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Chp 27: Nightmare

"Fuck!" Seth yelled, bolting upright. He had to stop halfway and fall back onto the bed when he hit something. His vision cleared and he saw Sky rubbing her head with a paw. He was breathing heavy and his body felt clammy. Reaching up, he locked his arms around her neck and pulled her onto his bare chest.

"Can't breath..." She wheezed.

"Oh... sorry." Seth let up his desperate grip. "I just..." He looked around, finding Soul also lying on the bed, looking at him, and oddly enough, Riley, who was sitting on the desk chair. "I had to worst nightmare ever." He gently twisted Sky's ear around. "This is real, right?"

"You wouldn't wake up so-"

"Yes. I know exactly what that was." Riley spoke up. "There is a pokemon nearby here. One that feeds off of nightmares. That would be the cause. It used to send people to sleep for days, even weeks. It has since promised to only feed when necessary and not for any longer than needed."

"Where is this pokemon?" Seth asked, a serious tone entering his voice.

"An island off the coast. Near Iron Island. It's called New Moon Island. The pokemon is named Darkrai. But please do not go there. The pokemon prefers solitude."

"I see." Seth let go of Sky. "You can go now."

"I'll be in my house if you need anything." Riley said, as he stood and left.

As soon as the door closed, Seth stood and quickly got dressed. "I'm going out. I'll be back later."

"Wait, I wanna... nevermind." Soul said.

He barely paid her any notice as he left the room. Once out, he looked down the hall, not seeing Riley. He then left the pokemon center and headed for the usual dock. "Hey, can I get a ride to New Moon Island?"

"How'd you hear about that?" The captain asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Riley told me."

"Alright. That's good enough. Hop on. Just... promise to be careful there."

After a little longer boat ride, they came upon a tiny island with trees. Seth got off quickly. "Go ahead and go back. I have a way home." He said without turning. The captain couldn't see the anger on his face as he walked towards the trees. Seth heard the boat begin to leave, and he immediately took the time to turn lucario.

He crossed through the treeline, coming out into a dimly lit crater. There was a pool of water in the middle. "Come out Darkrai!" Seth called out. "I know you're here!"

The air above the pond wavered a bit, as it slowly began to darken. First it looked like a shadow, then it gained shape and color. It's body looked ghostly, being pure black and almost wispy. It's arms were slender and it had no legs, simply floating in the air. Atop its head was a white plume and there was a red fringe around its neck.

"Hello-" Darkrai started. But before it could say another word, it was silenced by Seth's fist. The pokemon flew back, righting itself in midair just before crashing into a tree. Before it could figure out what happened, two aura spheres blasted at it. The first missed, crashing into the tree right behind Darkrai, but the cloud of dust and bark provided a screen for the second, allowing it to explode right in its face. Darkrai recoiled in pain, then flew straight up into the sky. It raised its hands, in a peaceful manner. "Stop." It said in a slow deep voice.

"You bastard!" Seth called out, firing a large two handed aura sphere. Darkrai moved like a wisp, allowing the aura sphere to fly right past.

"Sorry." Darkrai said.

"Get down here!" Seth ordered. Darkrai complied, drifting down near Seth. The lucario lunged for the dark type, but a massive wave of dark energy launched him back. Seth landed on his feet a couple yards away. His teeth were bared in anger.

Darkrai raised its hand over its head and a barrier of shadowy energy covered it. "No harm."

"The dream you gave me..." Seth's paws clenched. "Tell me why I shouldn't kill you right now!"

"For life. Must feed or death." Darkrai said. It sounded like it barely understood the words it was using.

"I... If you ever, EVER, give me, or anyone else a dream like that, I will kill you." Seth threatened.

"Control none." Darkrai said. The thought needed to bridge the gap seemed to help Seth calm down. The dream, the nightmare, was like hell. It had seemed so long, and was so horrible.

"Then maybe it would be best if you were to die." Seth mumbled. He raised his paws to his head. "Damn it. Listen, I should be the one who's sorry." Seth said, extending a paw. Darkrai drifted closer, a bit warily, and took it. But did not shake. Seth made the motion and let go. "I may have overreacted... I really felt like they were dead... and I focused all that on the source, you." He took a few deep breaths, trying to slow down his pounding heart. "Soul, Sky..."

"Companions. Care much."

"Yes, I do. More than the world." They stood in silence for a while. "I should probably head back. The girls must be worried."

"Companionship..." Darkrai said, sounding almost mournful.

"Friends." Seth said. He turned and headed back towards the water. Once he reached the shore, he shrunk down into a vaporeon and dove in. The water felt good on his scaly skin as he began to use his paddle tail to speed off toward Canalave. The swimming was easy, as he mostly drifted with the current, which left him time to think.

Had he really overreacted? That dream was far too vivid for anything his own mind could create. It had to have someone else, someone conscious, forming it. That would have been Darkrai. He would have to ask Riley about Darkrai's powers. Even if Darkrai did that to him on purpose, would it really by okay to kill the legendary? What effect would that have?

As he swam, a school of mantine and remoraid came close, but moved away as they headed somewhere else.

If Darkrai fed on nightmares, it would stand to reason that worse nightmares would be better food. And that one... Seth shuddered at the memory of it. He had to pick up his training, before anything could happen. Then, if Darkrai tried that again, he could beat the hell out of the pokemon without killing it. At his current strength, he'd have to resort to his trump card, and then he couldn't maintain control.

The sound of a fight distracted him. Even muted as it was underwater. Looking around, Seth found a wailord and a gyrados fighting.

In his own mind, Seth had no need for privacy or denial. He was basically a pokephile after all, boundaries weren't in his realm. It wasn't Darkrai messing with him that upset him. It was what his dream held. The threat of what could be. The unimaginable consequences of his weakness. He needed to get stronger. Strong enough to rival the legends. Strong enough to keep his loves safe from the world that seemed to conspire against them. They were strong enough to protect themselves, but that wasn't enough. They all had to be monstrously powerful.

+++

"I'm back." Seth announced as he opened the door.

"Well? What'd you get me? Cotton candy?"

"What? I didn't go shopping." Seth shook his head. "Let's get ready to go."

"I was thinking we should take a day off." Sky said. "We've been working hard for a while now."

Seth sighed. "You're welcome to. But I can't. Not yet."

"Okay..."

"Kay, we'll be here." Soul said.

"But-" A swat of Soul's tail silenced Sky.

"Play nice you two." Seth said as he grabbed his backpack and left.

"What was that?" Sky asked.

"I think we should spring the trap when he gets back."

"You think that'll work?"

"I don't see why not. Give him a surprise."

+++

"Riley?" Seth asked as he knocked on the door to the lone house. The man opened the door, wearing the same outfit as always. "Can you tell me more about Darkrai?"

"I suppose. But promise me, don't go to New Moon Island. It could be dangerous. A while ago, Darkrai descended like a plague onto Canalave, causing several people to fall unconscious for days. A trainer, along with the pokemon Cresselia, saved them, and captured Darkrai. You see, Darkrai's presence causes nightmares, and it gains sustenance from those nightmares. The trainer released it on New Moon Island, as far away from civilization as possible, without causing it to starve to death. As a result of its powers, it has had very little contact with other life." Riley took a sip of tea.

"While Darkrai can read minds, it lacks context. It has never known right from wrong. I've been trying to help it adapt and learn, maybe even to control its powers, but progress has been slow. I have no idea how Darkrai would react to a stranger showing up on its island, so please stay away."

"I get it, but could you explain more about Darkrai's powers?"

"Is your dream still troubling you?"

"Yeah."

"It must have been awful. I've had a few bad ones myself. Darkrai, the poor soul, can't stop causing them."

"Then should Darkrai really keep living? All it does is cause others to suffer."

"Every life is precious." Riley said. "Even the most evil ones. It is up to Darkrai to make something out of it."

"I guess..."

"I'm not here to teach you morality. The only one who can figure that out is you." Riley explained.

"Yeah... I'm heading into the mines then." Seth excused himself, then went into the caves. Navigating his way through by memory, he eventually found the chamber again. He closed his eye and fur began to grow, but then it retracted. He needed to do this as human.

He held up a hand, staring at the palm while trying to draw forth energy. It was so easy, almost second nature, as a lucario. But as a human, he couldn't feel anything. Aura was all around him, but he couldn't sense anything. He sighed before lowering his hand and turning back into a lucario. As soon as his body fully changed, the aura of this place filled his senses.

"Let's see..." He muttered. Paws creating a circle, he raised his arms and began to form an aura sphere. But he kept making it bigger, and bigger. His paws couldn't contain it, and as it grew larger than his head, it exploded. The sudden detonation of the larger than average sphere knocked him back and to the ground. "What the hell?" Seth growled, standing back up and dusting off his fur. He went blank for a second, before blinking and shaking his head.

The way the aura sphere attack worked was similar to magnets. Aura is charged to a person, and the aura spheres he created out of his own aura tracked the aura he was targeting. There were also three types of aura: hard, soft and natural. Soft aura, the kind used in attacks, was much more volatile. It was packed loose and sloppy, causing it to explode when connecting with a strong enough aura that was not the source. That was why aura spheres never exploded while he held or formed them. And why they didn't explode when passing through the aura of plant life. Most plants had very weak auras. Hard aura was the solid kind, used to form barriers. It was packed much more densely, often drawing additional aura from the environment. Because of this mix, its charge is negated, making it not interact with any kind of aura. No aura, or body, could pass through it, but it could be broken with enough force. Natural aura was unrefined aura, the kind that all beings put out. True to its name, it was concentrated in the body, but an aurora of it surrounded the body, growing larger and denser with power and life force.

So it was the abundant aura of this place that caused his sphere to explode. He took a few deep breaths and shook his head around, before walking around a bit. His mind had just been flooded with information in the form of more memories. Like the first time, it was a little overwhelming.

"Alright." He said out loud, stretching his arms. Then, he spread out both arms, forming a hard aura wall around him. By gathering more of the powerful aura, he made it bigger and thicker. Forcing all his own aura and pulling in as much as he could, the wall was a big as possible. A dome, almost a foot thick, surrounded his whole body, only stopping at the ground. He was panting loudly and his skin probably looked pale.

A body only had a certain amount of aura. A stronger life force, a will to live, could force more out, but the total amount never changed in an individual. The aura that was used in the form of attacks would return to the body after, being attracted back to the rest of it.

The dome around Seth shattered as his concentration broke. The pieces of deep blue fell apart, then faded into nothingness as the aura went back to its place. Seth shook his head around fiercely, shaking his tassels. He felt like he was in school. Any thought he came up with was met with an answer. But these answers were from an outside source. They were alien to his mind, though they were all true. He had hunches about how aura worked, but he now had the truth from a long line of aura masters. Aura guardians, they were called. Humans who teamed up with aura sensitive pokemon, often lucario, to protect the world.

"Well hey there big boy." A voice said. Seth's gut jumped. He recognized it. "Come back for round two?"

He quickly pointed a paw to the mawile. Aura formed around her in a cylinder. It wasn't thick, but should be enough to contain her.

"Hey! Let me out!" She ordered.

"I want nothing to do with you, just go away." Seth explained as clearly as he could.

"No." She answered just as clearly.

"Fine, you wanna play hardball?" Seth walked over and formed two small aura spheres in each paw, about the size of a human fingertip. He stopped just in front of her cell and placed them in the air. They just floated there, as he formed several more. "If you step forward, these will explode. So either leave or get hurt."

"I thought you wouldn't hurt a lady?" She said, pouting exaggeratedly.

"I'm not going to hurt you. You'll hurt yourself." He turned and went back to the middle of the room. Once he reached it, the barrier broke.

"I'm tougher-" She started as she moved forward. One step was all she made, before all of the aura balls exploded one after another. They were small enough to avoid the clumps of aura spread through the room, but not enough for her to sneak her aura through them. Once her field touched them, the first blew up. She tried to keep going, making even more explode. The burst of aura from the detonating balls did not cause any chain reactions, as they were all of Seth's aura. As the dust cleared, the mawile was face down in the dirt. The technique seemed to be really effective. Seth had come up with it on the fly, but it worked great. He had packed them as tight as they could be without becoming hard aura, so they each packed a punch. It drained his aura a lot, but the power and utility was a great trade off. And with a little more effort, he could probably tweak them further.

"Idiot." Seth grumbled as he walked over to the comatose pokemon. He leaned down and picked her up, carrying her out of the room and setting her down in a side path. Hopefully she'd be out long enough for him to finish and leave. He went back into the chamber with a new plan in mind. Once there, he formed a small sized paw full of aura. He held it in front of his face for a few seconds, to make sure it was solid and stable, before his body began to shift. Fingers grew in place of paws and fur retracted as he turned human. As his body changed, his hold on the aura faded, and so did the ball in his hand. After the couple seconds of transforming, he was fully human and it was fully gone.

Fur grew out of his body and his fingers fused back into paws while his body shortened a bit. It was as painless and effortless as ever. Once pokemon again, he formed a new hard aura ball, before changing to human. Once again, he lost it as he turned human.

+++

"When do you think he'll come back?" Soul complained. She was on her back on the bed, lazily moving her paws in the air.

"Are we ready? Am I ready?" Sky asked.

"Yeah. We should be good to go, just waiting on the call."

"Are you sure? We'll only have one shot."

"It'll all work out. Even if there's a hitch, he won't care."

+++

Seth was breathing hard. He didn't know if it was the aura or the transforming. He had been going for almost an hour now, and had changed back and forth hundreds of times. Usually, transforming was as easy as speaking, but doing it constantly like this was straining his body. He had made some progress, but nothing substantial. Only an inkling of a feeling of aura.

Seth hunched over, placing his paws on his knees to catch his breath. Once he felt ready, he straightened up and formed another ball. But when he clicked the mental switch of transformation, nothing happened. He tried a bit harder, with no result. Even with all his focus on it, he couldn't change into a human. "Uh oh..."

+++

Riley lifted his cup of tea to his lips, taking a large sip, before gingerly setting the cup down. "Ahh." He sighed, looking out at the clouds flowing in the breeze. "Wonderful." He whispered to himself. "Maybe Rhyme would..."

"Lu ro cario!" A frantic lucario barked as it ran up to him.

"Seth? Calm down." He said, getting up from his plastic chair.

"Lucario." Seth said.

"Is someone hurt? Or is there danger?" Riley asked.

Seth shook his head. He placed a paw on his chest. "Car."

"You..."

Seth thought for a moment before holding up both paws. He then mimed having them stuck together, then pointed at himself again.

"You sticky you? Are you stuck like that?"

Seth nodded enthusiastically. He pointed in the direction of Canalave.

"Of course I can take you back. But... are you okay?"

"Ro." Seth said, nodding.

"Alright. Mine's the small blue boat on the dock. Go on ahead. I just have to turn the stove off." Riley said, going inside his house and closing the door behind him.

+++

"Thanks." Seth said. Riley nodded back and took his small boat back out into the open water. "Now..." Seth began the nervous trek to the pokemon center. It wasn't particularly odd for a pokemon to be on its own, especially a collared and bipedal one, but he felt exposed. Like he was walking around naked.

He sulked his way through the streets and into the pokemon center, making a beeline for the rooms. But when he arrived at the right door, he had a problem. "Shit..." He muttered when he reached for his pocket, only to find fur there. "Soul? Sky?" He asked, knocking on the door. The handle turned and the door began to slowly open.

The room ahead was blocked by a sheet, probably from the bed, hanging from the ceiling. It was just before the corner that gave way to the wider room. He cautiously stepped in. "Girls?" The moment the door's path was clear, it quickly swung shut. Seth was plunged into darkness immediately. He blindly felt his way forward, pushing the heavy comforter out of the way to get further in. "Hello?"

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" Soul and Sky cheered as they turned on a lamp.

Seth's muzzle hung open in surprise. There was another sheet covering the window, and on the corner of the dresser was a cake. But that wasn't the part that shocked him. Soul was in her hybrid form, with a sleek white furred body and a puffy ring of fur around her neck that covered all but the bottom of her breasts. Sky was in a hybrid form too. Her body was a similar shape to Soul's, having a figure that most human women could only dream of. It was covered in her lavender fur, and her twin tail waved behind her happily. Her face was less humanoid than Soul. Soul only had her horn and blue skin, while Sky had her ears, whiskers and gem, as well as a more feline appearance. Her boobs were smaller than Soul's, but they were much more visible, a pair of small pink dots peaking from her fur.

"Sky? How?"

"Soul and I have been practicing." She smiled.

"Are you sure it won't hurt the egg?"

"Pretty sure." Sky ran a hand over her belly. It was barely swollen, like she had just eaten a big meal. "I wouldn't see why it would."

"O-"

"Cheer up!" Soul called out, interrupting him. "It's time to party!" She smiled giddily and grabbed a small pack of plates and plastic forks. After handing them out, she went over to the cake and picked up the knife there.

Seth fumbled with his fork, before sticking it into the slice of cake, which was exactly the kind Seth liked. "Say, how'd you plan all this?"

"Well, I know it's a bit late..." Sky said. "I was doing some snooping and saw that your birthday was a week ago, then-"

"You owe Riley for all this stuff. I mean money kind of owe."

Seth gave her an unamused look. "You could have just asked for my card."

"Then you might have suspected something. It's a surprise party!" Soul said. She took a big bite of cake, tongue licking her lips at the taste. "And after this, how about something else that's sweet?"

"Why does it always come back to sex with you?" Seth asked sarcastically.

"Cause it feels good." She answered simply.

"Since I'm the birthday boy, that means I get to make the plan."

"Are you saying you don't want your sexy mates?" She pouted, jutting out her bottom lip and making puppy dog eyes at him.

"I just think we need some casual time. When was the last time we relaxed and just hung out or something?"

"This coming from mister 'I have to get stronger'." Soul said in a mockingly deep voice.

"I don't sound like that, do I?" Seth asked with feigned concern. "You set up all this for me, so the least I can do is spend the night with my girls. Watch a movie or something."

"You could go out and get some snacks." Soul suggested. "Movie night means junk food."

"I think we're fine." Seth said.

"Then give me some money and I'll go get some."

"Yeah about that... I'm kinda stuck..."

"Stuck? Like you can't turn back?" Sky asked.

"Yeah. I overdid training but I think I just have to rest it off."

"So? You left your bag here, so where's your card?"

"In my wallet. In my human form."

"Surely there's alternatives." Sky suggested.

"What, you're gonna indulge her?"

"I find its best to. Soul has a way of getting what she wants."

"Yeah, listen to Sky, she's smart." Soul said.

"Ughh, fine. If you have my trainer code and my pass code you can withdraw some money. Its..." He looked around for a pen and paper. He located them on the desk and went over to pick it up. His three fingers and no thumbs made it difficult to maneuver the pen, but he eventually passed the pad to Soul.

"What the fuck does this say?"

Sky came over and looked at it too. "4... 6... uhh."

"Fine, you write it." He told her the two sets of numbers, and with paper in hand, she dashed out. "Don't show that to anyone!" Seth called after her. She raised a hand back at him, as her fur entered her body and she turned human. He noticed the fancy blue dress she was wearing, but before he could make a comment, she was gone.

"So you can get stuck?" Sky asked.

"It would seem. I turned human and back like... a few hundred times though."

"What were you doing anyway? You rushed out so quick this morning. Did it have anything to do with that nightmare?"

"I'd rather not talk about that... I was training to use aura while human, I kinda got somewhere." He held up his paw and formed a ball of aura. Once it was big enough, he clenched his paw, causing it to burst outwards into hundreds more spheres. These ones were thin enough to be almost transparent, the light passing through them making sparkles.

"Pretty..." Sky said as she looked at the star like orbs filling the room. "It looks like you're getting your aura powers back."

"I guess I never really lost them. When my thingees got cut," He reached up and touched the pair of tassels on the left side of his head. "I kinda lost touch with aura, how to control it. I never learned how to do it on my own, just relying on my species. Oh fuck..." He suddenly said.

"What's wrong?"

"How long has Soul been shopping without me?"

"A couple days..."

"And I just gave her free access to all my money."

"Well technically we earn most of that, but I totally agree that's a bad idea."

A little while later there was a knock at the door. Sky mentally turned the handle, allowing Soul to push her way in. As she moved in, they saw her holding several plastic bags.. The moment the door closed, she changed back to her hybrid form. "Ugh, human social shit sucks. Clothes suck, people suck, money sucks."

"What happened?" Seth asked.

"Fuckin' convenience store guy tried to offer me a discount for a blowjob."

"And you turned him down?" Sky teased with a snicker.

"I'm not some dirty hooker." Soul scoffed. She set down the bags on the bed and took out the contents. "I grabbed everything that looked good." By the time all the bags were empty, there was a buffet of candy strewn across the bed.

"Wow..." Seth muttered. It was like she bought one, or more, of everything.

"So what movie we watching?" Soul asked.

"I don't know. Depends on what we can find. And the pokemon center's gonna charge us out the ass for it..."

+++

"HA!" Soul laughed, slapping her hand against the bed. "Stupid bitch. Nobody could be that dumb!"

"You're supposed to be scared..." Seth muttered.

They were watching a horror movie about a monster that could disguise itself as any pokemon and was going around murdering trainers. The dumb blonde love interest had just tried to hide in a shed. One with only a single door, all but insuring her undoubtedly gory off-screen death.

"What if that thing's real? I mean, it could be..." Sky whimpered, pulling at Seth's fur with her hands. "With all we've seen... Like an evil ditto."

He was in the middle of the bed, between the two currently larger females. There was a pile of discarded wrappers at his feet and crumbs in all their fur and on the bed. Carefully and precisely, he moved his arm back and around Sky's head. She jumped at first, but then pushed back into his paw. His arm wasn't long enough to wrap around to her shoulder, but he could reach her ears, so he took to rubbing them. He would have tried the same with Soul, but she was far too active to be contained.

She was having a grand ol' time. While Seth could agree that the movie was cheesy, and the characters were dumb as a rock, the body horror was pretty unnerving. It was nowhere near a comedy. But Soul just seemed apathetic to the horror, and to home in on the few funny parts, or getting comedy out of scary scenes. She would roll around the bed, pump her arms, kick about her feet, and the like. Most of the snacks had been eaten by her and she was probably experiencing her first sugar rush.

"Another!" Soul ordered.

"Hmm?" Seth looked up to see the credits rolling. He was so engrossed in thought that he had missed the ending. The teenage trainers had probably killed the monster, then the screen scrolled up into the night sky, saying 'the end' with a question mark for suspense. "Another horror? Or something else?"

"No more scary movies." Sky said, shivering a bit.

"Okay, how about a comedy movie?"

+++

Seth smiled to himself in the dark. He had yet to fall asleep, and he could feel the calm breathing of the girls on either side of him. It had turned out to be a good day after all. As much as he liked spending time like this, it only reminded him more of what he needed to protect.