Pokémon Odyssey: A New Beginning [T] [Best Veteran 4Q '12]

Not a single dent! Even after all of that, this guy wasn't phased at all! Snype was gonna lead up with Foul Play but he wasn't sure what would happen if he got close to him. Still, he didn't have much to lose at this point. Snype froze up as Rey prepared his next attack A huge explosion that would be wide enough to hit Snype and Levena and send them flying right against the wall, leaving a huge mark from the impact. "Gyaah!" Sype cried out in pain. He landed on top of Levina and rubbed his own arm. He had no idea how he was going to get close to this guy with a move like that. Detect couldn't be used multiple times as he pleased. It caused too much strain to enhance his senses like that.

Snype decided to keep his distance for now and observe Rey's movements and how he attacked... He'd be endangering the others but he wanted to know just what he was fighting and look for possible weak points or safe spots to attack from. Just running up to him recklessly would get everyone killed. He ordered Levina to stay behind too and be ready to attack. Snype got onto Levina's back again and began to scout the area.

Silver City

Destruction covered the area after Rey's attack. The sturdy, magnificence of the top level of the Citadel had been partially blown off, with a large hole present in the center of the room where the Wielder's attack had gone off. Rubble littered the area, with holes, cracks and broken surfaces covering anything that still was standing. Zane was forced back to the far end of the room, apparently along with most of the others. He saw Guardia and Dryad struggling to rise up beside him, with Sword and Shield a bit further off in front doing the same. Snype and Levina seemed to be struggling with a similar fate as well. Zane expected the Wielder to be a tough opponent, but the amount of force and power Rey was unleashing on them was unnatural. A prolonged fight would end poorly, and charging in too recklessly and suddenly would only result in a quick death. Either way, if they didn't proceed cautiously, it would be the end of them.

Snype and Levina seemed to be thinking somewhat on similar lines, staying back for the moment to decide how to attack next. Zane seemed to struggle to decide as well. He doubted Rey would give them any time to decide. Looking around at the others, he quickly tried to determine the best chance they would have. His eyes met with Dryad and Wildfire, and he spoke quickly as Rey was already on approach.

"I don't think there's anyway to overpower him conventionally. We have to hit him heavily to have a chance. Dryad, Wildfire, you two have attacks that can build up," He began to say to them, remember Dryad's Hyper Beam and Wildfire's Life Flames. "We'll give you some time. You try to get them ready! The rest of us, distract Rey!" He called out, and charged forward. Dryad nodded her head, standing shakily to prepare.

The trio of Sword and Shield, Guardia and Zane all charged forward in a Gold Tribe attacking formation, Zane in front with the two others at his side like a spear, charging the Zangoose with dark energy fluttering around him. Both and Guardia and Zane used a set of Sword Dances to prepare themselves, while Sword and Shield elected to use a Belly Drum. They had fully abandoned safety and security for an all-out offensive. Rey awaited.

Zane struck forward first, leaping into the air to try an Aerial Ace right on top of him. The precision and focus of the Swords Dance boosted the attack, causing his sharp blade arms to be bolstered as they were brought down upon the Zangoose. Guardia meanwhile struck by ground with a Crush Claw, which was also beefed up. Rey held out one arm and collided his claws with Zane's blade arm, and slashed his second hand upon Guardia's claws. The two Gold Tribe members collided with their former leader at roughly the same time, but didn't make a dent into his defense despite their coordinated attack. Zane tried to push his arms down, as Guardia tried to push forward, but Rey held firmly.

Luckily, they seemed to have preoccupied him enough for Sword and Shield to run at him soon after, powering up his own Wild Charge, attempting to make contact with him. This time, with both of his arms occupied, Rey relied on the chaotic energy flowing around to block, gathering at the front of his body and forming into a shield-like appearance. Sword and Shield wasn't deterred, charging forward without stopping right at the barrier in an attempt to break through and get to Rey. However, at the last moment, as if a reaction from him, the part of the chaos shield closest to Zane seemed to detract from his presence, weakening the top portion of it. Rey took notice immediately, and for a moment, was bewildered by it. However, he quickly put two and two together, and glared at Zane.

"You!" He cried out in realization. He didn't have a chance to say much beyond that, as Sword and Shield collided into the barrier, the bolts and electric charges of his charge bursting through the weakened shield and smashing it apart. He kept going right toward Rey, who tried to react by pushing off both Zane and Guardia away so that he could cover himself up for the charging Snorlax. Zane was kicked off a few meters into the air, and Guardia slid back a few feet from Rey's push off, giving him a chance to guard himself as Sword and Shield roared and smashed into him. Bolts of electricity bounced off the Wielder, but he kept his guard up, holding off the substantially larger Snorlax. Still, the larger Pokemon managed to force the Zangoose back finally with his attack to a few paces, but not much beyond that.

Zane, Guardia, and Sword and Shield all panted as they tried to recover from the collision with Rey, who it still seemed as though they didn't make much of a dent in.

"So you're the reason..." Rey began, looking over Zane. "I should have guessed from the gold skin. Well, at least I know the target I need to hit to finish this."

Before Zane had a chance to reply, or even prepare for another attack, Rey had already decided to unleash his own. Lifting both of his hands up, he targeted Zane, but in essence had prepared enough energy to aim for all three Gold Tribe members, and fired a powerful, large dark Hyper Beam, vaguely resembling the one that Auron had been firing at them in his own bout on the first floor. Wide eyed, he quickly tried to jump out of the way as the Hyper Beam burned through the floor on its path to them, annihilating anything solid along the way. The three only barely dodged the power blast, but the shockwave carried them along with the blast to the far end of the room once more, even the large Snorlax being tossed away. Zane could feel his body burning and torching from the mere shockwave and after-affects of the missed beam. A hit from it would have been a death sentence.

But Rey was now occupied with only the three of them with his last attack, and the powerful move he unleashed, although wreaking havoc across the Citadel top floor, he was left partially open to the others in the room. Zane hoped they would take the opportunity to attack the recharging Zangoose, to hopefully make the first dent.

Silver City

As the Hyper Beam seared through the air, culminating in the creation of a large hole in the back of the Citadel, and continuing on outside of it, the others took this chance to react and attack and open Rey. Dryad, who had been preparing a Hyper Beam of her own, shot hers at the side of Rey as he was still finishing shooting his. Unable to react with his own attack, the dark energies which surrounded him activated and strengthened the barrier across his skin. The Hyper Beam clashed wildly with this dark barrier, trying to break through while the energy desperately tried to cling on to life, flickering wildly.

Ragnaros sought to add fuel to the fire, quite literally, as he threw his own body, covered in dragon flames, at an occupied Rey from the other side. Again, the chaotic barrier was preventing the flames from directly reaching him just yet, but they were getting agitated now. Wildfire, combining the two Focus Blasts into one, burning one, flung it at Rey as well, and the shield which surrounded his body couldn't maintain its energy any longer, and shattered at the three places the warriors fired their hits. He was hit directly by the Hyper Beam along his side, the flames of the dragon on his other, and the large Focus Blast on his front. The three attacks were damaging enough to not only make a dent in him, but also forced his feet backwards, before being taken off them and tossed to the back of the room and crashing into the wall, just left of the portal.

Zane shakily rose to his feet, managing a weak smile despite his injuries. Sword and Shield and Guardia soon rose slowly afterward.

"Like every enemy they had fought," He began in his ailing tone, his voice barely able to reach the others, "...no matter the challenge...no matter the odds, we can overcome."

Movement came from the corner which Rey was thrown at. Zane slowly saw the figure of the former Gold Tribe leader forcing his way out of the rubble and back onto his feet. He had a few scrapes and scratches across his body now, but the silver crystal's energies still roamed across his form, though they appeared to lessen momentarily after the enormous punishment the Gold Tribe had delivered upon him.

He walked forward, positioning himself right in front of the portal, his original position right in the beginning of his fight. Once there, he closed his eyes, and breathed in deeply, and then exhaled. When his eyes opened, a slight flicker of light could be seen from them, even from their slight distance. "No..." He replied gravely. "No, you can't."

It happened almost instantaneously, Zane couldn't have any chance to react, nor could the others. Dark energy poured into him from the portal, at an alarmingly fast rate, and in a manner of seconds, it seemed he had gathered as much power as he had before, if not more. He sped across the Citadel floor, his speed like that of a bullet, reminiscing Zane of Sentry. Zane tried to shoot a Thunder Wave at him to slow him down. He banked to the left and avoided it. Guardia tried to hit him with a Thunder, which shot right past him as he did a quick evasion to avoid that. Sword and Shield summoned upon enough energy to erupt onto the ground, destroying and cracking the marble floor of the last level with an Earthquake. Yet Rey seemed to shoot around every part which was being cracked up, sneak past all of the holes and broken rubble, and glide over any rocks popping up in a surprise attack.

Before Zane knew it, he had maneuvered successfully around everything they had to throw at him, and came upon them. Zane tried to prepare himself, but he wasn't quick enough. The Wielder leaped into the air, and slammed down on the ground around the Gold Tribe, creating another Dark Doom, this time it reacted upon the impact with the Zangoose to the ground. Once again, the brilliant and frightening display of strength forced the Gold Tribe back, despite Guardia's attempt to counter it with her Thunder shield, which held on for only a few moments.

Zane fell backwards against the wall, but managed to keep himself up, long enough to see Rey heading back over to the closest Gold Tribe member, Dryad. He brought his legendary claw down upon the Lilligant with astonishing strength and unthinkable power. The dark energy combined with the ferocity of his own natural skills, and the Lilligant was slashed directly across her body, literally ripping her entire front off. A scream may have escaped her lips in those final moments of her life, but Zane couldn't hear it from the ringing in his ears, the blood tasting in his mouth, and the shock of seeing one of his sisters murdered right in front of him. He tried to scream her name out, but his nothing came out of his voice. He could only look on, trying to make his way close enough to held, as the life left her eyes.

Dryad the Lilligant fell to the ground.

The Wielder wasn't done there. Guardia rushed after her father in anger and anguish, trying to strike at him with a Crush Claw of her own. Rey held up his claws to block her own, effectively ending the conclusion of her attack, and preparing one of his own. He fired directly at her chest, a bolt of his dark Thunder attack, shooting right out of his arm and directly onto her, leaving the tips of his fingers at that single point, and passing toward the point of impact, before sending an excruciating shock throughout her body. She screamed from the pain, before her father launched out an even larger Thunder from his hand, which propelled her away from him as if she had never meant anything to him. She was knocked to the very end of the room, her back to the wall, before she too closed her eyes.

Guardia the Zangoose fell to the ground.

Zane felt the tears well up in his eyes. He dragged his body at Rey, but he had already chosen his next victim, and in his weakened state, he couldn't make it fast enough as Sword and Shield roared in his own anger, meeting the Zangoose in the middle of their clashing point. He tried to harm the Wielder with a Smack Down, aiming right for his head, but the Zangoose managed to sidestep the attack with the help of the dark energy propelling his body. The attack missed, hitting the ground, and Rey proceeded to pummel the larger Snorlax with a Close Combat, each fist and claw hitting his body with bone-crunching power. In fact, Zane could hear the Snorlax's bones break even from his distance, even passed his enormous amount of weight. Sword and Shield attempted to cover up his body, placing his hands in front of him and try to defend himself, but Rey was far too fast, and far too accurate. He struck at him with a mechanical precision, seeming intent to beat him to death. Yet instead, he chose the quicker way. In the midst of the flying fists he launched, he powered one up more than the others, his claw being infused both with a Swords Dance and the silver crystal's energy. He struck forward, and drove his claw straight into the stomach of the Snorlax. Even as he stood behind him, Zane didn't need to guess. The blood flooding the ground in between them confirmed what he would have known. He had sent his claw straight into his body. Sword and Shield's knees shook below him, trying his best to hold his weight up. After a few more seconds, and tons of more blood leaving his body, they finally failed him, and he hurled forward, to which Rey stepped just enough to the side to avoid being having the Pokemon fall on top of him.

Sword and Shield the Snorlax fell to the ground.

Zane was speechless. He fell to his knees, his body unable to take the pain of his injuries, and his mind unable to take the pain of his loss. He was standing helplessly as all of the Gold Tribe, all of his friends, brothers and sisters, died around him. Rey leaped forward, sending a set of Shadow Balls toward Levina, Snype, Ragnaros and Wildfire, accompanied with the previous Dark Doom attack he had launched at them, twice. The Shadow balls were gargantuan in size, as if each one were its own super attack, and each one blazed toward them unnatural speeds. Believing that would be sufficient enough to stop them, he charged forward, approaching Zane.

Picking him off the ground by the neck, he held him up a few inches from the marble floor. Zane grasped his neck, trying to break free of the grip that Rey held him by, while also trying to fight back the tears which flowed from his eyes. "Some enemies were never meant to be fought," Rey said solemnly, holding him Zane up a bit higher and squeezing tighter around his neck. "The Gold Tribe performed admirably, better than anyone would have guessed. But in the end, even they couldn't stop the new world order which is to come."

He moved his free hand back, and prepared another, single, large Shadow Ball in his hands. The attack slowly gained power, and combined both with his own power and that fueled by the Dark One. "The World of the Dark One." He began to bring his hand forward, and prepared to launch his attack upon the golden Bisharp.

"This...is the way the world ends."

Snype tried to keep an eye on Rey and pursuit him before he could hit any of the other Pokemon but saddly to no avail. He was too fast even for the sight of this Sableye. Snype would have attempted to pursuit Rey with Foul Play to use that massive power against him somehow... but Snype struggled to focus when he channeled it. Rey's Power was far too much to handle him. The dark aura surrounding Snype stopped. He'd need to concentrate in order to get Foul Play to work successfully on him. He was too late to do a thing though. Several Gold Trib Members went down. The Snorlax, that one Lilligant, both of which he never got acquainted with, and Guardia, which hit Snype a bit harder since he was just getting acquainted with her.

Snype pointed toward Rey to signal Levina to get moving and hit him with everything they had! Before they could even get moving though, Rey had used Shadow Ball again, but with Gargantuan sizes and moving at unreal speeds! Levina couldn't outrun it. Both of them were hit dead on by the attack and sent right onto the wall. They let out a death defying cry as they were attacked and the two slumped right down. Snype was barely breathing... same for Levina.

"g-gah...Levina... don't you dare die... we aren't done yet... " He said quietly.

Daricka watched in shocked silence as one by one, her comrades were struck down by the Wielder. As each one fell, something bubbled within her, some emotion that struggled to make itself known. It as an emotion she hadn't felt so strongly since sickness had taken her parents from her, and she had had to learn to fend for herself. She searched for a name to put to the feeling that was causing her flames to wilt until they were only a weak flicker and that paralyzed her entire body.

Fear. That was it. Fear not for herself nor for those fighting along side her. It was a fear of all her struggles coming to naught, fear of losing what she cared for, fear of losing everything Darius had died to protect. Frozen in place by this fear, Daricka came to a realization: they were not going to win. Rey was going to kill them all. She was going to lose all of the bonds of trust and comradery that she had built up in the Gold Tribe, and this entire war will have meant nothing.

No. A voice whispered in her mind, piercing through the turmoil of fear and defeat. NO! The voice came louder, and this time Daricka recognized it as her own, a memory forcing its way to the forefront of her mind.

Darius lay in a crumpled heap on the ground, Daricka clutching his shoulders and desperately trying to shake awake. Tears were trickling from her face to soak into the Zoroarks fur, an odd thing as Daricka simply was not one to cry. "Darius, wake up!" she screeched in anguish, another thing that was not normal for her. Darius was unresponsive, his head lolling limply to the side.

A blast of water hit the crouching Infernape from behind, sending her reeling forward over the deceased Zoroark's body. Sudden rage boiled up within Daricka, and she rose to face her attacker, eyes blazing with emotion. Dark flames flickered to life about her body, and she struck the offending Kabutops into the ground, holding it down as her flames burned it. When it stopped its struggling and lay lifeless on the ground, Daricka rose up, her eyes still grief stricken but her features now contorted with hate. "You will not have died in vain," she promised to the body of the Zoroark she had been grieving over moment before. "I swear it on my honor as a member of a Gold Tribe, the Silver Tribe will pay for what they have done."

That's right. She had made a promise. If she gave up now, then she would be shaming not only the name of the Gold Tribe, but the mentor who taken her off the streets and looked out for her. As Sword and Shield fell to the ground, renewed rage and resolve, stronger than any she had felt before, washed over her like a tidal wave. Here before her was the one responsible for Darius' death, and for the deaths of so many others both within the Gold Tribe and without. Here was her chance to fulfill her word and ensure that those who had suffered at the hands of the Silver Tribe were avenged.She was not going to let the Wielder win.

Her Life Flames flared in response, growing in size and intensity, drinking in the strength of her emotion. Every last bit of life within her, she fed to the flames, only leaving a small amount within herself so that she wouldn't pass out - or worse, die before her objective had been accomplished. As the Shadow Ball approached, she leaped over it; it may have been a swift attack, but Rey seemed to have forgotten that the Life Flames also granted Daricka incredible speed and agility besides power. She was back on the ground in time to brace herself for the Dark Room, her flames flaring up even more than they already were to take the brunt of the ferocious attack. In the midst of it, the Infernape crouched, unmoving, until the dark energy had passed. Then, she stood.

"This isn't over yet! As long as one of still stands, as long as we are able to twitch so much as a finger, we will not lose!" she shouted. Her Life Flames rippled about her as she spread her arms wide, her own form not even visible within them. Then, they launched forward and outward in a tidal wave of fire, a Heat Wave that took every scrap of life from Daricka, leaving naught but a single speck that had allowed her to make it this far. She wasn't worried about her flames damaging her comrades; the Life Flames were her very essence and therefore they would do no harm to those she considered allies.

As the last of the Life Flames left her, Daricka collapsed on the ground, out cold. The now barely visible flames atop her head were the only sign that she was alive, and even those had faded to a dull grey and were slowly starting to diminish even further. She'd probably never know if her final effort had made a difference, but she would just have to place her trust in those who remained.

Silver City

A surprising attack from Wildfire in the form of a potent Heat Wave suddenly made its way towards Rey, who had no time to react against it. The Shadow Ball dissipated from his hands, and he dropped Zane to the ground so that he could bring both of his arms up to defend himself. The silver crystal's barrier came up once more to protect him, but the power had not fully healed before, and the shield flickered and collapsed under the pressure of the powerful Life Flames. Brushing forward, they pounded Rey with force, heat, and intensity, clearly showing that Wildfire was giving her all into the attack, and Rey was feeling every ounce of that power.

Yet through the enormous amount of energy being thrust at Rey, the Zangoose was still managing to hold his ground, just barely. He planted his legs firmly into the ground, trying to summon enough energy to hold off the attack. Slowly, dark energy from the portal and from the crystal around his neck began to flow out and around the Wielder. The powerful Heat Wave went from being extremely damaging to the Zangoose to now beginning to be held off by the additional energies supplied to him. With each passing second, he was getting stronger, and he was slowly beginning to force the Heat Wave back.

But the flames suddenly got an unexpected boots, a powerful wave of Psychic energy fluttering through the room and smashing right behind the Heat Wave, the two distinct attacks merging together at the points of impacts. The melded to one another's forms, the space between them shrinking, until a singular, wide attack replaced the two of them. The Keeper had been preparing a Future Sight, one in which he concentrated all of his psychic energies. Together with Wildfire's Heat Wave, they forced the Wielder back, to the tip of the Citadel, and with a final push of impressive energy from Wildfire, he was forced off the side of the building.

Zane quickly limped over to the edge, observing Rey's fall. He looked like a dark meteorite, as the energy still surrounded his body as he fell, but suddenly, the energy expanded, the form taking a more physical one, as if it became a large arm. The dark, large chaotic-powered arm extended a variation of 'claws' and latched itself onto the side of the marble structure of the Citadel. Soon after, Rey drove his own claws to the side of the building, and began climbing up. Zane looked incredulously at the sheer power and skill the Zangoose emanated, but he also noticed that the Pokemon now carried wounds which he hadn't had before on his body. They had hurt him.

Quickly, Zane went over to check on the conditions of the others. He went first to Wildfire, seeing that most of the flames across her body had diminished, and the few remaining on the top of her head would soon join them. The Healer quickly snapped to and proceeded to try to maintain what was left on the her head. He exchanged a worried look with the Blissey, before moving on to check the condition of the others. He walked over to the Keeper, who was panting heavily, but who motioned his arm for the Bisharp to move away from him, that he was fine. Zane nodded and moved over to Dryad. Her front side of her body had been torn up, to the point where not even the Healer would have been able to fix her up. He checked for a pulse, but found none. He did the same for his large companion Sword and Shield, who had been with the small band of Gold Tribe ever since the very beginning, since Liberty Town. He had a large hole in his stomach, where Rey had dug his claws into, but the Snorlax was breathing heavily.

"Healer!" Zane yelled, trying to get her attention over to the Snorlax. She ran as fast as she could, having two other Chanseys look over Wildfire while she ran over. She quickly took a look at the state of his injuries. Zane could see the tears begin to form at the corners of her eyes, and he knew without her having to say anything that he wouldn't make it.

Sword and Shield coughed up blood, but opened his eyes and looked over to see the golden image of Zane beside him. "...Vigil..." He said softly, his usually booming voice reduced to that barely above a whisper.

"I'm here, brother," Zane replied quickly leaning over towards him, grasping his giant paw into his hand. Sword and Shield tried to say something, but the injuries built up in his throat. In the end, he didn't even have the will to say anything. But with his final actions, he smiled, and clenched Zane's fist, before slipping away. Zane felt the grip of the Snorlax relax from his grasp, before the large hand fell with a thump on the ground. The Bisharp continued to sit there, examining the lifeless body of his brother, his friend. He would have liked nothing else than to just sit beside him for the rest of the day, but his duty required so much more of him. The Gold Tribe had the best of bonds among Pokemon, but sometimes duty prevented them from every getting to show it.

He stood shakily, and limped over to Guardia, who lay on her stomach nearby Sword and Shield. A few pieces of rock and Citadel marble were over her body. With a struggle from his injuries, Zane fell to one knee, and lifted up the rocks and stones that covered the body of his childhood friend. As he did so, the possibilities of her condition flowed in his mind. But in the end, there was only two possibilities: she would live, or she would die.

He finished removing the rocks from her body, and flipped over the form of the Zangoose. Surprisingly, the moment he turned her over, he found her taking in a deep breath and panting heavily. She had a burnt mark on her chest, where Rey fired the initial set of Thunder strikes on her. She also had multiple open cuts and wounds. But it appeared as if, thankfully, she would be alright.

Zane helped her to her feet, even if he himself had trouble standing as well. One final look around saw Bloodthirster in a fair enough condition, but with Snype and Levina in pretty bad shape themselves. After saying some final goodbyes to Dryad and Sword and Shield, the Healer and her team moved around, treating the injuries of those who remained.

Snype, Levina, Wildfire, Bloodthirster Vigil, Guardia, the Keeper. Without knowing what happened to the other team down below, this potentially could be all that remained of the group. With Wildfire and Levina's condition deteriorating, more might follow.

"He's coming back," Zane managed out, looking from the edge of the Citadel as the claws of the Wielder managed to reach to the top, just beside the dark portal at the end of the room.

"We need to find a way inside of the portal," The Keeper answered back, watching as Rey finally made his way over the edge. He appeared injuries, but his mannerisms sure didn't reflect it.

Zane nodded weakly, before picking up on what the Keeper said. "Wait, we?"

"Why yes, you and I. I too have a portion of the Gold Crystal's energies inside of him. From...a very long time ago. A much less amount than you have, or the Gold Crystal had, but we will need every bit of it."

"We need to defeat the wielder before entering correct?" Zane asked, watching as the wielder slowly gathered up energy from the portal to begin strengthening and healing himself.

"Hmm, not necessarily. We just need him to become weakened enough, powerless enough so that we would be able to enter," He held up a finger and pointed to the portal, "You see all of the chaotic energy fluttered around? If we tried to enter there now, we would be torn up before ever stepping foot inside the Dark One's lair. We have to find a way to draw all of that energy away from the portal. The best way is to defeat the Wielder, so that all of the initial energy in this world would dissipate. However, if we merely force the Wielder to draw all of the energy away from the portal and toward himself, we might be able to enter that way too."

Zane nodded in understanding. His vision was blurred for a moment, but he could see Rey already gathering up much of the energy from the portal, ready to fight again. "Either way," Zane began, "We have to push him to the limit. We have to keep going," Zane stepped forward. "Like Wildfire said, as long as one of us still stands, we won't give up,"

"Ah...but Zane. I should tell you now," The Keeper began behind him, "When you enter the portal..."

"I think I already know what you're going to say," Zane said, his back turned to the Keeper as he looked forward at Rey, who had finished gathering up energy and was on approach to the Gold Tribe again. "I think part of me already figured it out when you said I had the Gold Crystal inside of me."

"What are you talking about?" Guardia asked from beside him.

"You said in your plan earlier," Zane began, motioning the Healer and the other Chanseys back from the fight, having only gotten a chance to heal up everyone's injuries a slight bit, "...when we had the Gold Crystal that when it would enter that realm, all of the Silver Crystal's gathered up energy would be destroyed. But you also said that the Gold Crystal would be destroyed as well.

Zane looked back at the Keeper and smiled weakly. "I know what must be done."

The Wielder was upon them again firing a pitch-black Thunder upon them. But the remaining fighters weren't ready to give up.

To whatever end.

Hanso, Paladin, and Penance - The Ultimate Post! (That took a bloody month to complete.)​

Brynn pulled back from the vault-door, breathing a small sigh of relief. She hadn't really designed the gem's defenses to easily allow communication with anyone outside, at least to the extent she had. The Gardevoir raised her hand out in front of her, examining the icy-gold sheen that her arms had acquired. Looking down at herself, Brynn saw that the same sheen had extended to her torso.

"Interesting." She twirled in the air, examining the rest of the gem-vault. Here and there, threads of gold-hued energy were interwoven with the gem itself. "I wonder how long this will last..."

~~~~~

"Goodbye, Hanso. I'm going back to where this all began." The connection was cut too quickly after that for Hanso to say anything to Vera.

...What. Vera's leaving without seeing this through? The Gallade silently cursed to himself, looking for the Blaziken among the Gold Tribe. She wasn't inside anymore, and he hadn't seen when she'd left. Hanso considered looking for her further, then shook his head to himself. It was Vera's decision to stay or go.

Brynn had withdrawn back into the gem, ending the channel between it, Hanso, Zane, and the Keeper. There was nothing left except to move on and find Blackguard and Paradox. Hanso looked over at Genevieve again, then began walking toward her. "Genevieve?"

Flinching at the sound of her own name, Genevieve looked up and quickly averted her eyes as Hanso approached. It was hard to look at him, what she had done and even what she had wanted to do to him. She could remember now, all the terrible mind games, her ploy to make him a traitor. What atrocious things she had done while under the sinister influence of the Silver Crystal. At the same time, she felt an almost longing. How precious it would have been to convert him, her mind prodded her almost subconsciously. Was that the Siren talking, or would it really have have been so wonderful to have company in this vast loneliness?

"Y-yes?" She spoke up to his query, her voice meek and calm, completely unlike what she knew her voice sounded like when she had been the Siren. That voice was strong and decisive. It never searched for answers. Hanso might not have been used to this voice. But even this wasn't her real self, this was damaged Genevieve. Somewhere in-between the real her and the monster she had been.

Hanso stopped beside Genevieve and stared at her for a moment. Obviously, this wasn't the Siren he was looking at, but Genevieve of the Gold Tribe couldn't have been this vulnerable. He didn't know how exactly to help her pull together enough for the coming battle.

Hearing the Gold Tribe begin to move toward the stairs, Hanso blew a sigh. "Do you plan on sitting here and waiting for the worst to happen?" He tried to keep his words gentle, but there was still a stern undertone.

With a weak nod, she answered Hanso, "No, I plan on doing what must be done." Her voice wasn't as strong as it might have been in the past, but it still had a lingering hint of strength behind it. It showed that Genevieve was actually ready to do whatever she deemed necessary. She wasn't afraid so much of what others could do to her now, but on what she could and had done to them.

"I guess we must be moving out then," she sighed and straightened up, trying to sell her fake confidence as best she could.

Hanso nodded and remained silent for a couple more minutes. He wasn't entirely convinced; a 'mon didn't just get up and walk away from the trauma that Genevieve had gone through, must be going through.

Later, on the stairs upward, Hanso turned slightly toward the Gardevoir and said quietly, "If you're beating yourself up about me, then you can stop. That wasn't you. Or, well, it wasn't you you. It was the Siren." After a moment, Hanso added, "I think I'd had thoughts of betraying you somehow, anyway, at the time."

"But Hanso," she paused and looked straight ahead. For some reason, she had the hardest time looking at him since her memories came back. There was vast disappointment all around, but he was the worst. She could look at the others in the face, probably talk to them normally if needed…but Hanso, no.

"You don't understand. If you had joined me, even with thoughts of later betrayal, I would have used you, broken you and probably killed you. I still remember all things things that the Siren wanted, all her mistakes and kills," she continued. "There was so much evil and hatred, but at the same time passion that was misplaced. I…she was a monster, but one of my own making. Does the Silver Crystal transform a person completely or does it just amplify the evil? If so, Hanso, then that monster is inside right now and always has been. The Siren is me, as much as I am the Siren."

That was when they came out onto the second floor of the Citadel. Hanso pulled Genevieve to one side, allowing anyone behind them to get off the stairs. "Don't you get it, Genevieve? You're not under the Crystal's influence anymore, you are not. A. Sentinel. I don't think you've developed any sort of split personality, so stop crying over what the Siren did or would have done."

Hanso took a deep breath. His voice was full of conviction as he continued. "I won't deny that a part of her may be left. You, me, all of us, none of us are free of evil, or chaos, or whatever you'd like to call it. Me, I let Varren live inside my head for a while. I was going to let him live there for life if he hadn't turned traitor. The difference, is in whether any of us can control our darker side. Can you?"

"Don't you dare preach to me and try and tell me you know what this is like!" She barked at him, her eyes finally strong and resiliant once more. "You and the others, you have no bloody idea!" Genevieve didn't care if others could hear her shout, it felt good to say, to vent. "You may have let Varren inside you, but you were still you. I....I can't promise I can control my darker side. I still feel it, even now. There is a draw that whispers to me in the recesses of my mind. I'm not even sure it will ever go away."

Looking at him intently, the first time she made perfect eye contact with him in a long while, she seemed to be pleading for answers. "Hanso, I wish you had killed me."

Hanso kept eye contact and stayed quiet during Genevieve's tirade. He let the silence after her last words draw out for a few moments, during which the Gold Tribe moved on toward the next set of stairs. On a wild impulse, Hanso abruptly drew Genevieve into a hug. "You're right." He was calm as he spoke. "I don't know what it's like. And if you really wish that, then I can make it happen once this whole thing is over. But if I remember right, I heard you call for help when the Alakazam was trying to kill you."

Then just as abruptly, he let go and stepped away, all business again. "C'mon. There's a couple Sentinels with overdue rent." The Gallade turned and headed for the stairs upward, not looking back. He'd thought he was past any conflicted feelings about Genevieve. In all honesty, Hanso didn't know her that well. They were acquaintances, nothing more. So why did it hurt when he suggested killing her?

~~~~~

Paladin just sat in the corner of the dull prison, watching the strings of gold aura float by and through him. All the while though, he listened to the ensuing conversation and stared at the mirror. It was food for thought, as some of the points brought up were rather intriguing. "Controling the darkness..." Paladin muttered, staring down at his own body and remembering the darkness on one side, that sickening shade of grey that once dominated him. He always tried to fight it, tried to be the best he could like Rey had taught him, like his master had. Never one had he considered using it, and when he had it was always involuntarily. But what the former Sentinel Genevieve had questioned also came to mind. Was Blackguard a part of the Dark One, or his own evil multiplied tenfold? At first the latter did not seem possible. Paladin had fought to stay in the light, even when the darkness loomed so close. He fought the good fight until he lost to Blackguard. And yet... the more he thought about it, the more he began to realize that the darkness had been with him all along. Long before the Silver Tribe, long before the Gold Tribe even.

Paladin remembered it all now. The burning hatred for his parents that rested deep in his heart, who had abandonned him as a child; the sadness of losing his friends - no, his family - to death; the guilt for the death of his master; the pain of battles past. All of it and more had always been there, locked deep inside, shadowing his sense of pride and honour.

That was what the Blackguard was. Behind the piece of Chaos that inhabited him was the hatred, the guilt, the pain, the despair. And then, the truth became clear in Paladin's mind.

This was the reason that the Blackguard could never be killed. Even after the Chaos was gone, the emotions that drove it would live on in Paladin as they always had, plaguing him until the day he died. There was only one way to stop the Blackguard once and for all, and Paladin was the only one that could.

"Make peace with my demons... take back the darkness."

~~~~~

Hanso said no more as the Gold Tribe walked up the rest of the stairs, up to the floor below the top one. He, Genevieve, Blitzkrieg, and the Cleric remained while the others moved on to face Rey on the top floor. "We're here," Hanso said unnecessarily, keeping his Future Sight in check. It still needed to build up some more. The Gallade began forming a few Dark spears as he waited for the inevitable confrontation.

Suddenly, the ceiling exploded in a blast of rubble and rock. Through it, a menacing red Lucario descended in an orb of aura, giving each of his opponents an intimidating stare before touching down on the ground. His aura collected itself into a small orb and danced across his palm as he spoke.

"So, here you all are," Blackguard boomed, looking at Hanso specifically. However, his gaze fell down to the gem around his neck.

"All of you." He grinned.

Blackguard walked towards the group slowly, as if he was a predator waiting for the right moment to lunge at his prey. "Still have hope, don't you?" He began, "Still think you can defeat us and have your happily ever after like you always dreamed. But can you really?" He looked to Genevieve, "You, the self-hating Sentinel, afraid and ashamed of your own darkness, always running from the terrible sins you've committed." He looked then, to Blitzkrieg, "You, the honorable yet always ignorant Gold Tribe lackey, ever unaware of the bigger picture, doomed to just follow your leader to your death." The Cleric was caught in his gaze next, "You, the healer, and just that. Unable to do anything but aid your team mates, you resent the fact that you cannot hold your own in a fight, and are inferior to all those you cherish so."

"And you," he said, glaring at Hanso once more. "The spy, the traitor. Prepared to turn on your own brethren for a Sentinel you barely knew, much to their ignorance; the one who accepted a demon into your mind, allowing him to manipulate you and let your friends be harmed." He chuckled a bit. It was obvious his last remark was aimed at both Hanso and Paladin, much to the latter's annoyance.

"What makes YOU think that you have the capacity to beat me, a master of CHAOS?!"

Genevieve stood her ground, unflinching and almost lifeless as Blackguard appraoched them. She no longer feared death and perhaps that made her strong now. After begging and pleading for somebody to bring it upon her, what more did she have to lose. Everything else was already stripped from her. She was naked now, raw and exposed for the world to see. If Blackguard had wanted to be intimdating or insulting to her, he failed miserably.

"You say you are the master of chaos," she whispered, barely audible to the Lucario. "I have seen chaos, felt its touch on my soul and heart. You, you are not the master of chaos, just another one of its many slaves. It is precisely for that reason, that I know we will defeat you."

She was done talking, there was too much talk because of her. Mustering up her strength, eyes glowing an eerie and otherworldly pink, Genevieve unleashed a barbaric psychic blast at Blackguard. It felt good to take out the aggresion and hatred on somebody. Finally, she felt like she was fighting for something she believed in again.

Words, they were just words, yet Hanso's hands fisted at the way Blackguard skewed them. Judging by the way Blackguard had looked at him, Hanso knew he knew about the gem's existence. While the Lucario was busy talking, Hanso was busy forming more Dark spears. Need to thank Varren if I ever see him in the afterlife. The spears weren't endgame, though, he needed to get close enough to touch the gem to Blackguard.

At the same time that Genevieve unleashed her psychic blast, Hanso left a Double Team of himself in his place while he teleported several yards behind Blackguard. The illusionary Gallade dashed forward at the Lucario, arm-blades extended and glowing blue with Psycho Cuts, while the real Gallade fired two Dark spears at Blackguard's back.

Blackguard chuckled and expanded his aura, forming an orb around him that deflected the attacks with little turbulence. Safely protected by the orb, the Lucario rose into the air and looked down upon his opponents as if they were vermin. "Come on then. You're gonna have to do better than that," he spat.

Hanso didn't fire anything once it was obvious that the attacks didn't get through. He didn't think they could break through Blackguard's aura by brute force, the Lucario had them outmatched there. What now?

Genevieve wasn't thinking, she could hear his words, but didn't process them. All she felt and knew in that moment was rage and hatred. Again she tried to break through with a psychic blast and again she failed. Again, again and again. She began to pant from the exertion, her body unused to the effort she was using. This wasn't her game, it never had been. Even before the events of the Silver crystal, Genevieve had never been a front line fighter.

"It isn't working!" She shouted, her lungs gasping at the same time. "There has to be another way, Hanso!"

The Lucario just smirked all the while. "There is nothing you can do. With all the darkness ready to pour out, it's inevitable that you'll lose. Perhaps if you give up now then you might plead with the Dark One to spare your lives." He readied several more orbs of darkness and flung them out. "Let's see how well you all can dance." He chuckled. "Since you all will die here I want an entertaining show. Appease me."

As one of the orbs of darkness came his way, Hanso jumped to one side, landing in a roll and springing to his feet. Use his pending Future Sight? No, that was going back to brute force, best save its growing power for when the shield was down. Hanso fired one of his Dark spears, aiming it to knock off the trajectory of an orb headed for Genevieve. Problem was, unless they could disable the aura at its source, Blackguard could just bring it back up again and again.

Even so, Hanso melded his remaining Dark spears into a larger orb that sped toward the aura. When it made contact, instead of blasting away, it began spreading around the sphere, covering it in darkness. Hanso concentrated and had it begin trying to crush Blackguard's aura.

"Genevieve! Think we'd be able to get into his mind long enough to disable the aura?" Hanso wasn't sure they could, or should, but it was what he'd thought of first. Except, if they could do that, then why not just bring Brynn and Paladin along for the ride? If he did, though, they wouldn't have the power in the gem backing them.

Blackguard frowned as the darkness began to cover the sphere, "Oh, trying to fight fate are we? We'll see what darkness has to say about that!" He held out his hands and several dark orbs formed in his hands. However instead of turning to Hanso he turned to stare right at the Cleric. "Bye bye." He hissed as every single ball flew out to slam into her. It was better for a healer to be taken out, just in case any of these pesky insects did take wounds. He couldn't have them popping back up to endless regeneration.

"Think you can just keep rising from the ashes without a healer at your side?" Blackguard said with a smirk. "Without her you'll all fall like flies!"

"Do you have a better idea?" Genevieve retorted, resorting to telepathy for lack of breath. Hanso wasn't sure if she'd noticed that the Cleric had fallen, but he couldn't afford to let the enormity of it get to him now. What was Blitzkrieg doing right now, anyway?

All the same, Hanso was sure his darkness had become a shield all around Blackguard's aura now, however useful it might be. Or useless. If nothing else, it blocked normal vision both ways.

Blackguard just laughed at the weak attempts at resistance, "So, trying to make me blind now are you?" He shouted out. "We'll see about that!" He readied several black balls of energy around him and shot them out in random directions. "I can still hit ya if I can't see you!" He boomed. "Can you even deal with a storm of aura Hanso!? Eventually you'll get so tired that you have to just fall down. And you former Sentinel... once he's gone perhaps I'll have more fun with you? Slowly and steady rip your limbs from your body perhaps? Maybe crush your spirit that you are a sobbing heap by the time I am done? So many possibilities!" He burst into loud laughter. "What say you Hanso? Ready to let me have fun with your lady friend?"

This was getting personal. "As if," Hanso and Genevieve said simultaneously, which momentarily surprised the Gallade. He was also surprised by the fact that Blackguard's attacks missed them completely. "Try to stay alive, will you?" he relayed to Blitzkrieg. A moment later, the two Psychics combined forces and struck at Blackguard's mind, looking to get inside and disable his aura-ability.

Blackgaurd blinked in surprise and suddenly gripped his head as a painful headache hit him hard. "Erggh! You f**king psychics!" He screamed out. He felt them delve in a bit deeper. He raised his head up and smirked, "Trying to get in my head huh? Well let's go for the physical side of things then!" He looked out and gripped his forehead. "It's not polite to barge on in!" He hissed out. He lowered himself down to the floor and ran out. "Where are you!?" He shouted out. "Tell me where you are and I won't make you suffer in misery for a lifetime!" He snapped.

They wouldn't have long to do this, despite the oddity of time inside the mental realm. Blackguard's words came to Hanso as if through a tunnel, and somewhat slower. Here it is, Genevieve relayed as they came to the Lucario's core. Everything was colored black by the Chaotic being's presence, and it took a few moments to find what Hanso thought was Blackguard's aura-sense.

Easiest way is to sever it. Hanso struck at it with his blades, while Genevieve blasted away with her psychic energy.

Suddenly Blackguard screamed out and gripped his head in agony. "What!?" He bellowed out. He coudl feel something was... off. He blinked his eyes and then realized what had happened. He could feel his anger rising and his paws curled up into fists, "Oh, you are f**king get it now Hanso!" He hissed to himself. Now truly blind he began to run. Although he coudln't see he could feel just a bit. When the strike against his aura had happened he had felt just where the energy had come from... and he keyed in on the location. He raised a paw and snarled, "I will enjoy squishing you!" He shouted out.

With that done, they retracted themselves from Blackguard's mind, and Hanso opened his eyes again, focusing once more on the room they were in. It took him a moment to realize that the Dark sphere around the Lucario was still up. Hanso dispelled most of it, keeping a small portion around Blackguard's head to keep him blind. It wasn't until then that he realized Blackguard was already pointing straight at him.

Oh, snap!

A small grin crept onto Genevieve's face as she readied her energy and threw yet another psychic blast at Blackguard, regardless of his next move.

The blast hit him, but Blackguard was far too lost in his anger to let it affect him that much. In fact, it fueled his anger and he just ran faster as where he knew his quarry was. He reached out for the Gallade. "You. Will. Die." He hissed out.

Now he could finally do what he'd wanted to do for hours now: beat Blackguard to a pulp. As the Lucario reached out for him, Hanso jumped up and forward, his arms moving to vault him over Blackguard's head.

Blackguard felt the Gallade jump over him and he moves his other hand to try and punch at the Gallade, "Stop running!"

The punch hit Hanso's left forearm, bringing both pain and ghost pain. He grit his teeth and pivoted as he landed on the ground, swinging at Blackguard with a Psycho Cut.

With his blind state Blackguard could only grunt as the Cut hit him and he staggered forward, away from the Gallade. He in turn twisted about and moved forward swinging blindly at the air. Without his aura he was at the disadvantage, but it was no matter. As he swung a but he jumped back and this time focused his attention into his hearing. He lost aura yes, but he had to think smart here. He was angry, yes, but he would have the time to squish that Gallade in due time.

Hanso stepped back as Blackguard swung at him, bringing his arm-blades up to block further attacks. His left arm took the brunt of the attack again. Hanso stepped back again to reassess when Blackguard seemed to pause. Off to one side, Genevieve raised her arms, both of which crackled with electricity, and fired two Thunderbolts at Blackguard.

Blackgaurd could hear the electricity being fired right at him, though a bit late. He dodges the first bolt, but the second collided with his chest and caused him to back step a bit. He closed his eyes and took in a few deep breaths. With him blind they would be moving about... hopefully at least. He readied his legs and began to rush to where he theorized the bolts to have come from, though as he did a wave of flames were shot down at him. The dragon! He had been left in the background!

Blitzkreig muttered as he fell back to the ground and once more took in a deep breath and shot out more flames. Blackguard ran, barely dodging the flames, but still right to where he thought that pesky Gardevoir was at. Heh, if he caught he would just rip her limbs off as promised. What a relief that would be!

Genevieve had a few moments to react. She directed a psychic blast into trying to throw Blackguard into the ceiling. At the same time, in the rush of adrenaline and smoldering anger, Hanso fired a Dark ball at Blackguard, momentarily forgetting the small Dark cloud that was blinding the Lucario. It dissipated.

Blackguard smirked as the darkness disappeared just as he was grabbed by the psychic. Still now that he was free he could do some things. He gritted his teeth and cried out as several balls of chaos formed around him and he shot them out at the three remaing GT members. "Heh, wrong move Hanso!" He boomed out.

She was able to direct Blackguard's momentum upward before Genevieve had to let go and hurriedly danced to one side, avoiding the first two balls. She threw out a hurried psychic blast to try deflecting the remaining attacks.

Hanso jumped up and teleported away, reappearing just under Blackguard with his own momentum. He jabbed forward with a Psycho Cut as he came to the height of his 'port-jump.

Blackguard just let the cut hit him and reached out to sent chaotic energy at the Gallade. "You are an annoying pest." The Lucario hissed out. He then sent out his hands to grab the Gallade, "I squish pests."

Hanso threw out a hurried Dark blast to counter the chaotic energy, letting out a growl as some of it hit him anyway. Need to distract him. As Blackguard reached out for him, the Gallade swung an arm in an attempt to bat away the hands. He then kicked out at Blackguard, reaching up for his neck with his free hand at the same time.

Jerking the gem off his neck, Hanso smirked. "You'll have to face them first," he retorted, jabbing forward at Blackguard with the gem. All this, and they were beginning their descent.

Blackgaurd managed to grab at the Gallade but then he narrowed his eyes, "Oh shi-" He didn't get time to finish as a bright light would overcome their vision. It seemed as if only a second passed before the two would find themselves in the black mind of Blackguard. He just sighed and rubbed his forehead, "Of course. I try to squish someone and THIS happens. You know, once I mangle your corpse in here then I'll just have to quish your physical body to pieces." He looked about, "So... where is your sister dear Hanso? Somewhere with Paladin I presume? No matter... how about a game of hide and seek? First one to find the Gardevoir, wins." He rose up into the air and grinned down at the Gallade, "I assure you, I will find her first."

~~~~~~~

Meanwhile Paladin groaned as he rose up. He looked about at the familiar, yet warped, structure of parts of his mind and sighed, "I see. It seems we were successful in getting out." He cast a glance about, "This mind is more his now. We should get moving and find Hanso and the others before Blackguard comes. We'll need to stand up against him together."

Brynn took a deep breath, stretching her arms as she looked around as well. "Yes, together. We'll have to be careful, though. Things can be a lot worse in the mind, and we don't actually know where Paradox is. I just hope that my brother doesn't go and do something stupid on his own. He's really hating these Sentinels right about now."

~~~~~~

Hanso didn't wait for Blackguard to finish; he was jumping up at the Lucario during his last words with two Psycho Cuts ready. "You're getting mangled!"

Blackguard just chuckled and floated up higher, so high that he was up on the ceiling and his body turned about to let his feet land on it. "Really Hanso? So concerned about her? I would normally be able to easily find her in this mind if SOMEONE didn't cut off my abilities. So I suppose a nice little walk aught to do." With that he turned away, just the tiniest of smug grins on his muzzle, "You know, I do feel a... feminine presence this way. Let's see who can get there first eh?" With that the Lucario ran along the ceiling. Although the ceiling was cast all over the mind, the problem Hanso would face included flights of stairs and all sorts of corridors to run through.

Landing without getting a hit in brought some reason back into Hanso's head. He needed to manipulate the rules to his advantage as much as he could, given that this was Blackguard's mind. The Gallade began running along with him, at least until he got to the first intersection of corridors. Trying to cut time spent, Hanso formed two images of himself that represented mental feelers. He sent them in two directions, trying to broaden his range in finding Brynn and Paladin. Head's hurting... Hanso hurried down the third corridor, trying to keep Blackguard in sight the whole time.

Blackguard smirked down at Hanso every so often as what equated to a calm walk for him meant that the Gallade had to constantly move along corridors and run up and down steps. He hummed softly and soon got to where he spied the running Gardevoir and Golurk below. "Perfect." He whispered to himself. He readied a few chaos ball and sent them down as a shower. "You better get over here Hanso, else your sister might just be torn apart!"

He chuckled and sprang down from the roof to the two.

~~~~~

As Paladin traveled with Brynn he suddenly paused as he saw large black objects heading toward them. Thinking quickly he put himself over Brynn as the chaos hit him hard. He grunted and rose up as a loud thud sounded behind him. He turned to see Blackguard there, smiling widely. "Hello Paladin." In an instant a foot kicked out and Paladin went flying into a wall. "Goodbye Paladin." He turned to Brynn and a glimmer appeared in his eyes, "And hello to you too. If this was any other casual evening I might just have taken you and brought you over to my place. Too bad though." He readied some chaos balls around him, "You had such a pretty face."

Brynn shrugged, appearing calm despite the fact that Paladin had been kicked away so easily. "I never cared too much about my face, really. You?" Without moving, the Gardevoir formed a cloud of ice particles around Blackguard; a moment later, they condensed into icicles and flew at the Lucario.

Meanwhile, Hanso had stopped expending effort on broadening his scan range. Following Blackguard would lead him to Brynn, anyway. Assuming Hanso could catch up. It sounded like the fighting was around the next couple corners, but he wasn't sure.

The Lucario cried out, hissing as he staggered back. Just as he was about to throw a Chaos Sphere at the Gardevoir the Golurk came out of the darkness and rushed at the Lucario hitting him hard with a shoulder slam and causing to fly back a bit. "Take that!" The Golurk boomed out.

The red Lucario was quick to get back on his feet and he sneered at the two, "Well, you two have just been sentenced for death!" The Lucario readied a sphere and shot it at the Gardevoir. "I'm serriously getting pissed off now!" He snapped.

Brynn called up a Protect, stopping the sphere while she readied an orb of ice and psychic energy. "Rather, you're to be the executed." She fired the orb, beginning to walk to the left in a circle around Blackguard.

Hanso ran around the corner only to stop himself suddenly, skidding to a halt at the edge of a set of stairs. A second too late and he would have fallen. Down on the floor below were the other three Pokemon. Thinking that Blackguard wouldn't see him coming, Hanso readied two Psycho Cuts and stepped off the stairs, falling toward the Lucario with his blades in front of him.

The Lucario was angry enough, but the Protect was unexpected. Just as he was about to shout out another phrase he felt psychic power hit into him from behind and he cried out. His eyes narrowed as he fell down and quickly rolled away from the Gallade, right into Paladin's path who kicked him into a wall. The red being smashed into it and it crumbled over him. For a second there was silence but then the rubble flew away and an extremely angry Lucario stood there, "THAT'S IT! ENOUGH PLAYTIME!" He roared out.

Paladin cocked his head, "I thought you were already serious."

That just caused Blackguard to emit a even more enraged roar and he readied a chaos ball and flung it at the group. Paladin easily sidestepped the ball and chuckled, "You're already angry, and already faltering."

Hanso ducked below a piece of rubble that had flown out, arm-blades wreathed with a mixture of dark and psychic energy. He stepped, almost jumped, to the side to avoid the ball as well. Brynn wasn't near enough to need to avoid. The Gallade threw a cut at Blackguard that was a combination of his Dark Hidden Power and a Psycho Cut, in sync with the psychic blast that Brynn fired.

Blackguard cried out in pain as the dual attacks hit him and despite putting up his arms to protect himself he ended up staggering back. A few brusies were now on his fur coat and he gritted his teeth, though he soon smiled, "Hehe, I know exactly what to do. You want this form fine! But I need to be going, toodles!" He stepped back as a shimmering portal appeared behind him. The Lucario ran back and leaped into the portal, the other half appearing right in Paradox's mind and the Lucario ended up bumping right into the duck himself.

The black silhouette frowned at him and crossed his arms, "Too much eh? Too much for old Blackgaurd? Must I do everything around here?"

The Lucario stood up with a grimace, "Hey, don't forget that you're here because of me! And they teamed up on me! Sheesh, that darkness hit me hard... note, take out the Gallade first."

The Golduck nodded, "Will do. I'll just have to head over there and kill their bodies. They are still in your mind correct? Will be easy enough."

It ain't the body we're after. That had to be the channel back to Paradox's mind that Paladin had told of. "This'll be a lot more dangerous," Hanso said, walking up to the portal. Looking back at Brynn and Paladin, he grinned slightly. "Still, we gonna pay him a visit now?"

"Of course." Brynn came up beside Hanso, then stepped past him and into the portal. "I've been wanting to get back at him." She was followed shortly by her twin-brother.

Paradox barely finished his sentence before he glanced at the portal. "... Isn't that supposed to be closed already?" Just at that moment he saw three familiar figures step inside and he blinked before looking at Blackguard, "You are an idiot." He turned to his guests and smirked, "Well, guests! Hehe, you do need a welcoming gift though!" He sneered as he readied a chaos ball and hurled it at the group with Blackguard doing the same.

Paladin grunted as he was hit and staggered back, but he suddenly was in the air, his arm cannons letting him move quickly through the air as he used Fly to slam into Blackguard and land some distance away.

The Lucario hissed as the large mon hit him and he stepped back. Paradox meanwhile narrowed his eyes at the two siblings and snapped his fingers. "Forget about Penance's traps already Hanso?" He cooed as a part of the floor opened in front of them and black chaotic tendrils shot out to try and entangle Hanso up.

Brynn had expected an attack of some sort, so her Protect was already up when the chaos ball was fired at her and Hanso. Coming from Paradox, though, the shield slightly caved in before the chaos ball dissipated.

"Nope." Hanso walked toward Paradox, arm-blades glowing again as he ignored the chaotic tendrils and Brynn's cry of alarm. Upon contact with the Gallade, the tendrils melted away, leaving him to draw an arm back for a swing. "Better prepared this time." Hanso's eyes were full of controlled anger.

Paradox was rather surprised, so surprised that the arm blades hit him full force and he fell back, grunting at the pain. "... How?" He hissed out. Suddenly a smile formed on his face as a Water Pulse flew out of the air aimed right for Hanso's face. Paradox slowly chuckled and stood up, "Three on three." He snickered. Out from the shadows of the mind came Penance. The Golduck looked like a wreck. His eyes had tired circles under them and several bruises covered his body. Above his body hung black strings that forced his arms up once more to throw an additional two Water Pulses at the Gallade.

Paradox grinned all the while and readied his own chaos balls, "Hehe, fun isn't it!?" He snickered as he tossed them right at the Gallde. Blackkguard was about to join in when a pair of Golurk arms gripped from behind and began to restrain him, "You're not attacking anymore!" He shouted. He pulled an arm back and slammed a Shadow Punch into the Lucario's back. Blackguard was quick to pull free and began to punch his counterpart, a miniature battle erupting between the two.

Hanso, in turn, was caught off guard by the Water Pulse. He stumbled back, dazed for a moment before snapping his attention back to the Golduck and...the Golduck. This'll be a problem.

Ya think? Brynn replied mentally, eyes glowing slightly. She switched places with Hanso, using Ally Switch, and had another Protect up to block the Water Pulses and chaos balls. So soon after the last block, the shield buckled even more. As it faded, Hanso was already throwing two Dark spears at Paradox, thinking about how to counter Penance without killing him.

Paradox just smirked as he snapped his fingers. At that the puppet strinsgs pulled Penance along, positioning himself in front of Paradox just as the dark spears hit into his chest. Penance cried out in pain and Paradox let out a menancing chuckle. "Really? So eager to kill the one mon who called you a hero? Who put you way above the other goldies? You must have a death wish for him then!"

Once more the strings tugged and Penance's hands shot forward, his eyes glowing a deep blue as he tried to catch Hanso in a Confusion attack and start to crush his bones.

"Hit... the... strings..." Penance gasped out.

Meanwhile Blackguard and Paladin duked it out. Despite Paladin's bulky size Blackguard was tired enough to the point that most of Paladin's punches were hitting him. The Golurk grabbed the weary Lucario and tossed him to the side. As he rolled about Blackguard slammed a hand down on the ground, some of the chaotic juices flowing into his form and slowly helping him to regenerate.

"Hey! That's stored energy!" Paradox snapped.

"Just a little..." Blackguard chuckled as he got back on his feet and fired a chaos sphere at the Golurk. The Lucario rushed forward and Paladin held his ground, waiting until he was close and firing off an Earthquake by slamming his hands against the ground. The Lucario leapt up and landed on Paladin's back where he slammed a chaos sphere at close range. He then leapt off and fired several more with Paladin barely having time to block a few. As he landed though the Golurk once more slammed his hands against the ground, this time successfully catching Blackguard off guard and forcing him to fall onto the ground as the earthquake ripped into him.

It seemed like every single thing that Paradox did was calculated to anger Hanso, aside from the battle to the death. The Gallade pushed out a wave of Dark energy around himself to try and counter the Confusion. While he was occupied, Genevieve rapidly fired a small Psychic shot at each of the strings holding Penance, each one glowing with a bit of the Gold Crystal's power.

Paladin kept his feet rooted on the ground while Blackguard staggered about, but finally the Lucario was able to jump into the air and slam a large, powerful dark ball into the ground, causing the Earthquake to cease.

"Heh, let's go somewhere a bit more private," Blackguard said, charging right at the Golurk. Paladin avoided his initial tackle and tried to counter with a quick Shadow Punch, but Blackguard performed a backflip which allowed him to land on top of Paladin's back again, after which he struck the Golurk with several punches to the neck.

Paladin suddenly saw the scenery around him melt away; his allies as well as Paradox just dissipating, as he found himself surrounded by complete darkness, Blackguard before him. He recognized the feeling; they were back in the Lucario's mind.

"It's about time I ended you, you damn nuisance!" Blackguard boomed. "You've outlived your usefulness!" With that the darkness around Paladin seemed to stir, and dark pillars began to rise up from the ground to slam into Paladin.

The Golurk felt the power of the Gold Crystal seem to surge through him all at once, and he shot out a beam of light from his palm at one of the rising pillars, shattering it into pieces. However one emerged behind him and slammed into his back, forcing him forwards and onto the ground.

"Not that easy! It doesn't matter how much Gold power you have, goldie! NOBODY! KILLS! THE BLACKGUARD!"

Paladin grunted as he got up and turned to smash another pillar to pieces using a fist encased with light. "You misunderstand," said Paladin as calmly as he could. He seemed more determined now as he began to march closer to Blackguard, smashing the pillars that got in his way with beams or punches. "I'm not here to kill you!" He said as he stood right before the Lucario. Blackguard released several dark beams from his palms, which Paladin managed to catch with his own hands and keep at bay. Blackguard began stepping back from the large imposing Golurk.

"No! What are you doing?!" Blackguard exclaimed.

Paladin swatted away the dark beams and activated his jets, which sent him flying at the Lucario at top speed. Blackguard managed to duck underneath the flying Golurk and counter by sending Dark balls after him in one swift motion. Paladin grunted as the balls hit him, deactivating his jets and skidding across the floor a bit before coming to a stop.

"You stole something from me, Blackguard!" Paladin said. "My evil! You took all of it! My anger, my hatred, my despair!" He began to walk towards the Lucario again. "I want it back!"

Blackguard grinned slightly and suddenly sank into the shadowy ground. "Keep dreaming! This evil's mine now, and I'm going to destroy you with it!"

Suddenly pillars started rising from the ground again, but also dark balls and beams and all manners of attacks. Paladin found himself trying but failing to swerve past all of them, getting hit by a pillar directly in the chest which sent him flying up. He landed on the ground with a crash, but still the adrenaline and the Gold Crystal's power kept him going. He got up and slammed a fist into the ground.

Suddenly the darkness on the ground gave way to a white, marble floor. Paladin grinned as he saw the Gold Crystal energy he'd released into the ground spreading.

"Damn it!" Blackguard exclaimed as he was unveiled from behind the darkness. Paladin saw him and sent out a light beam at him, hitting him square in the chest and knocking him back.

Blackguard looked down to see that there was some sort of bright, shining string that had attached itself to his chest. He clawed at it to try and get it off but had no success, as Blackguard approached him.

"As much as you might hate to admit it, Blackguard," Paladin began, "you're just a part of me that was ripped out. It's time to take you back. Become whole again." Paladin aimed an outstretched palm at Blackguard, who found himself unable to launch any attacks because of the white string.

"Bullsh*t!" Blackguard spat. "I'm going to consume you! I'm going to eat your very soul, and become reborn! I! WILL! SURVIVE!"

Paladin nodded calmly, as he shot out another light beam at the fallen Lucario. "That you will, Blackguard. You won't be dying today. You're mine, not that Dark One's!"

The beam began to wrap around Blackguard as he struggled and tried to get away. The white strings extended and wrapped around his entire body, leaving only his head bare so that he could look upon Paladin one last time.

But then Blackguard smiled. "Hehehe. You can't...kill...the Blackguard...after all..." He muttered as he drifted into unconsciousness.

Paladin grinned, and used the strings to lift Blackguard into the air. He could feel the Dark One, the Silver Crystal, pushing back against the power of the strings, but he resisted. "You will not have me!" Screamed Paladin as he focused, the darkness beginning to spread across Blackguard's body again.

"YOU WILL NOT HAVE ME!"

At that moment, the darkness dissipated into a cloud of black smoke that drifted off into the distance, and Paladin could feel the tension releasing. He fell to his knees.

"Take back the darkness," Paladin muttered. From the large crack on his chest emerged a sickly green smoke which inched its way towards Blackguard and began to envelop him, finally reducing him to an orb of darkness. The green gas dragged Blackguard's essence back through the crack in Paladin's body, and Paladin screamed out in pain.

He clutched his chest and began to wheeze. He knew he had to endure this. He felt the darkness fighting against the light of the Gold Crystal, but eventually he allowed them to coalesce, to join together. No longer was this the Dark One's power. This was now Paladin's power.

Paladin sighed in relief and got up. He discovered that his metaphysical body was now being once again partially enveloped in a sickly black hue, but this time it felt good. He had control of the darkness. He felt it enter his mind, empowering him as it never had before. One of his eyes shone a menacing red, the other a bright yellow. He grinned widely at his new form.

"You can't...kill... the Paladin..."

Paladin held out a hand, creating a shimmering portal back into Paradox's mind. "Let's finish this," he said as he stepped through.

Penance cried out as the strings began to snap, a small smile on his face as he fell with a thud on the floor. Paradox just snapped his fingers to send down more strings, but on contact with the duck they dissipated and he nodded, "I see... gold tribe energy. So, you DO care about the duck." He chuckled and blasted out another Confusion at the Gallade, "Soon enough you'll be in a hell just like him Hanso. How will it feel... I bet that's what you're wondering."

Penance grunted as he lowered his hand and shouted over to the siblings, "Brynn, take him on! Electric attacks mind you if you have them!" He looked over as a portal once more appeared and he whistled as the Golurk stepped on through. "Well don't sit off to the side, help us out already!" Penance shouted at him.

Sorry, no electric attacks here, Brynn mused. She didn't need to say it where Paradox could hear, though.

Hanso didn't bother to block the next Confusion; a little of it had struck before he teleported to Brynn's side. "I'll die before that happens," Hanso retorted, throwing a Psycho Cut that coincided with his sister's Psychic blast. "You'll die instead, anyway." He began walking toward Paradox, firing a Dark spear, followed by another. "Know how annoying you've been? You've got Penance beat in that department." Bringing his hands up, Hanso began building an orb of his Hidden Power. "Then again, 'annoying' isn't strong enough a word."

Careful, brother, Brynn relayed, getting ready for another Ally Switch and Protect. You don't have a lot of energy left. Hanso wasn't listening, was he? At least Paladin was back.

Paradox chuckled as he looked around, "Well a full house we have here!" He said gleefully, "But... I only need one of you." His eyes locked on Penance, "Let's have a dance shall we? But before we do..." In a blink of an eye he appeared before Hanso with a glowing ball of chaos in one hand, "Let's see your hero get killed off!" He giggled as he shot the ball right at the Gallade.

Hanso drew back his arm to throw his Dark orb and fired at the same moment Brynn began to Switch in. Her Protect flickered on with the Dark orb caught partway through the edge, canceling both and allowing Paradox's attack to come through. To Hanso, Brynn seemed to fly backward into a wall in slow motion before crumpling to the ground. It felt like a part of him died along with his sister.

"D*** you." Almost reflexively, Hanso reached back out into the physical realm. A second later, his pending Future Sight ripped into the mental room and barreled toward Paradox.

Paradox gritted his teeth as he was hit, but a split second later he ported next to Penance and grabbed him, "Heh, I'll be back later for you Hanso." He said with a smirk and then he quickly disappeared with the Golduck.

Hanso stared at the spot where Paradox and Penance had been for several seconds before going to Brynn's side. He wasn't sure if he walked or ran, he didn't care. Dropping to his knees beside his sister, Hanso watched her face, tried to probe her mind. Nothing. She was dead. In a moment of weakness, the Gallade sat back and leaned his head against drawn-up knees, quietly crying.

~~~~~

This time the two reappeared in a empty corridor and he threw Penance down, smiling as a chaos ball crashed into him and tossed him back.

"Hehe... well this is it isn't it?" Paradox sneered as he began to circle Penance. "So alone... so helpless before me."

Penance just chuckled and shakily rose, "Not entirely alone... " He said with a small smile. I do always have plans and friends with me."

Paradox snorted, "Oh really?" He sneered, "You think those freaks out there are your friends? Heh, this world is dying Penance. Soon enough the Dark One will take over everything, you know that. You guess before and I confirmed it. Already Rey is opening the portal and one by one your friends will die."

Penance giggled a bit, "Yes... and I'll rather die than be a puppet. You think it's easy just sitting there with nothing to do? Nah!" He waved a hand in the air, "I need to do things! It's who I am! I need... energy and all." He smirked, "And I know that once I beat you I'll be able to do that."

Paraodx snorted and crossed his arms, "I am inside your mind Penance." He tapped his forehead, "Forget? We are one and the same. Any thoughts you make I know. Any plans you form I'll know instantly. It's powerless to try and fight me to be frank. Just lie down and maybe I won't tear you aprat limb by limb." He snickered, "Though I'll make sure that you'll be alive in here forever. I think it'll be fun to drive you even crazier than you are."

Penance chuckled in turn, "You don't get it yet do you?" He asked with a **** of his head, "Nah, you'll figure it out soon enough... hopefully. You aren't that stupid are you?" He asked with a cheery grin.

Paradox sighed and readied two chaos balls, "Fine. I see you want to be punished." His red eyes flashed as he shot out the balls, but Penance was quick to port, appearing next to the chaotic being and shot out a Confusion at him to push him back a bit. Paradox just chuckled and leapt forward, grabbing Penance by the arm and threw him down the corridor.

Penance was quick to rise though and he narrowed his eyes, looking to try and shot out a confusion, but at the last moment he sent out a Disable just as Paradox was throw a Water Pulse.

"Hehe, too unpredicatble still?" He chuckled as Paradox instead held up his hands and shot down a Confusion at him. Penance held up his own hands and likewise sent out a Confusion that hit against Paradox's and caused a small explosion between them. Paradox was silent for a bit and he chuckled, "Well, similiar tactics huh?" He sneered and Penance shrugged, "You can say I'm buying time."

Paradox sighed, "Hanso will not find you. Paladin will not find you. You are all alone. Get that in your head!"

Penance just shrugged, "I think I can win. I just have to hold out long enough." He chuckled and the chaotic Golduck shook his head, "Even without me you were crazy beyond belief." He held up his hand and a chaos ball formed in his palm, "Well you'll go down soon enough, and you know what? I just might kill you this time."

Penance held out a hand and made a beckoning motion, "Come on then. Kill me and let's end it."

Paradox smirked, "Oh, I'll be coming... but first." He suddenly opened his mouth as a loud Screech shot down and Penance held up his hands to block his ears as the loud scream hit into him. As Penance squirmed Paradox teleported next to the duck and hit him hard in his gut and held up his hand at point blank range, shooting a Confusion right into Penance's face.

Penance was thrown back and hit into the ground hard, but he managed to hold out a hand to bounce him off of the ground and allowed him to land on his feet. "You'll have to do better than that!" Penance shouted out and Paradox narrowed his eyes, but then blinked, "Wait... what the..." He narroed his eyes a bit more, "Your... mind... I can't-"

He didn't get to finish as a glowing orb apepared in Penance's hands, "Heh, guess the cat is out of the bag then?" He asked with a wink. He thrust his hands out and a bright yellow beawm shot out right at the corrupted Golduck.

Paradox screamed out as the beam hit iinto him, but he managed to get out of the beam's pat after a few seconds and quickly backed away, "No... no... how? You didn't have any gold energy before!" He cried out.

Penance just smirked as a silhouette of a Gardevoir appeared behind him, "You can say... it was passed onto me." He aimed a finger at Paradox and a few bursts of gold light shot out to slam into Paradox, each hit driving him back bit by bit and slowly shrinking his size. More and more shots hit into the the corrupted version of his mind and Penance walked upu as the smoke cleared, a small version of Paradox now glaring up at him. "No matter how small I become... no matter how weak you may make me... I'll always be here. You'll never be clean like a Sentinel." He sneered. Paradox chuckled softly, "Oh yes... you awakened me and I'll always be here Penance."

Penance looked down and pointed his finger down at him, "That may be... but I beat you, so I consider that a win." He smirked as he shot out one last burst and Paradox shattered into pieces... though as those pieces fell a darkness sunk out and began to cover the ground. Penance watched as the darkness swarmed about his mind, seeping into his core and he sighed, "Heh... never can get rid of what you open right?"

He closed his eyes humming a bit as he disappeared, only to reappear in front of Hanso, "So... heh, that was a nice gift." He said with a smirk. "Thank you Hanso. You are the hero after all and the heroes always win." He said with a wink.

The tears had stopped long before Penance came back, but Hanso didn't respond for a long moment. "Hero." He lifted his head to stare up at the Golduck before coming back to his feet. "Hero?" Despite their height difference, Hanso reached up and punched the side of Penance's head. "Cut it out with all your dramatized story crap. And you caused a lot of trouble by gettin' yourself corrupted. And that's aside from everything else with the Gold Tribe and your Affiliates."

Penance staggered back and fell down on his rump, but laughed out loud. "And yet learned so much!" He said gleefully. "Every negative becomes a positive now!" He said happily as he hopped back onto his feet, "Don't worry about her Hanso, trust me on that." He said with a wink, "But we can't be worrying over dead Gardevoirs, oh no. We need to get up there! Stop the big boom from happening! If it works up there, think of how boned we are!"

He looked over as he saw Paladin coming over and gave him a quick glance, "We are all slaves to our own corruption." Penance murmured. "That is until we fight against it."

He glanced at the Gallade, "It's hard and I know you'll cry and weep yadda yadda, but bear it down. Turn that to anger to that Zangoosey guy up there! Heh, he's a Zangoose! You can never trust them!" He shook his head, "Anyways the main thing is to head up and split his head open and help out old Zaney boy." He giggled a bit, "You do that Hanso, help us with that, and I'll let you in on a surprise!" He winked at the Gallade, "So sounds good or what?"

Paladin looked over at Brynn and let out something equivalant to a sigh, "The Dark One is responsible for this." He said, "I will personally ensure that he pays for this."

Penance grinned, "See? Rock boy here has it."

His anger was already built up inside him, but Hanso's voice was flat as he spoke. "The Gold Crystal's power wouldn't have stayed with Brynn once she died. You have it?"

Penance held up a hand as a bright gold orb appeared in his palm. "Yes I do." He said with a nod. "Though I think you can use it better hero boy." He tossed it over to the Gallade and rubbed the underside of his bill. "Now, once you're all peachy keen, we can head back out and start this beating!" He chuckled a bit.

Hanso caught the gold orb, which disappeared from sight as he siphoned it back into the gem around his neck. He didn't wait after catching it; the Gallade had turned and begun walking away during Penance's last words. "Unless you want to stay here, Paladin, you have either the gem or the Lucario's body to come back to. I'm gettin' out of my free fall now, and we can discuss with everyone what your plan is, Penance. I'll be dumbfounded if you haven't come up with one already."

Penance smirked, "Hehe... you can say I've been planning this ever since Cape."

~~~~~

As Rey shot out his dark colored Thunder there was a soft whoosing sound behind him. The reaming warriors had been teleported behind him and Penance had a Water Bomb in his hands, "Greetings Rey." He said as he thew out the Bomb at him.

Paladin likewise readied his arm and attempted to hit the normal type with a flurry of Aura Spheres.

Hanso had built a Future Sight orb before they'd come up, letting it build for a few moments before releasing it to return later on. He fired an orb of his Dark Hidden Power, infused with a Psycho Cut and a bit of the Gold Crystal's power. Beside him, Genevieve attacked with a Psychic blast and two prepared Thunderbolts. Blitzkrieg took off with a roar and breathed a Fire Blast at Rey from the air.

Silver City

Just as the colossal Thunder began to approach them, Rey was cut off from fully forming the terrifyingly powerful attack as he was struck from his side by an attack Zane was all too familiar with. The Water Bomb his him squarely in between his shoulder blades, causing him to momentarily stagger, and turn his head and see the origin of the attack. As he did this, the concentration he had been building for his attack had suddenly vanished and the entire Thunder began to dissipate around him.

To Zane's surprise, he would see Penance standing there. He appeared to no longer be possessed by Paradox or chaotic energy, and along with him were Blitzkrieg, TrueStriker, Genevieve and a Lucario who he believed looked like Blackguard, but who apparently didn't fight as him anymore. Whatever had occurred down in the previous level, it appeared that they had been successful, much to Zane's relief. Though it appeared not to come without any casualties, as he saw no sign of the Cleric.

Rey was caught off guard by the premier attack from Penance, but swiftly summoned up more chaotic energy around him to engage the following attacks as they came by him. He put his hands up to block the Aura Spheres of Paladin, the fighting energies impacting against the dark energy first to lessen the blow before breaking the protective layer and damaging his arms. He held his ground through the attack, long enough to whirl sideways and raise his arms to intercept the combination attacks of TrueStriker, Genevieve and Blitzkrieg. His veil around him, which was a combination of his own power and the silver crystal's energies, held off the bulk of their combined power. That is, until two more attacks came upon him from the opposite side, originating from two unexpected sources. A Hi Jump Kick from a Mienshao and a Volt Tackle coming from a Zebstrika knocked at the side of Rey and struck at his chaotic coating, shimmering and distorting it long enough to distract Rey to focus on them while the trio of attacks from Blitzkrieg, TrueStriker and Genevieve continued onward in front of him. Small imprints of their power burst through and struck at Rey, causing him to skid along his feet across the marble floor for a good few meters. However, it wasn't long after that the dark shielding surrounding Rey's body was slowly forming back from the damage that the new arrivals caused...though it did so slowly. Even in all the flair and ferocity that Rey had showed by mercilessly dispatching Sword and Shield and Dryad, even he had his limits. With everyone here together, Zane dared to hope that they had that chance.

Zane quickly occupied himself with the arrivals of new allies, from the survivors of the battles with Paradox and Blackguard to the Mienshao and Zebstricka. Surprisingly, Zane instantly picked up on who the Mienshao was, remembering that, like Genevieve, he too was a Sentinel that they had successfully turned.

"Scar!" Zane exclaimed, surprised but pleased to see him up and about, and more particularly up to speed with everything.

"I figured you could all use some help," He declared with a nod, looking across the worn faces of the others. "I was filled in at Cape City on the situation and came here through the help of a Psychic. I met this one along the way," He explained, pointing toward the Zebstricka.

"Raishuma Arashi," The Pokemon announced with a quick nod. "You can call me 'Crucible'. I'm the brother of Bane and Calamity." He made a quick glance across the others, probably to see if his mentioned siblings were among them. He tried to put the thought of their lack of presence out of his mind for now, and focused on the current situation instead.

Rey glanced around at the newly gathered fighters, but also examined the older ones. If he was worried, he certainly didn't let it appear across his cool, calm demeanor. Even in the face of many enemies, the very atmosphere around still hinted that he held all the cards, that he had all the advantages, that he was in charge. The only difference for him would have been how long it took to finish them off.

We need to find a way to get myself and Vigil inside the portal! A voice belonging to the Keeper permeated the skulls of the fighters. But there is too much energy around it to enter as it is now. We must either defeat or severely weaken the Wielder before we would be able to pass inside! Quickly, time is of the essence!

Rey quickly scouted around and prepared another powerful attack. With the power of the Dark One and the Silver Crystal fueling him, it appeared as though he had an unlimited amount of power within his grasp. He unleashed a power wave of chaotic dark energy across the room in another wave of the Dark Doom. No one was safe from his wrath until they were dead.

Penance 'Madman' Malum​

Penance just smiled all the while at the Zangoose, his eye glancing about quickly and nodding absent-mindedly to the Alakazam, "Yeah sure whatevs." He looked back at the dark wave that was being sent and yawned out loud, "That all you got!?" He grinned as he held out both hands and his red gem twinkled in the light. A red beam shot out, a Disable in fact, as he kept up the pressure. "Man, he's strong." Penance muttered. "Okay… everyone just stay behind me and I'll get this sorted out!"

He looked back at the wave and smirked, "Hehe… well, a lot of chaos you still have huh? You know I know… you know I figured it out back before I even got corrupted." His smile widened, "So… do you bet that he'll ever live? Cause at this point, I'm seeing him die here and now. These mon… they've traveled so far, and besides, they're the heroes. Not myself exactly, but you get the idea. Hehe, it's not a perfect story if the heroes don't win right?" He grinned ever so wider. "Just know that Rey. Because I have a good feeling you'll be dying today."

The Golduck grunted as the attack was held off and he huffed a bit, "Though I must thank you for the gift abilities. They will REALLY come in handy here."

Hanso, Genevieve, and Blitzkrieg
Citadel - Top Floor
~~~~~

As the wave of the Dark Doom approached, Blitzkrieg landed on the ground in front of Penance's group, about to use Protect. The Salamence stopped himself when the Golduck's Disable shot out, then pushed off into the air again to fly above the other Pokemon.

Much as it would be a pleasant surprise, Hanso was sure Penance's Disable couldn't hold up forever. It wouldn't stop the Wielder from moving closer, for one thing. A completely frontal assault wasn't the answer, either. The Wielder had been surprised by the arrival of Scar and Crucible, so he wasn't all-knowing. Looking around, Hanso noted the large hole in one wall; that would provide plenty of flying room for the dragons. Linking to the minds of the rest of the Gold Tribe, Hanso said, "Try to keep him in one spot." To Blitzkrieg, he added, "Can I get a lift? I've got something in mind."

In response, Blitzkrieg swooped low over them, allowing Hanso to jump up and grab onto a leg. In the meantime, Genevieve cocked her head at the appearance of Scar. When exactly had they turned the Mienshao away from his Sentinel life? What did he think of it? No matter, she could find out later. Genevieve turned her attention back to Rey. Her eyes glowed red for a moment as Genevieve concentrated on trying to hit Rey with her Hypnosis.

In the air, Hanso pulled himself onto Blitzkrieg's back. "Okay, you need to fly away from the Citadel."

"What?!"

"Just do it. You have an impact attack? Prepare it right now, I'll 'port us to where we'll hit Rey from the other side, hopefully he won't be looking. I can then get us out of range." As Blitzkrieg pulled his wings in to fly through the hole in the wall, outside, Hanso began putting up a wall of his Dark Hidden Power around them. The Salamence's body began glowing with the white energy of a Giga Impact. Hanso laced both attacks with some of the Gold Crystal's power from his gem, then concentrated on what he'd last seen of Rey's surroundings.

A Teleport later, Hanso and Blitzkrieg were back in the room, behind the Wielder. The dragon was still flying forward at full speed, with both Giga Impact and Hidden Power about to hit Rey. Hanso didn't know if this would actually work.

Silver City

They mass explosion of energy from Rey was clumsily contained by Penance's Disable, which ended the attack from being released...for now. Rey skidded to a halt, but didn't let it show at all if he held any dismay. Instead, he silently observed the Golduck speak, and when he was done, he merely shook his head. A silence was upon the room, soon after, with Zane expected Rey to retaliate with another one of his monstrous attacks. As of yet, none came, and he was far too nervous to charge in blindly for another frontal assault. Those didn't seem to work with the Wielder.

"You talk. You talk....A LOT," He exhaled, wrapping himself with more chaotic energy in response to the attempted infiltration of his mind by Genevieve. He attempted to shield himself from her Hypnosis, and repelled the effects from him with an exertion of his power. Rey stepped forward again, the dark energy subsiding around him, and proceeded a few more paces forward again, as if nothing had happened. Zane noticed TrueStriker and Blitzkrieg move away for a moment, something Rey didn't seem to spot as he busied himself for that moment with the Hypnosis.

"You've always talked, even as Defender. Even as the Madman. Even as Paradox. And still you talk." His eyes fixated on the Golduck in front of him, and moved along to the others behind him, including Zane who moved behind him at his call of the Disable. "You talk to prove a point. You talk to get under your opponent's skin. You talk to show off. The problem with talking so much..."

Rey's eyes began to glow, and above him, dark, purple energy formed into multiple, brilliant balls of energy. Zane prepared himself for what appeared to be balls of energy which would form into some sort of attacks. Yet instead, they formed into orb-like shapes which began to form some sort of images in the center. The images began as blurry silhouettes which Zane could barely make out. As seconds passed, these images became more clear. They turned into Pokemon, and scenery behind them. As they cleared up even more, Zane recognized the sights and sounds which came from them. The orbs were showing the cities of Valkaria! Upon closer inspection, Zane saw General Belas commanding his forces to frantically push back an enormous wave of Ancients in Cape City. He had a large cut above his head, and looked weary beyond belief. In another one of the orbs, Zane watched as General Hazone tried to hold off an equal amount of Ancients in Eternity. The wall had already been breached on their part, and Ancients were pouring through into the city. Pokemon were being cut down. The situation was the same almost every screen. Cape City. Shine City, Gravel City, Albia. But Eternity City seemed to have it the worst. The soldiers were doing their best, but all they could do was hold off. Eventually, Zane could tell that they would all fall. The orb in Eternity City quickly cut from the observance of Hazone instead to an older Golduck, one who Zane recognized as Matthius Malum, Penance's father, who frantically fought for his life as Ancients by the dozens closed in around him. The screen quickly cut away from the scene, again moving to another and leaving the state of the Golduck unknown.

"...is that eventually, you have to answer for what you say." Rey concluded. "So you think I'll die today. Alright, but don't just say it. Show me. Prove it. End this," There was a moment, as Rey spoke to them, where Zane was almost certain he saw the Zangoose's eyes slightly water, as if he was truly imploring them to do it, as if he was still deep inside his head, wishing for them to succeed. Perhaps he was imagining it, but a moment later, the crisp hardening of evil filtered his irises once more, and his voice grew cold. "Or just keep standing there and talking. Because as the soldiers and citizens die, among them, so do those you all care about as well."

He moved his hands up, and the balls of energy reacted to the movements and also moved higher into the air. "I think I'll allow you to watch with your dying breaths as you fail to save everyone and everything you love." He went back into his fighting stance.

Just as he did so, however, TrueStriker, riding on Blitzkrieg, suddenly chose to appear right beside the Zangoose, with their full ferocity behind their attacks. The flapping of wings were the only indication that they were coming. Rey reacted as quickly as he could, turning himself around, only to find that the two of them had intentionally sped up in advance with their attacks to not give him that time to react. Still, the Wielder was lightning quick. Just as the dragon had begun ramming into him with the Giga Impact, Rey called upon dark energies to come to his aid, as he wasn't quick enough to pull off a Protect. The energies began shielding himself even as his feet slid him further and further back. Another moment later, TrueStriker's Hidden Power joined the mix of attack and also collided with Rey's dark, chaotic barrier around his body. Rey tried to halt his feet on the ground, trying to gain back momentum on his side, and seemed to slowly be doing so. The two attacks were starting to be held off by the barrier, as it got used to the amount of pressure and energy it was under.

Then something odd happened. A twinkle of gold emerging from around the two attacks, a portion of the Gold Crystal's power from the gem, suddenly lit up and shot through the attacks, latching itself right onto the dark barrier. Rey opened his eyes wide in surprise, one of the first emotional reactions noticeable on his face. The Gold Crystal, a normally passive energy, sought out a weakened point on his energetic barrier, and forced itself open. The entire barrier hissed, swung around wildly, and collapsed from the pressure leaked in. All at once, it flickered and died, and the combo attacks from TrueStriker and Blitzkrieg hit Rey, for the first time, directly on his body.

Rey was flung backwards, crashing into the side of the Citadel. He groaned and picked himself up, shaking off any dust or rubble along his body. The Gold Tribe, however, didn't want to give him any rest. In almost an instant, Zane, Scar, and Guardia were already upon him, striking at him with a series of close range attacks. Zane charged in front, seizing the opportunity of the chaotic energy not protecting his body and tried to ram right into Rey with an Iron Head. Rey's reflexes quickly picked up on the incoming blow, and blocked the attack with his left arm. From his other side, Guardia chose to try to slash at him, who also intercepted the blow with his own claws, the two clashing in place. From the center, Scar began a flurry of Close Combat punches directly onto the chest of the Zangoose. With both of his arms preoccupied, Rey took to trying to block most of the punches with one of his feet, the Zangoose picking up his left foot and clashing with Scar's claws at each punch and slash.

The three tried to force back Rey, but he held firmly. Zane then grabbed for his hand, with Guardia doing the same with his other arm, and Scar leaping over Rey and holding his torso in place. "Hit him!" Zane yelled to the others around, as Rey began to struggle to break loose of the grips placed around his body. He began summoning more chaotic energy towards him, exerting it from his torso and arms and striking at the trio holding onto his body. Zane could feel the dark power striking at him, with the Bisharp screaming in pain at each pulse of energy the Zangoose unleashed. He felt his arm weaken for a moment, as he wanted nothing more than to simply let go and let the immense, excruciating pain stop. But as he was near the point of blacking out, his eyes focused on the images from the orbs above. General Belas was hit by a blast of some sort, knocking him to the ground, and he was slow to get up. All around, Ancient took advantage and began to surround the General. Belas struggled to get up. In Eternity City, General Hazone was suddenly being overwhelmed by dozens of Archeops and Aerodactyls in the air, who had now successfully brought the Dragonite from the sky and knocked him down to the ground with a series of multiple shots to him. At these sights, and many more as countless Pokemon died on the screens in the city, Zane fought the strength deep inside to keep his grip on Rey, and even tighten it. "HIT HIM NOW!"

Penance 'Madman' Malum​

As his opponent kept on talking Penance blinked and cocked his head, "Wooooooow.... so THAT'S what I sound like." He didn't seem to really react to the spheres, though one image did make his eye twitch. He looked back over to the being and readied another Water Ball, "But you do know, if you rush in without bothering to stand back and observe, then you die. It's a mistake I made last time... but I learned something. For every sacrifice made, it's a sacrifice made so that a purpose can be achieved." He chuckled softly, "So in short, words don't hit me now."

He began to pace about as the Zangoose got ready to strike yet again he grinned as the sight of dragon riding Gallade burst out next to him and slammed into him. Then it soon became a pile up as the others were dashing on over and doing their best to hold him. Although Zange was crying out to the others to attack he was already working. He formed Water Bombs and tossed them out at the Wielder. Yes, they COULD do this, but it was not the time to start cheering and by far it was too early for that. He knew what was coming, he just hoped the others had already seen it coming by this point already.

He stopped his assault momentarily and looked over at that black portal. He already was forming calculations in his mind, trying to do his best to think of every possible thing that could happen with that. It was too far along to stop it, that was for sure, but if anything he could focus on one thing to do. He turned his attention back to Rey and held out a hand. In an instant the Zangoose would feel a psychic force grip his neck and slowly began to twist it about. He was resistant to external attacks... but what of internal attacks?

Ragnaros and Rey - Silver City

With Zane, Guardia, and Scar desperately clinging onto the arms and body of Rey, Wildfire managed to stumble onto her feet and initiate what appeared to be the built up energy she had been gathering while on the ground. The Focus Blast-infused Close Combats struck resonating blows along the chest of the Wielder. With each hit that was forced upon his body, the chaotic shield shimmered to try and come to his defense. Yet with each following blow Wildfire initiated on the Zangoose, the darkness was getting lower and lower. With the amount currently circulating in and around his body, he would be unlikely to break free of his current predicament.

When Wildfire stopped and moved back, Penance quickly jumped in, first attaching with Water Bombs, before then electing to target his mind. The combo of an internal and external assault caused more hits to not hit along fresh skin, without barriers between them. Rey knew at this point he needed more power to push them all back.

Throughout this, Zane and the others held on for dear life, even as waves upon waves of the Dark One's energy was tormenting them. He looked at Guardia, who gritted her teeth wildly to try and ignore the pain. Scar was in a similar predicament from behind, perhaps getting the worst of it by the way he was holding onto Rey's body. It was at this moment that they began to see the dark portal reacting. Again, a flood of energy began to pour from the portal. It was a reaction Zane was expecting, was dreading, but was also hoping for. They needed the portal drain if they were to enter it. It wasn't enough yet, but it was getting close.

At this point, Rey had gathered an abundant amount of energy, the chaotic darkness once again travelling across his body and along Zane, Guardia and Scar. Penance's infiltration into his mind was thrust out as his body coursed and oozed raw power. In a single wave of chaotic energy, Rey forced the trio holding onto him back with a Dark Thunder-like attack, one which almost exploded like a nova of energy outwards, and forced the three, battered warriors to the edges of the room. None of the three immediately rejoined the fight. Likely, they were too wounded to do so.

Ragnaros stood against him. The Salamence had taken his share of wounds, but he was still standing, his massive chest going up and down as he breathed heavily. He had half shut his eyes in an attempt to stare at his opponent alone, and not his fallen comrades. This can't go on, the Salamence thought, I will have to join the fray.

"Stay out of my way," he said to the others, still staring at the figure of the Zangoose. He broke a sneer.

He'd lost count of how many times he'd burst into dragonfire, but he did it again. This time, he didn't hold back to save his energy for later - it was now or never. The full-scale Dragon Rush he unleashed made the ground shimmer and melt under his feet; he spread his wings and took flight, shooting himself at the foe at full speed.

Rey, being the smaller, more nimble of opponents, a package of ferocity in both speed and power, elected to avoid the large dragon's incoming assault, instead focusing on recovering his strength and power. He rolled to his right, with Ragnaros passing right beside him. Rey continued to recuperate his chaotic barrier and his energy instead. As he rolled, however, he managed to twirl his body so that he was facing the direction of the Salamence, and fired a small, more central Thunder focusing entirely on him.

The Salamence flipped mid-air, stopping abruptly and changing his course. The dragonfire followed him; Rey's dark thunder struck through it, on the Salamence's side. The shock and pain made him tremble, but his rage persevered and, close as he was to his foe, he found the opportunity to use his fiery breath. The thick stream of flames was joined by the fire of the Dragon's Rush into a more powerful Flamethrower; the flames consumed the air with a constant, deep roar and were released in a cone, razing the citadel's ravaged floor and everything in front of Ragnaros.

The wide range of the attack made it nearly impossible for Rey to attempt to dodge. However, having siphoned off a large amount of the Dark One's power through the portal, his chaotic and dark energy had return to roaming around his body, and at the stimulation of enormous power heading towards him, it reacted at once. Rey held up his hands to form his own chaotic barrier, which reacted almost immediately to the burst of dragonfire and flames which it had impacted. Rey found himself having to rely on a lot of his energy to hold off this onslaught of flames. However, eventually, as more and more power entered from the lair of the Silver Crystal to the body of the Wielder, the more powerful the barrier and Rey's own power became. What started off as barely holding onto the power of his dragon opponent turned into him slowly forcing it back.

Yet a barrier's power wasn't enough to cause damage, and Rey quickly summoned up the power of his dark Thunder again. Sparks spread across his form, with electric energy circulating across the impacted area of the flames. They started in small portions before spreading like a multitude of connected electrical energies. At once, the Thunder came more from a diagonally-positioned spot and came forward from the barrier which Rey held up and targeted the fire, attempting to force the dragonfires back towards their master.

This time, Ragnaros was ready for the lightning strike. His breath ceased, the stream of fire dissipating into embers; he jerked to the side, raising his wing for the Thunder to pass underneath it, missing it by an inch. Dragonfire made for a burst off Ragnaros's body upon drawing more power for a Dragon Claw; he closed the little distance between him and the Wielder with quick, heavy steps and slashed directly at his barrier, putting all his weight and power behind the attack.

"No one is invincible," the Salamence spat out in anger, watching the portal shed more of its dark energy towards Rey. "No one."

Upon the heavy impact from the dragon, energy poured from the portal right toward the Wielder's barrier to prevent it from shattering. Instead, the barrier shimmered, faltered, but held on steadily as Rey held his arms up to protect himself from the attack. He snorted a bit, shaking his head and stepping forward now.

"No, but for you, it will certainly seem that way," He answered back. Being a proficient close-range fighter, Rey took the opportunity presented to him. He gathered up the energy from the portal, moving at a lightning quick speed toward the Dragon. Dark power began infusing inside of his left arm and paw, and at once, he thrust the arm right toward the tough scale-covered body of Ragnaros, followed by the same with his right. He repeated it, attempting to smash against the dragon with a powerful darkness-infused Close Combat. As he had done to Sword and Shield earlier, he sought to end the life of another Gold Tribesman.

Ragnaros chuckled somewhat at Rey's response, glancing briefly at the portal, where the Dark One dwelled. With such powers at hand, might be truly thinks he can defeat us all. And what will happen if they just... run out? He raised his front feet, letting his rear ones support his weight; in this stance, he was easily taller than Rey and could look down upon him. Seeing the Wielder charge in close combat, he brought down his own claws upon the vicious attack in an attempt to block the dark hand of death as it entered the range of his dragonfire; their claws clashed with a steel sound once, twice. Dragonfire and darkness shimmered, energies opposite fighting each other.

"You should have stayed where you were," Ragnaros rasped, gritting his teeth in effort. "Safely away." Ragnaros, still standing at his rear feet took two steps back, forcing Rey to come after him; his dragonfire erupted, releasing torrents as if it came from a volcano, licking Rey's barrier and absorbing the dark into nothing little by little. Then, Ragnaros charged head-first, using his size and weight to overwhelm his opponent.

Rey brought his arms up in an 'X' to prepared for the larger dragon's charge toward him. The second he collided, the barrier acted up to prevent as much of the damage going toward the Wielder as possible, but it didn't stop him from being thrust back by Ragnaros's larger weight and size. He skidded across the ruined marble floors of the Citadel, attempting to get a proper footing so that he could respond. Eventually, he elected to stomp his feet into the marble itself, cracking and breaking it and positioning his feet inside of the marble itself, thereby causing his body to stop sliding from the dragon's attacks. As the barrier held off most of the fire, Rey now finally held off the brunt of the physical assault on his body. As the portal's energy siphoned once more to the Zangoose, his eyes darkened and his power momentarily spiked, as he tried to force the dragon backwards.

Then, almost immediately after, the energy spiked again as more power was given to him, and he positioned his claws in front of his body in preparation of an attack. A Shadow Ball was formed between his paws. However, Rey held off on firing it. Instead, he increased it's power, combining with the chaotic energy around his barrier and within his body, and fired it as a new attack. "Chaos Ball!" He yelled.

Ragnaros took a deep breath, filling his chest well, recognizing that with Rey's barrier protecting him, that Chaos Ball could very well hit its mark - and that would be the end of him. I see, now, he thought, somewhat solemnly. Perhaps the war could be won - Ragnaros still had hope - but this fight of his could not be. Seeing the Chaos Ball form on the Wielder's hand made him realize, he was outmatched by a great deal. And Ragnaros wasn't one to make the half measure of taking flight and hoping to dodge it. He would respond with his own attack... the ultimate move he always saved for situations like these: Hyper Beam. Now was the right time to go all out.

With his mind blank of anything, he dropped his jaws and unleashed it. The beam was infused with the dragonfire from his Dragon Rush, making it grow in size and intensity and giving it a red and blue hue. The colorful beam crushed right onto the dark shield of the Wielder with an impossible sound. The effort required for Ragnaros to keep up with this all out attack started to show on his body, which writhed in pain, his scales melting. It was as if his life force slipped out of the Hyper Beam every second, to be shot at the shield that drew energy from the portal.

Rey's eyes widened with surprise, and he quickly proceeded to defend himself from the power Hyper beam on approach. He knew such power being sent at him was unnatural for most Pokemon to handle in bulk, and by Ragnaros doing so, he assumed he was prepared to go the entire distance to end this. Rey's barrier quickly acted up upon impact, but it became plainly obvious that it would soon wither and die out if he didn't add much more power to it, and fast. The Hyper Beam collapsed onto the barrier like a knife cutting through paper on it's approach towards Rey. However, just as it was close to touching his body, Rey quickly summoned forth an enormous amount of energy from the portal, draining it to the extreme to prevent the ultra-powered Hyper Beam from delivering a devastating blow to him. Rey's eyes went darker than they ever had before. The combination of chaotic and dark energies twirled and danced around his body before infusing into his skin and in the energies around him. They began releasing shots of energy across the room from the mere excess of power which coincided within a single area of space--around the Zangoose.

Indeed the amount of energy which he was gathering was probably too much to handle for any one Pokemon, but when fighting a Pokemon who seeks a deathwish as Rey believed Ragnaros did, excess was nessecary. Quickly, the Hyper Beam was finally stopped in place, but it's blazing energy was still being continuously thrown at him as if it were endless. By the second, energy was being spent from the portal, quickly releasing the dark shroud which hovered around the area. It was a transfer of energy from the portal to Rey, and from Rey it dissipated into the air, burning away at the Hyper Beam's power.

Once again, Rey tried to call up a Shadow Ball in front of him, now having the space to do so, and prepared it to morph into a Chaos Ball. However this time, he poured in a colossal amount of the Dark One's energy, and summoned multiple Shadow Balls to do this. Each one morphed into the stronger, larger Chaos Balls, until half a dozen of these superpowered balls lit up the area right where the Hyper Beam tried to force itself at Rey.

Then, at the command of Rey, the Chaos Balls combined together. If there was ever so much energy poured into two single attacks and thrust together upon a single battlefield, it may have been these two. The new attack was a large blimp of chaos, darkness and shadow, all merging and converging together, having too much pure energy inside of it to take any known natural form. Rey announced this attack, and released it at his dragon opponent, trying to cut through the last of his Hyper Beam attack and rushing forward passed it. Bits of the Hyper Beam's energy poured through the opening Rey gave and struck at him, but he tried to ignored the immense pain of the beam of pure energy, and focus on sending the attack at Ragnaros.

"Armageddon."

Ragnaros stared at his former leader, their faces being lit by his own Hyper Beam. Ragnaros's Dragon Rush erupted once again as he ceased shooting the Hyper Beam. He was breathless, the sound had gone. There was no dodging this attack. There was only one way, and that was forward. The dragon, shrouded in dragonfire, madly charged once again, his mind blank of any thought but destroying his foe.

"Gold Tribe!" He roared, then crashed full-force at the dark barrier of the Wielder. The solid darkness cracked, the fire shrouding and snapping at it, until finally, with a sharp sound that echoed through the Citadel, it shattered. Ragnaros blasted through it like a bullet, finding the Zangoose and bashing him with all his might.

Rey was surprised by the contact of scales upon his own fur, the blow hitting him directly on the chest, a monumental impact whose force was enough to knock the wings off the fastest Pidgeot. He grunted in pain, and smirked through the intense powers swirling around the two of them. A moment of weakness was upon Rey, being in a position where he had slipped from the control of his blast, as pure energy was more difficult to wield, and to where his target opponent stood right before him.

"No!" He yelled. It was a difficult task to surprise the now wide-eyed Rey, but at this desperate of situations, that was accomplished. Before a brilliant light overtook both of them, the result of the detonation of the Armageddon attack. Pure energy, combined with darkness, chaos and shadow permeated the room and the two Pokemon, the bulk of the attack focusing on them as the rest was washed away from distance and concentration. The marble floor below the two began to crumble and shred away, dissolving as if it were a spectacle of dust dancing and then disappearing in the wind.

Then the explosion set in, and it forced Rey flying across the room to the corner, a large hole formed in the center of the last floor of the Citadel, collapsing that portion of the room above, and that area of the ground below into nothingness. Rocks, marble, and stone burnt, broke, and dissolved away. The very foundation of the Citadel shook under the enormity of the blast released.

Then the blast had subsided, and besides the soft falling and crumbling of rock marble around, all was quiet.

Penance 'Madman' Malum - Spectator​

Penance just sort of watched as the fight went on. There was Ragnaros, but then Rey was there, and then it was Ragnaros launching an attack, and truth be told it kind of got boring after a while. Now if it was any other fight he would have dozed on off and snored there and then, but since this fight had the end of the world attached to it he managed to stay up to watch it. He knew Rey couldn't be killed that easily. He had seen what was truly here, who truly was orchestrating this fight and frankly it was only going to get harder. He wasn't that beat up thankfully, but he was already calculating their odds in his head. They were down three GT, and yes Paladin and himself had some darkness in them that they could control, but that would only cause the favor to tip into the Dark One's hands.

If they hit chaos attacks at him he would just absorb it, not only that but it was possible he could absorb their chaos and that would be that. Light would lose and the world would be destroyed? He supposed. Though it would get boring after that really, kill everyone and do what for a thousand years? Toss a rock up and down in the air? If anything Arceus would just destroy this world and rebuild another with everyone virtually dead. He had nothing to lose because of that and Penance knew it would be within his power to do so… though yet again, the Dark One would know that as well.

Chaos was so tricky to figure out! As the two fell into the rubble Penance eyed the portal, "Vigil. Get there." He said. "We all know what you have to do and if the others don't then they haven't been taking notes as usual. I'm certain at this point it's low enough in power, so get in and we'll take care of things after that." He glanced back at the rubble, "It's far from over unfortunately, which means another two pages!" He burst into laughter. "Oh I crack myself up! But seriously, get in there."

Silver City

Ragnaros's words were quickly mirrored by Penance, and Zane gave a weak smile to the dragon in front of him as he closed his eyes. It was often said that at the end of your life, in your dying moments, one would show their true face you. It was then that you could learn the most about someone, some things that you wouldn't know from even your closest comrades. It was a very pleasant feeling to learn that in his last moments, as in his entire time that he was with him, Ragnaros the Bloodthirster was practical and blunt. Just as he always had been.

Zane chose to honor his final request, realizing that this was still not the end. He exerted every possible muscle in his body, or at least that's what it seemed like to him, as he tried to stand. His pushed himself off the floor with his right hand, and then his left. He let out a groan of pain the entire time, bordering a scream. Finally, he managed to stand upon his two feet, both of his knees shaking and having to support himself with one hand on the side of the room. He lay his eyes one last time upon the broken body of Ragnaros, and proceeded forward. "Goodbye, brother." Zane muttered under his breath. Bloodthirster had given them this chance to see this entire saga end, and Zane see it done.

Zane proceeded to take his first few steps forward, noticing the agonizing pain that came with each strut forward. His body had taken so much punishment over the last few hours, both outside on the plains of Valkaria, to the torturehouse of Silver City, to the bottom of level of the Citadel, and now here on the very top. He had truly given it his all in this fight. Now, it was time to give just a little more.

Zane felt himself slipping off the side, his legs unable to hold him up. Yet before he hit the ground, and arm grabbed hold of his shoulder, and kept him up. Turning over his shoulder, he saw the damage figure of Guardia holding him up. "Here, let me help you," She said, slinging his arm over her shoulder to help him walk to the portal. Zane nodded at her, whispering a small thanks and leaning onto her body. It made the walk easier, both physically by supporting his weight, and mentally by making the march with a friend.

"You always did have my back," Zane managed to say, despite it now being difficult to talk.

"And your front. Hell, I pulled you out of the fire so many times I lost count!" Guardia jokingly teased. She always did know how to make him smile. Even when they were younger. She was always the upbeat, go-at-it, no nonsense one.

Zane made a small chuckle. "Heh...thanks for being here...with me at the end..." He replied back.

"Hey, we're the Gold Tribe. It's what we do, isn't that right, brother?" She asked back, a smile on her face. Zane looked at her and nodded back. "That's right..." His voice barely above a whisper. Looking back at Guardia he even noticed how much she had grown in all of this. The young, disrespectful, rebellious warrior she had been, the one who was denied becoming leader by Rey, was transformed before Zane's very eyes. And he couldn't be more proud.

"You'll have to do the rest without me," He commented. Guardia's face went into a frown. "The Dark One...I don't really know what to expect, but I know you can do it. Together."

"Zane..." She began, but a sudden burst coming from the side of the room filled with rubble interrupted her. From the broken marble and rock, the familiar figure of Rey emerged. He was bleeding across his body, with an especially large cut right on his chest where Bloodthirster had struck him. He panted heavily, shuffling forward toward the two of them, who had stopped dead in their tracks. Zane and Guardia both looked on at him with wide eyes and disbelief. Even after all of that, he was still standing.

"Admirable effort," Rey began, huffing between sentences as the bits of dark energy still around him began to awaken and gather for what Zane presumed to be the their death. "But you were never meant to win this fight. Certain events attributed to you coming this far, as I had wanted," Rey shakily raised both of his hands at them, as well as to all the remaining Gold Tribe members around the room. "Yet now comes the time where all things come to an end. Gold Tribe..." He began, the power of the Dark One fueling him as he prepped another Chaos Ball to fire upon them all.

"Goodb-"

CRACK! Rey turned his head down, to the origin of the loud, breaking sound which pierced the room. A large fissure now displayed itself on the brilliant silver crystal which hung around his neck. Rey widened his eyes. "What? How?" He began, trying to determine what had happened which caused the crack to form.

"There were always two who had the power inside of them, Rey," A voice said behind them. Rey turned around, and saw the old Alakazam the Keeper standing right in the entrance of the portal, his body slowly leaving this realm as he entered the Dark One's. "Looks like my part in this tale is done. I'll leave the rest to you!" He yelled to the others, and all at once, the remainder of his body vanished from sight.

Instantly, both Rey, the portal, and the screens which displayed the battles of the cities seemed to react. The large, Chaos Ball which Rey held in his hands suddenly collapsed in front of him, a bright, golden light seeming to penetrate the blast from its very center. The portal seemed to shake and stir furiously, and loud noises of unidentifiable origins were heard from within. In the battles of the cities, large portions of the Ancients which were attacking the cities suddenly froze, many of their eyes glowing the same tint of the chaos and darkness power of the Dark One. Then, their eyes slowly brightened, and golden light pierced through them. Many of these Ancients began to suddenly disintegrate in a combination of the golden and purple lights of the two powers, with many Alpha Alliance soldiers staring with baffled expression. In all of the cities, Eternity City, Albia, Cape City, Shine and Gravel City, large portions of the Ancients were gone. The Alpha Alliance faced a mere fraction of the armies they were challenging only moments before. The size was still exponentially larger than any of their own armies in any one city, but the Keeper was successful in relieved a bit of the pressure from them.

Rey fell to one knee, golden light piercing partially through one of his eyes. Oddly, Rey was now laughing lightly. It was a laugh that Zane fondly remembered, and one which he hadn't heard in years. It was Rey's laugh. "I always knew you could do it," He said, lifting his head up to gaze at the Gold Tribe remaining. One of his eyes were a normal color, one which was Rey's. The other was dark purple, slowly trying to overtake the pure one once more. "You've done so well. I couldn't be more proud," He turned his head to Guardia, "Of all of you. Now...go a bit further." He clutched his head, and struggled, seemingly with the Dark One's power within.

"Father?" Guardia asked, watching Rey fall back to the ground and scream as he fought within his own mind.

"Show me no pity, as I will show you none!" He cried, seemingly with the last bit of his strength remaining, as the dark purple hue of one eyes quickly carried over to the other, and retook full control of his mind. With his last bit of energy, Rey had held on a part of his soul for years. It was a remarkable feat of endurance and preservation. But at this moment, the Dark One had fully eaten it away after so much struggling.

Going back into possession fully as the Wielder, Rey angrily looked at Zane. "You! I've had enough of you! Now you die!" He yelled, charging after him. From his side, Scar suddenly approached and connected with a Hi Jump Kick right on his side. No chaotic barrier got in the way to protect Rey. The Dark One no longer had the energy to provide any more chaotic power to him. He crashed to the side of the room, and Scar quickly looked at Zane and Guardia.

"Get to the portal, quickly!" He yelled, getting into a fighting stance just as Rey was getting back up and prepared to rush forward again. "Don't worry about us, we'll hold him off. GO!" Zane suddenly began moving again, traveling toward the portal as fast as his legs could carry him with Guardia's support.

Scar yelled around to all of the remaining fighters still present. "Everyone! Get up and protect them! Make sure Rey doesn't get through!" He yelled, just as Rey prepared multiple Shadow Balls to attack Zane and Guardia on their way to the portal.