Hi everyone!! SK here.
A lot of you guys said how you wanted to see the next update asap, so here it is. I know I left off on a pretty big cliffhanger last time.. so I worked to update today instead of Saturday!!!
Let's get right into it. As always, please enjoy!! :)
Serena
I'm curled up on my bed crying, Sylveon laying beside me. She tries to comfort me, but I don't care. I don't care about anything anymore.
"Serena... I think I love you."
"Ash- this is what I wanted to tell you. I... I'm not allowed... to be in love with someone."
Just thinking about how I made Ash run away is horrible, and makes me cry harder. It certainly doesn't help that practically every fairy in the Colony saw the exchange. I punch my pillow, enraged at the fairies for the first time in my life. I still love Ash with all my heart... and yet because of something I did not choose I'm not allowed to return his feelings, feelings I never thought he'd have for me.
I almost expect to hear some of the fairy spirits' voices in my head, but I hear none, not even Aria. It's dead silent, and that on its own somehow makes me even more upset.
"Your Lightness, permission to enter?"
That's Heliux, but I have absolutely no intention of letting him in. "Permission denied."
Of course, he ignores me and comes in anyway. Typical Heliux, always doing what he thinks is best.
"What do you want," I say crossly, in no mood to chat.
"Serena, I am terribly sorry that Ash did that," he says gently. "If there is anything I can do to help, please, tell me."
"You want to help?" I sit up and look him dead in the eyes. "Then change the rules. Change the rules so that me and Ash can finally be happy after we had to wait so many years."
"Serena, you know I cannot do that..." Heliux says, sighing.
"Then fine. I want to be with Ash so much it hurts and I probably suck at leading anyway. Take this," I say, starting to take off my Necklace. Before I can get it fully off, however, Heliux slams it back against my chest with a huge force that almost knocks me back.
"Serena!" Heliux says crossly with an angry look in his eyes. "You know you cannot take that off, it will kill you!"
I look down. "I don't care."
Heliux sighs and sits beside me on my bed while I hug a pillow to my chest. "Death is not the option here, Serena," he says firmly. "I... I know the pains of trying to be in love when it is forbidden. It is hard, but eventually you learn to adapt to it. You will see; Ash will come back and you two can talk about it, and you can sort things out. Everything will be okay," he finishes with a reassuring smile.
"Since when did you become my therapist?" I mumble crossly, though I have a slight smile on my face.
Heliux stands up. "It is my duty to help you as Minister," he says simply. "But I best be off now; I must talk to Brock about something." He begins to leave, but I call him back.
"Are... are you sure you can't change the rules?"
"The rules are put in place for a reason," Heliux tells me.
"But why-"
"It is very simple, Your Lightness. When that rule was broken, a war started out. The war."
If Ash and I actually were allowed to be in love with each other, would we create a second war? Also, how exactly did love cause the first war to happen?
Whatever it is, he leaves me filled with more dread than ever.
Ash
"Um, Alain, I hate to criticize your directional skills but are you sure we're going the right way? All the greenery here is faded," I say nervously as Alain slowly guides me away from the Lights' Colony.
"Don't worry, Ash, nothing will harm you here," Alain says pleasantly. It's interesting seeing Alain as a fairy; his wings radiate with a darker aura than I'd seen with most of the Light fairies. He has clothes similar to Heliux, although his a shorter, less fancy, and darker... much, much darker. It makes me feel even more nervous. Part of me wants to go back to the Colony out of fear, but when I think about what I'll have to return to, those thoughts vanish.
"If you say so," I say, observing the scenery around us. It is definitely different than the forest around the Lights' colony... while their forest blooms with colour and life, this forest looks, well, sad is the only way I can put it. The colours are faint, and all of the leaves are dry. The trees here, though tall still, are thin and look sick; lots of them also lack leaves. The sun shines its dim evening light on us which only adds to the sense of eeriness. Maybe they're red flags, but I'm too done with everything to care.
"So, how has your birthday been going, Ash?" Alain asks, clearly trying to make some sort of conversation with me.
"I-It's been okay," I stutter, because thinking of today makes me think of Serena's rejection to my confession.
"From your tone of voice, I think otherwise," Alain points out. "What's wrong?"
"I... I don't want to talk about it," I say, because I don't.
"I understand," Alain says kindly, though there's something off about his voice that I can't comprehend. "Ah, we're here," he announces, stopping at an entrance made of brambles.
"Um, entrance to what?" I say, hesitant.
Alain walks through. "Just come in and see."
I follow him through, narrowly missing a patch of thorns on my left side and slightly pricking myself on my right. Perfect. Just great.
I view the scene around me; it's almost like the Light Fairy Colony, but different. Flowers are replaced with interwoven branches, and soft grass is replaced with bare dirt beneath my feet. I look up, and the sunlight, once bright over the Lights' colony, is noticeably dimmer here. A slight, cold wind ruffles my hair, which I never felt before in this world.
I look beside me for Alain, but he had disappeared. Surprisingly, this place isn't busting with activity like the Light Fairies' colony was. It feels almost... empty.
"Ah, you must be Ash Ketchum! Greetings."
An overly enthusiastic voice greets me, and I turn to see a group of three fairies approach me. One of them is Alain, of course. The second one is a girl with ribbons swirling all around her- I instantly recognize her as the fairy I saw in the forest the other day. The third is a guy with spiky hair almost similar to Gary's, but his spikes looks slightly different and shorter. His hair is also lighter, closer to Serena's hair colour but more of a golden yellow. His eyes are purple, and his smile is wide as he greets me. "G-Greetings," I stutter back to him, off-put by his cheer in this dark place.
"Oh, I didn't introduce myself! How silly. I'm Rin," he says with a smile. He holds out his hand for me to shake; I'm hesitant about it, though I try not to show it too much as I shake his hand. It never hurts to be polite after all. I was going to say my name but I realize he already knows it, so we just stand there in awkward silence.
"I'm sure you know Alain," the man- Rin- says. "And this girl over here is Layra, my Magic Minister."
Her face instantly changes from being sullen to being the complete opposite. Her eyes flash and she looks almost scary. "It's a pleasure to finally have you here," she says coolly, as if her voice were just a breeze in the air.
"Oh yes, speaking of, where is here?" I ask, because I really need to know where I am.
"No matter," Rin says, practically shoving me in a certain direction. "Alain was so darling to bring you here, because I had something to show you! Come along," he says merrily, being over dramatic. There is something off about his voice, and I have an overwhelming urge to get out of here. I take a step backwards and-
My foot doesn't move.
I can't move backwards.
No matter how hard I try, I can't.
"What are you waiting for? Come on!" Rin says impatiently.
Oh Arceus, what have I done.
With an impending sense of doom, I follow Rin into a small clearing off the center of the camp. The makeshift room even has a door, the first I'd seen here. The four of us enter and Alain uses his magic to seal it, as if I'm not already trapped in the first place.
"We're going to start your Initiation now," Rin says pleasantly. "Please release your Pokemon."
"But, Serena-"
"I said, release your Pokemon," Rin says with a smile that didn't seem to reflect his mood anymore. Not wanting to risk his anger, as I have no idea what he is capable of, I release Pikachu who immediately goes into defensive mode.
"There," I say, trying to keep uncertainty out of my voice.
"And the second one?" Rin says, his eyebrows raised. His patience seems to shrink further. "I don't have all day."
I gasp. "H-How did you-"
"Just release it," Rin snaps, then instantly regains his cool. "I'm sorry, that was rude of me to snap. Just please release your second Pokemon," he says, just as pleasant as before.
My heart pounding, I take out my Pokeball and release Greninja. I can tell that he shares my thoughts about these fairies as he eyes them.
"Perfect. Stand in the circle please," Rin tells me.
"Um," I begin, "I thought I could only have one Pokemon? And Heliux and Serena were supposed to do my Initiation-"
"There is a time for these things you know," he interrupts. "The optimal time is now- you'd miss it if you went back to the Lights."
He says "Lights" in a wretched way, which only seems to confirm my suspicions of his true nature.
"And, it is rare, but there have been fairies with two Mist Pokemon before!" Rin exclaims, trying and failing to ease my worries. "So please, just do as told."
Again, I try to walk out of that room, but between Alain blocking the exit and my feet having some stupid fairy curse, I can't. Trying to play it cool, I walk towards the spot where Rin wants me to stand.
"Um, if I'm allowed to ask, how is this supposed to work?" I ask.
"Well, how the Lights traditionally do it is that they use a painless spell to make you victim to the bonding, and then the Minister uses their great power to bond you with your Pokemon."
That doesn't sound so bad, I think as I watch Layra switch back to her sullen persona as she readies magic in her hands. She must be the Minister- Mistress?- then.
"However," Rin says, which sent a chill up my spine.
"I am not a Light."
All of a sudden, a large silver spike comes flying up from the ground, pointy and sharp. I don't get to look at it much more, because black spots begin to fill my vision as it comes straight up out of the ground and impales me.
I can hear Pikachu and Greninja's cries for me, but all I can focus on was the pain in my chest. I see Alain out of the corner of my eye, and I remember he is the one who promised me no pain and that he is the one who brought me here in the first place. Betrayal flushes its way through me. How dare he. HOW DARE HE.
I feel a large burst of magic hits my face, and after what feels like ages of blinding dark, the spike disappears and so does my pain. When I blink my eyes open, I see that my clothes have changed; I don't even need a mirror to know I have wings. I'm a fairy now, and there is no turning back.
I stand up, surprised by the huge burst of dark aura that radiates when I do so. The branches surrounding the room wilt even more, and I hear some of them crack and snap apart. The force of the aura even blows Rin's hair back, and he starts clapping.
"See?" he says to Layra. "I knew it! You will train him, starting tomorrow. I already know what his Element is- you don't have to bring in Eve. This is absolutely perfect; we are about to have two Leaders and they only have one. The balance has shifted, and now I can feel the chaos arise."
He looks at me with a look of pure happiness and I have never been more scared in my life, for both me and Serena-
Wait. Did he say Leader!?
"Yes yes yes, you'll do perfectly. All Dark Leaders have the element of Destruction, and that, Ash, is your Element. You will train and perfect your dual-bond, and you will help me. I will not be giving up this Necklace for you; instead, you will become my second in command, and we will rule over all." I just stare at him in silent shock as Layra turns away, seemingly not overjoyed by this plan.
"The end is near, and boy does that bring a smile to my face," says Rin crookedly.
Serena
I decide it's time to stop crying and actually do something useful. Like, for instance, figure out what to do with Ash's party because Ash himself isn't actually here anymore.
I float down to the center clearing, making sure my face is clear and that I'm as confident as ever. I'm about to address everyone when it happens.
An enormous blast of aura.
Dark aura.
It shakes the flowers and turns my freshly-combed hair into a mess. I look up; the sun shines dimmer, and the colours have faded a little. My heart pounds and I race over to Heliux and Brock, but they are already running towards me.
"It's Rin, I know it is," I say as soon as we reach each other. "He used a spell, I just know it."
"Serena, it does not matter what Rin did; I can feel it, Brock can feel it, you can as well- the balance has shifted. We need to act, and act fast." Heliux's voice is urgent as he speaks.
"Wait, that wasn't Rin," Brock says suddenly. "Remember, as Advisor I can see all Elementals- and that... that was Ash."
My heart feels like it stopped. "A-Ash?"
Brock looks at me with sad eyes. "I'm so sorry, Serena- this hurts me too. His Element..."
"...is Destruction."
Wow intense chapter.
And Ash is a Dark Fairy.
And Dark Fairies in general.
But yeah, that was a lot. I hope you enjoyed it though!!
Expect the next update sometime around next Saturday.. stay tuned for more!!
Edit: I now formally invite you to check out the character sketches in the glossary. But don't go past them, the rest of that part WILL contain spoilers!