish I could be there for the wedding..."
"Father!" Rena embarrassingly shouted in protest as she punched him hard to distract him from her reddened cheeks. "I never said anything about getting married!"
Sam busted out into a fit of laughter at his daughter's response, but he quickly grew worried when he saw the grim look on her face. "Princess, what is it?"
"Umm..." Her eyes flickered down to the floor once more. "Is the reason I can see and talk to you because I..." She averted her eyes from his worried stare. "...because I'm dead?"
He thoughtfully smiled at her with a wistful twist to his grin. "No, Princess. You're not dead. You're just...hallucinating."
"Hallucinating?" She blinked at him over and over again. "Why---" It suddenly dawned on her what was going on, and she grew very, very sad all of a sudden. "Darkrai... This is the effect of being sucked into the darkness, isn't it?"
Sam nodded his head. "Didn't you hear me? I asked you what you were really afraid of as soon as you came in."
"That was you?" She stared up into his eyes, more lost than ever before.
"The effect of Darkrai's dark power is that you are sucked from your reality and are faced with your worst fears." He smiled at her fondly as he tilted his head to the side. "The only way you can fight it is to face your fears and defeat them."
Rena shook her head and scoffed at her father incredulously. "Well bring on the thunder storms! I need to get back already." She impatiently tapped her foot, looking around the room of endless darkness.
Sam smiled depressingly as he placed his hand on his daughter's shoulder. "Princess, your worst fear isn't thunder."
Rena felt her whole body tense up at her father's comment. "Then... What is it?"
"...me." Sam's eyes darted to the floor uncomfortably, trying not to laugh at this awkward moment.
Rena threw her head back and scoffed at just how ridiculous that sounded. "What? Father, I'm not afraid of you..."
"I know that." Sam dismissed her comment. "You're not afraid of me, Rena. You're afraid of everyone else you love in this world ending up like me."
Rena's heart shattered like broken glass when her thoughts immediately flickered to Keith. He was the first person she thought of, and she suddenly felt her intense amount of worry for him that she had tried to ignore for the sake of Operation Brighton start to eat away at her soul once more.
Sam smiled at her thoughtfully. "See?" He poked her in the forehead playfully. "Thunderstorms only remind you of what you're really afraid of."
"The night you died..." She kept her eyes glued to the floor, feeling the overwhelming sadness overtake her. It felt like every string that held her together inside snapped at once, leaving her to shatter. Her fists balled up as she recalled there was a storm the night she lost her father.
"Foolish girl! Go into the world of darkness!" Blake Hall's snickering voice forced itself into the room, and Rena looked around her, startled by suddenly hearing him.
"Eheheheheh!" She then picked up on Wheeler's unmistakable laugh, and she questionably looked over at her father for answers to what was going on.
"It's time for you to go." He placed a kiss on her forehead one last time. Sam's haunting eyes brought the heartbreaking memories to the surface once more. But she couldn't fall apart, even if she was already losing pieces of herself. "Good-bye, Princess."
A single tear slipped from Rena's eye. Her lungs filled to the brim with air as she finally faced it all with a final smile, "I'll see you soon..."
"Oh no..." Her father chuckled, shaking his head at her. "I better not see you anytime soon, you hear me? Live a long, happy life with the person you love. You couldn't keep your last promise with me, so now I want you to keep this one instead."
Rena reached out to grab her father's hand for the last time as his image was beginning to blow away with the wind. "Father, no---!"
"Promise me." The echo of Sam Monroe smiled one final time at his child who was finally all grown up, before there was nothing left for her to grasp.
He was gone.
Tear after tear fell from Rena's beautiful blue eyes as she stared at where her father once stood. The salty beads fell to her feet as she finally forced a trembling smile, "I promise..."
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Rena suddenly snapped her eyes open and tuned back into her surroundings. She was being pulled into the dark void by Darkrai, and she was nearly swallowed whole by the darkness, and all she could think to do was hug the yellow gem tightly against her chest. It seemed to repel the darkness ever so slightly, and as her last ounce of hope, she outstretched her hand, wishing someone would grab it and pull her out. The last vain attempt as only shadows were left to take her.
...
"RENA!"
The thief yelped with surprised when someone's rough, calloused hand grabbed hers, and she was suddenly lifted from the void. The chilly night enveloped her, free from the climbing darkness. Someone wrapped their muscular arms tightly around her waist and lifted her up onto something very feathery, and she didn't dare to release her hold on the gem the whole time. When she hesitantly opened her eyes, Rena noticed she was sitting up front on a Staraptor, and the one who was flying it had their arms wrapped around her as they directed the bird's path.
Rena turned her head around slowly in confusion, and she almost fell off the Staraptor from shock. "Ke...KEITH!?" She whirled around all of the way on the Staraptor this time, positioning herself to face him directly.
"Jheeze, how many times have I had to save your sorry ass now!?" Keith barked at her angrily as he completely paid no attention to Rena's scared, yet relieved face. He kept his arms wrapped tightly around her frail, skinny waist as he circled the top of Altru Tower.
SLAP!
Keith clutched his burning cheek in shock as Rena glared at him immensely. "Oh my god, will you just shut up already!?" She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. "I don't even care! I'm just so glad that you're alive..." She whimpered worriedly as she pressed her face into his shoulder. She felt her tears starting to prickle at her eyes, but she refused to let them fall. She'd done enough crying that night.
Now, it was all starting to come back together. The pieces of her shattered heart were slowly becoming whole once more.
Keith blinked repeatedly in shock as his eyebrows disappeared into his hairline. She...slapped him? Wow...she must have been really worried about him. He fought everything inside of him to not smile at the thought of that.
He looked down at the brunette clutching onto him tightly with a grim frown, thinking to himself, "sorry, Rena..." as he continued to fly his Staraptor. "...that attack sent me flying to the Vien Forest's lookout ridge. The guy with the snack cart and his mom had to wake me up."
"You better have not got your pathetic ass hurt!" She stared into his Ruby-red irises worriedly before looking him over. Despite her cold words, she truly cared.
"I'm a bit banged up, but it's nothing I can't handle." Keith quickly dismissed her worry bluntly, shaking it off with a signature smolder. "Alright, time to touch down..."
Keith directed his Staraptor to land back down on Altru's rooftop, and scooped Rena up before dismounting together. Keith quickly picked up his discarded Styler off of the floor just a few feet away and equipped it to his right wrist, turning to face a very pissed off Blake Hall and Darkrai.
"Blasted Rangers..." Blake Hall cursed underneath his breath, pissed off beyond words that they were both still alive. "I'll make you regret ever have taken up arms against me!" He turned around and gripped the crystal ball again, chuckling darkly underneath his hushed breath. "The Incredible Machine actually has another level of power beyond level three! The forbidden level... The dark level!"
"Yikes! Mr. President, sir! Not that!" Wheeler's smile was slapped off his face as he looked over at his boss worriedly. "You mustn't do that! You've said it yourself: there is no telling what the dark level will bring about!" He tried to make Hall see reason, waving his hands back and forth defensively.
Rena found no point in interjecting. She was smart enough to know the Altru president was far, far beyond reason to be saved.
"B-boss... Even me, I not following you anymore." Heath hesitated to shake his head as he took a step back. "No more, I cannot..."
Blake Hall held no care for the protests of his inferior subordinates as he blatantly ignored them. With both hands clasped around the control sphere, he switched the Incredible Machine onto the dark level, immediately turning every green light that illuminated the roof into a deep blood red. The most violent tremor Rena had withstood erupted through the tower, and Keith held onto her tightly as they endured both this and the harsh winds that screamed and roared, threatening to tear a scar into Almia's skies. The Incredible Machine pulsed with such malevolent electric beams erupting through the pillars, shaking every piece of machinery uncontrollably.
"WHAT IS GOING ON!?" Rena held onto Keith tightly as she shouted her question to him over the loud noise.
Keith gritted his teeth as the wind tried to knock him off his feet, not letting Rena go. He wasn't going to lose her this time. "I DON'T KNOW!"
Darkrai started to shake from unbearable pain that was coursing through its ghostly existence. His eyes seemed to grow even more irritated and red, and the dark energy surrounding him only expanded. Shadows prowled around, ready to snap up anyone in their way as Darkrai let out a earth-shattering howl of agony.
"Keith, get ready." Rena narrowed her eyes and held up her fists defensively, preparing for a fight.
"Got it." Keith switched on his Styler and began getting ready for what would surely be the toughest capture he would ever perform.
"This is it, the dark level!" Blake Hall called Keith and Rena's attention to him once more. "The forbidden power known only to the infinity that is darkness!" He turned around briskly as he locked his firm gaze on his beloved bringer of darkness. "My Darkrai, your age has arrived, but there is a job you must first complete..." He redirected his evil grin up towards the sky. "Swat down the annoying pests flying overhead!"
"NO!" Both Rena and Keith shouted fruitlessly to protest Hall's command, reaching out their hands as if that would stop the Darkrai from obeying.
But...the Darkrai? He didn't listen...
Darkrai curled its head around to face the opposite direction of where Blake Hall was looking, and he held his demonic hands up to summon the dark void once more. His eyes that dripped with the color of human blood were raging with twisted abomination. Except, this time...
The puddle of screaming shadows surfaced beneath Wheeler.
"Yikes!" Wheeler yelped out of shock when he looked down at what had grabbed a hold of his leg, noticing the dark void he was standing over. "Mr. President, help!" The demonic tentacles began pulling him down into the darkness, and he was already shoulder-deep after a few seconds. His beady eyes pleading for any last light to save him.
Blake Hall reluctantly tore his gaze from the sky and spun around to see what was going on. As his eyebrows shot up with a taste of disdain, he nervously backed up and away from Darkrai; his feet fumbling against one another. "D-Darkrai!? What is the meaning of this...?" He shook his head back and forth unbelievably. "Stop it! Stop this at once!" Blake commanded without any success, at a loss for words when the Darkrai completely dismissed him as if he was nothing but a small scrap of garbage.
In return, Darkrai made this dark void grow wider as he began pulling Wheeler in, further and further... His cries piercing the night like a knife to the heart.
Keith and Rena couldn't do anything but watch in complete and utter shock.
"Mr. President!" Wheeler cried out one final time, but by the time the plea fully escaped his lips, he had been fully pulled into the darkness.
He was gone.
"Mr. Wheeler!" Heath was as white as a ghost as he watched the floor swallow up the dark void, closing it off. "No more! I no want this! I going home to the country!" He quickly shook his head and ran like hell, intending on running far away from this place before he was next.
Blake turned his back on the Darkrai to face the direction Heath just ran off in. "Heath, wait! Stay!" He outstretched his hand pathetically as a sorry attempt to stop him. "I can make you the next Altru President! Don't go..." As his whimpering voice fell on deaf ears, Blake suddenly felt his feet begin to sink. Fearfully, he looked down at the floor and helplessly watched a dark void open up beneath him next. "Darkrai, what are you doing? The Ranger is that way!" He pointed a shaky finger over at Keith as he glared into Darkrai's terrifying eyes. "Stop this, Darkrai! Don't! Don't pull me into the darkness!" Seconds before the tentacles of darkness pulled him all the way down under, Blake cried out one last thing to Keith. "Ranger! Save me!"
With a swift flick of his wrist, the Darkrai closed up the dark void completely, sending Blake Hall to who knows where.
Rena started to panic as she couldn't see or hear anyone from above any longer. The dark, swirling clouds up above grew darker and thicker, and they swirled faster and faster. It was as if the Darkrai's rage was causing the storm to pick up incredibly.
Keith leveled his gaze with the Darkrai as he released his capture disc firmly, charging forwards with Buizel to begin his capture. "CAPTURE ON!"
All Rena could do was watch helplessly from the sidelines as Keith tried to capture the shadow ball-shooting legendary with impossible speed and great skill. She wished she could help somehow... But what could she really do in this situation?
Nothing.
Buizel assisted his master by entrapping Darkrai in large water bubbles for seconds at a time, but something was wrong. Rena noticed it. Keith noticed it. Buizel noticed it.
Keith hesitantly looked down at his Styler screen and saw that he had made absolutely zero progress in capturing the Darkrai after five minutes straight of looping. Not even one percent was complete.
"What the...?" Keith barely had any time to pause and wonder his thought out loud before Darkrai's extended his shadowy claws, slashing across Keith's chest. "OOF!" He was launched backwards and slammed against the wall behind him, head making contact with the wall first.
"KEITH!" Rena ran towards her partner as tears threatened to sting the corners of her eyes, panicking even more when she saw him not even try to get up.
Darkrai closed up his mind, and Keith could no longer even attempt to get any feelings across to him.
"Keith, snap out of it!" Rena crashed down to her knees in front of his crippled body, beginning to shake his shoulders violently. "Come on, Keith! Wake up!"
Buizel was sent into a state of utter panic as he slapped Keith's face lightly with his tail, trying to aid Rena in waking him up.
But it wasn't working.
Keith layed limp in Rena's arms, covered in scratched, cuts, and burns. He had clearly lied to her about just how much damage he had sustained from that Magmortar attack earlier. Gashes tore into him, blood smearing as it mingled with the thick gloss of salt-stinging sweat.
Rena took notice of all of the injuries he had been covering up earlier, and she glared at him fiercely. "Urrrgh...you idiot! I can't believe you lied to me!" Her eyes widened when she saw a small puddle of moisture begin to soak through his jacket. "No, no, no...!"
Rena immediately ripped off Keith's red jacket only to find thick clots of blood soaking through his black and white undershirt, originating from the spot on his chest where his heart was. A dark blackness oozed around the claw-shaped wound, and she quickly became worried when she saw the darkness begin to seep into Keith's bloodstream.
Seconds and seconds ticked by, and Keith lost more blood and grew very, very pale; his feathery hairs of fire falling short of life. Rena refused to give up on him as she shook him even more, starting to feel him begin to grow cold. His skin became clammed up as his life withered away.
"No, Keith! Come on!" She disregarded all of the blood as she firmly applied pressure to the wound with her hands, getting soaked in his blood herself. "Don't you die on me, you idiot!"
Darkrai simply looked down on the two puny humans beneath him. Pathetic. One was clearly dead, or was at least on the way there, and the other was trying to save him.
Pathetic.
He just didn't understand why that girl was even trying. That Ranger boy was clearly a lost cause. He would be dead within seconds based on how much blood was pooling from the gash Darkrai had left on his chest.
Shadow claw attacks from a Darkrai like him were nothing but fatal.
He almost found it amusing to watch these mere worms struggle.
Rena was slowly starting to realize that Keith was slipping away, and this time, there really wasn't anything she could do about it. Her heart, one which had been numb for so long, was now shattering into irreparable fragments.
Keith rolled his eyes up to look at her one last time before they quickly flickered shut. His final breath was stolen away in a split second, forbidding him from saying anything he really wanted to say to her before it was too late. His lips shaped the words before being left to hang.
There was nothing left within.
"N-no..." Rena shook her head in disbelief, then shook Keith a little with her quickly failing strength. "No... No, no, no... Keith, stop." She shook him harder. "Stop messing with me." She didn't believe he could possibly be dead as she shook him even harder by the shoulders. "Keith, cut it out!"
But he didn't move.
Tear after tear poured over her cheeks involuntarily. "No..." She pulled his still body close to her chest as she sobbed into his red hair, refusing to let him leave her. "You can't die, Keith... You can't leave me alone..." She hugged him tighter and tighter, continuing to cry despite her promise to herself earlier. "Keith, come back to me... Please..." It ate further at her, yet another to die in her arms.
Meanwhile, high, high above the dark, murky clouds in the sky...
"What's going on down there, Wen'?" Sven shouted over to his Ranger Partner as he directed his Staraptor to continue circling the top of the tower, clutching the blue Tears of Princes in his grasp firmly.
Wendy felt nauseated as her stomach started to bubble with a sinking unease, protectively clutching her red gem closer to her stomach. "I don't know..."
Suddenly, the two gems in the Top Ranger's arms began to shine from the very middle. A small, luminous glow grew larger and larger as it originated from the center until it made the entire gem glow in its sharp color. Soon enough, the two gems began radiating a bright, colorful light, which then detached itself from the gems and flew down towards the rooftop with incredible speed, cutting through the murky clouds as if they were paper.
Rena clutched Keith's still body so tightly that she didn't even notice the yellow gem within her satchel begin to glow. Until she started to feel strangely warm all over her body, she hardly took notice of a yellow, pink, and blue light begin to circle around her. Specks of light broke away and began to stick to her until she was completely surrounded by the warmth of the gems.
Rena looked at her glowing self puzzlingly as she carefully set Keith's head down onto her lap. "What...?" She held her arms out in front of her quizzically as a fat tear rolled down her cheek.
Time seemed to slow as that single tear fell from her pale face and plummeted down to the ground. Her tear of pure sadness and heartache splashed onto Keith's cheek, and it emitted a pink, yellow, and blue light before dissolving into his skin.
The lights of the three gems circled around Keith and Rena faster and faster, encircling them in a tornado of nothing but luminosity and a glowing essence of hope. Rena couldn't see a thing around her except for the three colored lights swirling around her at incredible speed. The blood she had been soaked in quickly evaporated, and any wound on her body was immediately sealed up from the power of the three gems.
Suddenly, the lights stopped whipping around them and slammed into Rena's chest, dissolving into her skin as it sent her stumbling backwards.
The thief coughed ferociously now that she was on her feet, able to see the darkness of the rooftop around her once more. The lights went inside of her, and her icy heart began to melt. She slowly felt all of her pain in her body dissipate as her mind became clear, and all she could feel now was her guilt.
The light swirled inside of her mind, and she had an intense flashback of the last two years. Receiving the job, meeting the three idiots, falling for Keith...
Betraying everyone, trying to save everyone...
Sacrificing herself to save Keith's life.
Taking a bullet for them.
Being rejected by them.
Being rejected by him.
It was all coming to the front of her mind so fast in flickering flashes that it was giving her a headache. She clutched the sides of her head tightly and she shut her eyes, trying to get the guilt swimming around her heart to leave her alone.
All she could focus on now was the guilt of what she had done.
This...this was all her fault.
"Oi, why are you crying?" The voice sighed, "...I seriously don't have the time to be dealing with your never-ending bullshit right now."
Every muscle in her body froze as Rena immediately pulled her hands from her eyes, staring ahead of her at the voice that spoke to her.
Keith stood before her alive and perfectly fine, confused as to why she was giving him such a weird look right now. "Hey, wha---are you crying? Rena, what's---OOF!" Keith fell backwards right onto his back as the thief leapt into his arms, nearly choking him to death from how tight she was hugging him.
Buizel joined in on the dog pile crying ferverously, thrilled beyond words that Keith was alright.
"H-how!?" Rena pulled back and glared into his eyes accusingly. "How are you still alive!?"
Keith just looked at her oddly. "What are you talking about? I'm fine." He rolled his eyes at her like she was the weirdest person ever. "I mean, yeah, I admit the Darkrai got me with that sneaky shadow claw of his, but I'm fine." He sat up and pointed to his unscathed body. "See?"
Rena slowly shook her head back and forth. "No, Keith... You died. I watched you die in my arms..." An involuntary tear slipped through her Galaxy-colored eyes, dripping down her puffy cheeks.
Keith's eyes slowly snapped open from the shock. "I...did?" He paused for a moment to ponder this, staring at Rena's terrified face, which confirmed that this was true. "Then...how am I perfectly fine?" He looked himself over once more to make sure he wasn't dreaming.
Rena's gaze slowly traced from the red-head up to the dark night sky. "I don't know..."
Darkrai was completely enraged now. The Tears of Princes... He knew exactly what those lights were; there was no mistaking it. The bane of his existence, and his undoing...
The Shadow Crystal continued to poison the Darkrai's controlled mind with thoughts of insanity and bloodshed, making his unnaturally red eyes grow redder and more bloodshot.
Kill them. Both of them. All of them.
They all had to die. They had to! Die! DIE! DIEDIEDIEDIEDIE---!
"Keith, look out!" Rena widened her eyes at the raging Darkrai coming right at them, quickly shoving both Keith and Buizel out of the way as the Pokemon grabbed a hold of her throat and effortlessly lifted her into the air. "AUGH!"
But no matter the pain this monster inflicted, it was nothing compared to the thought of losing Keith one more time.
Keith quickly scrambled to his feet and whirled his capture line impossibly fast around the dark legendary, not about to let him kill Rena. There was no way in hell he was letting her out of his sight ever again. Especially in death.
Buizel did his best to distract the Darkrai from choking Rena any harder, buying his partner some time.
Now that Keith had the help of the three gems infused within his bloodstream, even though he didn't know it was there, his capture was making...progress.
Darkrai's vision consisted only of pure and utter blackness. However, off in the distance, he saw a tiny little white dot. Seconds and seconds passed, and that dot only grew bigger, and brighter. The psychotic insanity swimming around his mind was starting to dull down as he caught sight of this bright, white light that was beginning to blind him, and he began to tune back into his surroundings.
...what?
Darkrai immediately freaked out when he saw he was strangling some poor girl to death, and he quickly let go of her. The girl's eyes rolled into the back of her head as she lost consciousness, and Darkrai immediately grabbed a hold of her and carefully layed her down on the floor.
"RENA!"
There was that voice again. That was the voice that snapped him out of the darkness, but who...?
Darkrai wanted to flee when a strange red-haired boy bolted over to him and the young girl, but he remained by her side as the boy crashed down to the floor beside her.
He watched as the boy scooped her up into his arms and looked at her pale face lovingly, and he couldn't help but feel his heart lurch at the thought of the girl's life slipping away.
Did he...kill her?
Darkrai couldn't explain what he was feeling, but it felt as if he had connected with this boy somehow. They were on the same wavelength, and everything this boy felt, he felt.
Regret, remorse, hope, joy, relief, denial, and love... This boy was flooded with a strange array of emotions, and Darkrai felt overwhelmed by it all. But one emotion did stand out to him above them all.
Love.
When Darkrai looked at the girl's face, he felt the intense, burning passion this boy felt towards her. And because of that, he just had to help her...
Keith instinctively jerked Rena away from the Darkrai when he outstretched his black hand towards her, but he stopped when he noticed the red color in the Darkrai's eyes flush away, uncovering his natural blue eye-color of a life yearning to just simply live.
Keith, Buizel, and Darkrai had a stare down as they looked into each other's eyes, trying to figure out everyone's intentions. It didn't take Keith long to realize that he had saved Darkrai as soon as he had completed that capture, and all Darkrai wanted to do was help Rena.
So...he let him.
Darkrai caressed Rena's face lightly, and as soon as he came into contact with her skin, he absorbed an inky-black darkness that came from her. Darkrai took on all of the pain and sadness that was coursing through her veins, releasing Rena from the darkness he had bestowed on her.
The brunette's eyes suddenly flickered open, and the nightmare she had been dreaming of suddenly had stopped. She glanced nervously between Keith, Buizel, and Darkrai before putting two and two together. But for the longest time, the silence stretched between them like the weak smirk across the thief's elegant face.
"Well, that was fun. We should do this again sometime." Rena immediately felt like her old self as she stood up too soon and cracked a joke. Her body gently swayed, fighting gravity itself.
Keith rolled his eyes. "Gah... Don't even joke about that."
Rena walked past him and stopped right in front of Darkrai, staring into the blue eyes that reflected the image of hers perfectly. "Please, Darkrai... My brother?"
He seemed to understand what it was that she was asking, and he outstretched his hand over the floor next to Rena. Immediately the image of the tile flooring began to distort as a new shape emerged from the darkness, and the unconscious body of Ice materialized before her. However, Wheeler and Blake Hall were nowhere to be seen.
Rena's lips curled up into a smile as she looked over at Darkrai. "Thank you."
Darkrai nodded to her respectively as his eyes screamed his sincere apology to her for all of the damage he had done.
"Hey." Rena effortlessly threw the satchel she had been carrying that contained the yellow gem over to Keith, smiling at him peacefully. "Care to do the honors?"
Keith caught it without hesitation, and he held the crescent gem in his hands firmly. "Of course. After all, I am the hero in this story."
Rena scoffed and rolled her eyes as she crouched down next to Ice, looking over him worriedly. "Yeah, whatever." She brushed the blue bangs away from his eyes, staring down at his peaceful, sleeping face. "Hey, I... I'm sorry."
As Rena attended to her brother, Keith and Buizel matched their pace as they ran past Darkrai and over to the Shadow Crystal. Darkrai looked up above and watched as the storm clouds began to separate, giving the two flying Rangers the opportunity to swoop in and get close to the Shadow Crystal.
Darkrai had been guarding this Shadow Crystal his whole life, and when Dim Sun managed to take it from him and also use him at the same time, he felt like a failure. But now, as he looked onwards at the three Rangers reuniting the three gems and the Shadow Crystal, he couldn't help but smile from how relieved he felt.
The three gems radiated the brightest, blinding light anything in this universe could possibly fathom as they were all brought together once more. The souls of the three princes from long ago, and their father, the king of Almia, were joined together once more in harmony. The three gems infused their light within the Shadow Crystal, purifying the source of darkness so intensely that the purple, murky color of the crystal was completely drained from it, rendering it completely transparent.
Every ounce of the storm completely dissipated as the Incredible Machine powered down with a hollow, mechanical moan, and the starry night sky became visible once more as the dome of darkness shattered above them. The silver platter moon held high against the night as a proclamation of victory over the darkness.
The gems floated out of the Ranger's hands and began to orbit the Shadow Crystal endlessly, restoring the harmony to Almia.
Sven and Wendy touched down and immediately rushed to Ice and Rena's side, addressing the situation just as a Ranger would. Wendy helped the groggy Ice up to his feet and got him onto her Staraptor, immediately rushing him to the Ranger Union for medical treatment. Sven took the lead and followed after Wendy, leaving Rena, Keith, Buizel, and Darkrai remaining on the rooftop.
As Keith and Buizel boarded his Staraptor, Rena looked over at Darkrai one last time with a sad smile. "I can't thank you enough, really."
The Darkrai seemed to understand her caring words and flashed a quick grin back at her before looking at the former Shadow Crystal, feeling as if his work was now done. The three gems transformed it into what would now be known as the Luminous Crystal, and now... He was no longer needed.
"Let's go, Rena." Keith held his hand out to the thief who was watching the Darkrai fly off into the night sky.
"Oh, right." She grabbed a hold of his hand and climbed up onto the Staraptor, hugging Keith's back tightly once more as they took off into the air.
They briskly descended onto the ground, leaving the rooftop of Altru Inc. once and for all. They hardly imagined themselves ever going back after the day they had.
A roar of applause and cheer reached Rena's ears as they hit the ground, and she looked around in shock when she spotted every member of the Ranger Union's staff out here in Altru Park.
Chairperson Erma, Hastings, Rhythimi, Murph, Barlow, Crawford, Luana, Vatona, Nage... And even Isaac! You name it. Everyone was out here in what looked like a make-shift Ranger Base. The Operators had on headsets and laptops in their laps, and everyone was busy rushing about underneath the little tent they had set up.
"Congratulations!" Hastings's loud clapping separated itself from the rest of them. "I knew you two could do it!"
"We've been out here this whole time cheering you on." Chairperson Erma smiled at Rena before looking around at her beloved, hardworking employees.
"Good to see you, smartie!" Rena laughed as she slapped Isaac on the back, causing the blonde to blush.
"He talked us through the whole thing, but we eventually got him out of there." Barlow came up and swung an arm around Isaac's shoulder, grinning at the boy genius.
"Really, I didn't do much..." Isaac awkwardly laughed, unsure how to respond to being put on the spot like this.
"You guys are okay!" Rhythimi clumsily jumped up from where she was sitting and ran over to them. "I have been so worried!"
"Sorry, Rhythimi..." Rena sheepishly darted her eyes down to the floor. "Hey, Mightyena got pretty banged up back there... Can you heal him for me?" She hesitantly handed her his Pokeball, hoping the blonde would do her this one favor.
"Of course." Rhythimi smiled brightly as she accepted the Pokeball from Rena.
Crawford and Luana swung their arms around Keith, grinning at him all-knowingly. "Good to see you, red!" Crawford chuckled, enjoying this too much.
Keith glared a thousand daggers at him. "...you've been talking to Sven too much."
Crawford and Luana's intense laughter was quickly drowned out by the loud cacophony of police sirens echoing throughout the park as oncoming squad cars were rushing this way.
Rena stopped laughing and smiling with her friends when the noise reached her ears, and she slowly backed up when she saw the cars coming before immediately breaking into a run. The Ranger Union staff quickly scattered as the cars rushed through the group and chased after Rena, targeting her immediately.
Rena barely had any chance to go anywhere before the cars all circled around her, and they parked as the doors all swung open and several cops came rushing out. She held up her fists and started fending off any that came close, but then two more joined the brawl.
And then four more.
Then six more.
Rena kicked and screamed as they grabbed a hold of her, refusing to stop fighting.
"Rena Deveraux, you are under arrest!" One of the cops shouted at her, trying to get her to stop fighting. "Stop resisting us! It's in your best interest to stop!"
Rena didn't listen and kept punching and kicking. She had just gotten everyone back. Whether they all forgave her or not, why must she have to go so soon?
One of the other cops nodded his head and gave the order, watching as another came up and tazed Rena with several thousand volts of electricity. All of her friends and comrades screamed as they on-looked at this abuse in absolute horror, unable to do anything.
Chairperson Erma's grim face watched as Rena's unconscious body was shoved into one of the cars that quickly began to drive away.
"Rena, no!" Rhythimi stared to run forwards in attempt to stop them, but Erma gripped her shoulder and pulled her back.
"My dear, stop..." She sighed heavily, looking into the blonde's eyes. "There is nothing we can do for her now. We knew this would happen from the beginning."
"But she saved us all! This isn't right!" Keith roared as the team of Wendy, Sven, Luana and Crawford hand to restrain the flame-haired man from pursuing the car that began to now dissolve into the horizon.
Chairperson Erma still held a somber air as she muttered grimly. "What has taken place on this night can not repent for all the sins and crimes she has committed for the past ten years."
Keith's Ruby eyes trembled at the woman's heartbreaking words. "She had reasons! She was just confused! She has to come back!"
He still had so much to tell her. He wanted so many more days beside her. He wanted the quiet passing moments of holding her in his arms and never having to let go. He wanted to get lost in her ocean-colored eyes. He begged to laugh with her just one more time. He never got to say the most important words of all to her...
That he forgave her.
It tore him into shreds as she was nothing but an echoing memory of the heart.
"My boy, we have all been confused more than once in our lives." Chairperson Erma on-looked the dead silent park with a hardened gaze.
"Chairperson---" Keith rose his voice to defend Rena once more, but Erma silenced him.
"...But nothing can save her now." She looked over at Keith depressingly, disappointed in herself for being so useless to Rena in this situation. "She had brought this upon herself, and that is the final enemy she must face."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
...umm.
So. I uh... *awkwardly clears throat* Yeah. So, guys XD... Ice is Rena's older brother. If you go back to all of their "shippy" moments, you'll realize they were actually brother/sister moments XD...
...that was the biggest plot twist of all of TSTHOAT that I have literally been DYING to reveal since the very beginning.
TSTHOAT was never actually a love triangle; I only made it seem like that to throw you guys off the trail and make you not suspect this plot twist from the beginning, which I know some of you did XD
Reading all of your conspiracy theories in the comments has been the most fun I've had in a long time XD... I think we had several think Ice was her father, which was disturbing, since that would make Ice fifteen years old when Rena was born, but XD....
...I'm just going to quickly say this before everyone grabs pitchforks and goes to stab me for Ice being her brother, the sad scenes of everyone almost dying, Rena and her father's conversation, and this dreadful cliffhanger:
Thank you so much Kate (@ktd527) for creating a challenge called "Dear Serena" in my name, and getting others to do it too. Honestly, this plus the fan book trailer Rose made for me is what pushed me to get all of this done today. I can't honestly express how grateful I am to both you, and anyone else who offered me support in this time of need.
Okay, I'm done now. Time to run~! *escapes to faraway castle surrounded by an alligator-infested moat for protection*
PS: chapter 37 was 16,174 words, and this one was 13,760 in case you were wondering. I worked my tiny little white girl ASS off XD
Read, comment, vote, and enjoy!