EVERYBODY! TOGETHER NOW!
Penance frowned as the pressure seemed to become more intense. Darkrai apparently was so focused on using this Dark Void that he wasn't dishing out any other attacks. That was good... in a way. It meant less physical damage and more mental damage. Personally he was taking it in stride. He had spent many years in his maddened state after all, he knew how to drown out darkness better than most or to warp it in his eyes. The others though... at this rate everything would come crashing down. If just one of them fell, then the chances were that they would all die. He wasn't sure entirely how the corruption worked still, but he was certain another Sentinel was something they couldn't handle at this point.
His mind raced as he saw the others being affected in different ways, but more importantly he felt his own mind being hit by that chaos even more. Sure he had defeated Paradox, but he had no doubts in his mind. This chaos would probably ressurect him again. They had to work fast if anything... but they had to do something else. Personally, Penance would never do this beforehand, but it was something that was necessary now.
He began to expand his mind outwards, grunting as he extended his powers to wrap around the minds of Guardia, Scar, Wildfire, Hanso, Paladin, Rai, Blitzkrieg, Genevieve, and Levina.
Okay, so we're all fine and dandy here right? Right! Now here's the plan. A dead guy once showed me that it's usually better to stand together than to stand alone. This rings true here and now. I know, I know, I killed goldies before, but trust is key now. I haven't killed any of ya right? And I have no plans to. You all saw why I fought that good fight. Information is to be shared... and likewise we must share more. Our strength. We keep each other up here and now. We're going to lean on each other and survive this, because with this web up if one of us falls, we all fall. A bit of incentive to not be corrupted eh? We are going to stand tall and beat this m***erf****r! Get pumped everyone, because we are not dying today!
When Penance shared minds and expanded into the others, Guardia and Scar instantly felt the relief of the extra weight they were all carrying now together. With a shared consciousness, the Pokemon inside of it could now band together to help each other fight the darkness. The disadvantage however, was that now Darkrai could concentrate his darkness in the pool of connected minds. His Dark Void would be more focused, but so would their strength. It was time to see which one would overcome.
Guardia didn't expect it from Penance, but he was absolutely right. Right at the end of everything, the only way to win this was to help each other out. Those that had more experience to deal with it had to show the others the best way. With their connected minds, they could share their strength, their psychic resistance, their memories, and their will to win. The mental strength of connected minds relieved most of the pressure from her for the moment, but she saw what was coming ahead of them. Darkrai's wrath came forward.
The Dark Void now flowed through all of their connected channels, instead of reaching each of the minds separately, he pooled his energies toward the connected minds of the Pokemon who Penance linked. Darkness came out of the void he created, and slammed toward their minds, not in a string or even as a slow fog creeping along, but as a hammer of energy slamming against any barriers that possibly stood in the way.
Penance readied his own power to counteract, also hoping that Hanso would push forth some power as well. "Remember all! Remember what we have lost!" At that several images would flash before their eyes. Images of lost friends, images of destruction. "We are not going to lose now!" He cried out. The Golduck's eyes glowed a deep blue as anger flowed into his mind, "We fight, and we fight hard! Everyone, lay it on him!" He readied a Water Pulse in each hand and threw them at the legendary.
Hanso immediately took part of the workload in keeping their minds connected and set about building mental defenses. While he did so, he began feeding some of the Gold Crystal's power from his gem throughout their minds. Not all of it; Hanso felt he would need some for later. Thoughts flowed through his mind, memories of the last battle for Shine City, of his journey since the jailbreak, of finding his sister again and losing her. There was no way all their losses was going to be for nothing.
Blitzkrieg had initially put up a Protect in an attempt to block out the Dark Void, but it had worked only a little. When Penance connected their minds, the Salamence could feel the burden lessen. He let out a roar, energies combining inside him. "For Valkaria!" Blitzkrieg then released a Draco Meteor infused with a Fire Blast and Dragon Rage at Darkrai.
Genevieve did nothing at first, simply watching the Dark One as he targeted their collected minds. Now that he was bringing his power to bear, a part of Genevieve wanted to give up and give in. It would be so much easier, and she herself wouldn't have to worry. Just let the Siren loose once again...
No! The Gardevoir's eyes lit up as she began to fight back in the mind. Her arms crackled once again as Genevieve fired more Thunderbolts at Darkrai.
Wildfire could feel the Dark Void almost as a physical force as it probed at her mind, bashing against the defences she attempted to put up. Exhausted as she already was, the temptation to just give in to the invading darkness was powerful... Sleep would be a welcome relief right now... As she felt her senses lulling and her vision blurring, she snapped her head up from where it had been close to falling limply against her chest. Her eyes burned as she forced them wide open, refusing to so much as blink. She needed something to focus on, something that would keep her mind on the battle; throwing out attacks was too instinctual and didn't require a lot of thought, so that wouldn't work... Wildfire was suddenly given the focal point she needed when Penance connected to all of their minds. Now she needed to stay awake not just for herself, but for her comrades; that was enough for her.
With the renewed strength she felt flowing through the link, Wildfire's flames flared a bit hotter and her limbs no longer felt like they were dragging her to the ground. Her gaze sharpened, and energy swirled to life in her palms much more quickly than it had before; with a thrust toward the Dark One, two more Focus Blasts launched towards him. While she wasn't nearly back to full power, and she still felt the pressing of the darkness trying to break through into her mind, she felt more alive than she had for the better part of the battle.
Guardia saw the images of Pokemon they had lost. She remembered all those that fell in the initial strike years ago. All her friends that fell in the invasion. She remembered taking back the cities, but watching Dark Lightning sacrifice himself to save them during the ambush. She still remembered looking back that final time and seeing him fighting off the armies of the Silver Tribe to give them this chance to fight back. She remembered Calamity, and all of the others who fell to bring them to this moment, including just on this very level in the Citadel. She remembered her father, and she remembered Zane. At this moment, she felt the spirit and will of everyone of her fallen brothers and sisters help push her way through the darkness as it clashed onto them all. She did everything she could to not only stop it in its tracks, but also push it back.
Scar too did his part, remembering the pain of the transformation, the pain of the memories of leading armies of Ancients to slaughter his brothers and sisters in the way. He remembered every Gold Tribe member's face as they were killed, and knew that he could never go back to what he was before. He had to fight back! Both Scar and Guardia fired off their attacks at Darkrai while they held him at bay. Scar launched a Shadow Ball, and Guardia struck him with his Lightning.
They were remarkably resourceful for ants. Darkrai stared and stared, awaiting the first of them to turn into his slave, to do his bidding. It only took one of them to turn for him to have enough power to summon forth more energy, to have enough power to take them all down. But that was the problem...the more they banded together, the stronger their will to survive and endure seemed to become. What was worse, at this very moment, all throughout Valkaria, all fighting had ceased. His Ancients were destroyed, and for the moment, the Pokemon all believed that the war was over, and that they had won. They felt no fear, no anger, no violence or chaos in their hearts. It was the disadvantage he was in, and to his great surprise, they held him off. Darkrai grumbled deeply, trying to add even more of his chaos energy into the void. He staggered back a bit at the last set of attacks which struck at him, the first sign that his body was not immune to personal damage.
Penance smiled at the sight and pointed a finger out at the legendary, "Gather up everyone! Gather and fire! He's not even worthy of legendary status!" He said more of a taunt to the dark mon himself. He threw out more Water Pulses and smirked, "Darkrai.. to think we were afraid of you. To think that here you are and all you can ever be is a puppet master. That you can't even hold your own in battle, I must say I am VERY dissapointed!"
He knew that the legendary was bound to be more powerful, but at the same time he had to rally his allies, to let them feel hope. That was this mon's one weakness, hope. "Come on all! Let's wrap this up in five minutes! I'm sure we're all starving after all of this!" Now that was a thought, food more important than the dark one! Hope was quite a lovely thing. With that said Penance smirked, "Guardia... ready an attack. Now. I have a plan, you trust me... " He looked over at her with a smirk, "Right?"
"I might regret it later, but for now, I do!" She yelled, simultaneously speaking and trying to fend off the darkness in front of her.
Snype stood firm as the Dark One used Dark Void on the group. The Sableye couldn't really make a good offense back at him since most of his attacks were about getting close and fooling his foes. He felt like he'd just get blown away. Either way his job was to hold the line and that was what he'd try to do, Even if it was tearing him apart. Levina and the rest of the Pokemon were linked together through their minds. She could hear what everyone else was thinking and even felt a little stronger. She was throwing Thunderbolts like nobodies buisness. Snype however, didn't feel different and seemed out of the loop.
"Hey uh... You forgetting someone over here?" Snype said to the Golduck. Levina looked over to Snype.
"He can't connect you with everyone else! Your a Dark Type you dolt!" Levina shouted. Well crap.
Penance looked over and narrowed his eyes, "Snype! Sorry, but you're on your own!" He looked back at Guardia,
You ready? Everyone! Give Guardia your strength! Focus on her and channel everything to her! Trust me on this!
Wildfire's body was relunctant to relinquish the energy it had so recently acquired; however, she did as Penance ordered. While she still had her doubts about the Golduck, his brain was their best hope at this moment; and he was right, they needed to trust each other. She felt her movements grow more sluggish as energy filtered out of her body, through the connection, and to Guardia.
The Crucible, Paladin and Scar too poured their energies to Guardia at Penance's request, giving as much as they could while still trying to fight off the darkness coming toward them.
Blitzkrieg had little choice but to trust the Golduck. He did as Penance said, focusing on channeling his energy to Guardia. He was tired out after that last attack anyway.
Channel everything to one Pokemon? Yes, yes, do that, and Darkrai would either target them once they were weaker, or take out Guardia before she could do anything. Genevieve brought a hand up to her mouth, thinking. There was one way to stop it...in the manner of the Gold Tribe.
Here goes. Genevieve calmly sat down on the floor, folding her legs under her as she closed her eyes. She could feel the darkness inside their network, the chaos that was trying to corrupt them. Genevieve began putting up additional walls to funnel it all in one direction. Into herself.
Immediately, she could feel the darkness trying to turn her again. The darkest part of Genevieve's own mind was already working with it, making it even more of a struggle. Regardless, she continued to funnel all of it into herself. Too much of it would kill Genevieve, or so she hoped, but it should take the pressure off everyone else.
Hanso could feel what was happening. How many more would they lose before this was over? He began funneling his energy to Guardia, including most of the remaining power in his gem. However, Hanso kept some of it for himself. He began walking toward Genevieve, arm-blades extended. There was no guarantee that what she was doing would work. It was possible that she would only become the Siren again.
Levina channeled her energy right into Guardia as planned. She sent whatever electric power that she had to offer toward her. For Penance's sake, this had better work. She was already growing weak the more that she did this. Snype meanwhile was a bit helpless to do much but he had to come up with something! These chumps couldn't take all of the glory! The most he could do was fend off the Dark Void that was slowly draining him. He literally was on his own.
Snype was down on one Knee. He could feel the chaotic effect messing with his mind and digging into his inner darkness which was pretty easy. Snype wasn't the nicest of guys around though he accepted that a long time ago. Snype already was a being of the Dark and he's experienced what its like to be a sentinel and how they behaved. He wasn't going to turn into a puppet like them! Snype attempted to hold his ground, slowly marching forward. He was making himself an easy target to get some pressure off of Guardia hopefully.
Penance felt the others working hard, working to ensure their survival. He closed his eyes and felt Gen's activities. He couldn't help but frown at that. If she fell... would they all fall? He couldn't let that hurt him now! He wasn't holding anything back. He had his faith in Guardia and so he poured out all of his remaing energy into her, even falling to a knee. "Hehe... Hanso... I said I had a surprise... you know." He chuckled a bit, "That thing... I was going to show ya? I think... it's best to do it... now. You... didn't think I beat... Paradox all on my own... right?"
A silhouette appeared behind the Golduck, one of a familair Gardevoir. "Just... a sliver of her saved. Thank you.... hehe. We're all in this together!" More energy flowed out from the Golduck, but it wasn't his own and he grinned at the Zangoose, "Do it."
Guardia could feel the surge of energies inside of her. This surge came not just from her own will and power, but from her friends around her. Together, they channeled all of their extra energy into her, per Penance's request. It was quite a feeling, holding that much energy in her body like that. She knew the great responsibility that came with it. Now, while Genevieve took all the darkness toward her, all the pressure of the incoming chaos was suddenly relieved, and Guardia felt she had this one chance to push back all of the darkness.
Both in her mind and body, she let it all go. The energy built up by her and the channeled energy was released in both a physical attack, in the most powerful Thunder she could manage, while inside of her mind, a block of power was suddenly thrust through the connection and launched at Darkrai's invasion with his Dark Void. The Thunder struck directly across the dark, fog-like body of the Dark One, hitting him straight across the chest and causing him to recoil and stagger back. Guardia continued to thrust the Thunder at him, causing a massive wave of lightning to strike along his chest. A terrible, deep, rumbing howl was heard from him, his acknowledgment of the pain that ruptured his impermanent body form. Yet, combined inside of the psychic energy pushing inside of his mind, it was enough to almost make it seem as if he did. He let out a threatening, shrieking howl, and forced the incoming psychic back. He focused primarily on the Gardevoir who had elected to siphon most of the energy herself. If he could turn just one of them to his side, that would be enough. Yet she had too much inside of her, and if they broke through her last defenses, she would likely die before becoming his slave. Even so, he tried to turn at least one of them, one would be enough...
But the Pokemon's energies continued to endure. Both on the outside and inside the mental barriers of the mind, they gave it their all. All their strength, and will, and determination and hope. Every last bit of every emotion and power they could muster was thrust at the Dark One, the one behemoth behind the chaos of this land. Soon, the powers almost seemed to converge, with the both striking right through their respective zones and at Darkrai. The Dark Void in the center of the room, the unofficial symbol of chaos, doom and darkness for the Pokemon, slowly began to disperse, with Darkrai no longer being able to control it. He no longer had the power to summon forth his own attack.
And, at long last, after everything that the Pokemon of Valkaria had gone through. After all the pain, the fear, the war, the blood, the darkness. The chaos. After everything that they had been put through since the start of this calamity, the Dark One faltered, and was hit all at once on both levels, physical and mental, by the combined efforts of Valkaria's last line of defense. The psychic wave targeted his mind as the Thunder burned at his form. Darkrai fell back and struggled to move. But it was not the end for him. No, this was not how he would end. He summoned the last bit of darkness that his form could muster, and began to form into a fog across the room, travelling out of the open room of the Citadel. As he passed through, this was the last message he said to the warriors of Valkaria.
"Darkness and chaos. These will always exist," His voice boomed through the broken remnants of the Citadel.
"I will never become just a memory."
And with that, the Dark One, the scourge of Pokemon, the bringer of darkness and the master of chaos, disappeared through the night air. The clouds above cleared of their darkened forms, and the heavy burden of war and death was lifted from Valkaria, and from the soldiers who had fought in it. Valkaria was saved.