Starlight Aurate
Just a fallen star
Hey everyone! In case you thought I was dead, I am here to disprove that! And if you have no idea who I am, then please ignore the previous statement! This is a fairly old fic which I just recently cleaned up and finished. It may be rather dull, but please read and review! I hope you enjoy:
The verdant dumpster stood in the middle of the brick bulding-lined alleyway. The sky was drained of color, with only the flat expanse of one enormous stratus to fill the space over the buildings. A newspaper fluttered down the littered alley, and the dumpster was empty, save for one small rag doll.
The doll lay in the middle of the dumpster, with its once-scarlet yarn hair now almost colorless from years of exposure to rain and sun. It had a single button eye, the other having been lost long ago. Its sewn-in mouth, which was once a fixed grin, was a frown. The toy stared at the sky, and slowly reached one of its cotton arms and placed a fingerless hand over its breast. Beneath the spotted design of the dress and underneath layers of decayed cotton, a heart, sewn together from scraps of materials one would find lying around the house, rested. A heart that once received copious amounts of love was now loveless, for the child that had once snuggled with it and had given it love had been the same child that tossed it into the dumpster. As the child had grown older, the doll had grown more ragged, and the boy began to lose interest. The doll had been deemed as unwanted, and was thrown out by the child who's heart it once held.
If it had been possible, perhaps the toy would have wept, or would have called out for the boy to hold on to it, and not leave. But, having been as inanimate as it was, it was able to do nothing. It only knew, and now it missed him. But, a new feeling, some strange alien sensation, filled the forgotten toy. Its frown became more pronounced, and its hands bent over themselves, forming tiny fists. From its heart--where rotted and out-dated love still left a trace--to its brainless mind, the manufactured item felt something besides happiness, love, and nothingness.
Anger.
Anger filled the toy as it remembered the times of fun it had had with its owner. Memories of the two flashed by--riding on shoulders while the purple-headed child galloped through woods, varieties of foods staining its mouth as the boy had tried to feed it, peering through an opening in his owner's snow-pants pocket while the child had been skiing, watching from the parting in the zipper at the beach--
As the doll remembered the beach, other feelings mixed with its anger. Hate washed alongside the fury, and the toy felt happiness again, too. However; it was not a happiness that came from the joy of being cared for; but rather, it was happiness that told the doll that it would be able to wreak vengeance on the human that had let it be abused before throwing it out without even sparing it another glance.
A cackle emanated from the doll, and its threaded mouth was torn open as a white spectre fluttered in. The mouth re-sealed itself, but instead of being bleached and colorless as before, it was a sulphurous yellow, with a zipper hanging from a corner. The toy began to float upwards into the air, morphing as its shrieks of laughter resounded throughout the alleyway. It gained fingers, and its yarn hair melded together and twisted itself into a long ponytail. A saffron tail sprouted from the doll's rear, and its button eye became scarlet, with an ebony pupil slit parting the middle. No longer colorless, the doll magnified in size as it became over two feet tall, and its body turned the color of storm clouds at night.
With its new form, the doll knew that it was more than a left-behind item. With the ability to direct its movements by itself and to think complex thoughts on its own, it could feel power flowing through its ghastly form, and it knew that with these powers, it would be able to fulfill its revenge.
With its levitating ability, it flew into the sky, its hopes rising along with its body. It had little idea where the boy might be now, but the creature was prepared to look for as long as it would take. It flew off, skimming the bottom of the cloud over the inactive town to where it remembered the boy having lived long ago.
Water dripped from the stalactites, the little plip-plop sounds echoing around the circular cave. Derek walked through the dank tunnel, sometimes stooping a bit so his head wouldn't hit the ceiling. His dark, violet hair was damp from the droplets of water occasionally falling from the pointed rocks overhead. Sunlight filtered in through the occasional openings in the ceiling, rendering the flashlight at his side temporarily useless.
He trudged on through the cavern, feeling fairly relaxed and pleased to be with himself. He gazed around the interior of the cave, appreciating the great beauty that nature had wrought over the centuries. He would've liked Maressa to come, but she had preferred to go walking through the forest and had let him explore by himself.
Derek shrugged inwardly and pushed the thought aside. There would be plenty of time to see her later; for now, he was determined to enjoy himself and continued trudging along through the circular tunnel.
A brief shriek broke Derek's lighthearted mood. He stopped in his tracks, and became tense, trying to see ahead along the bluish-black rocky walls to where the sound had come from.
"Hello?" he called out a little warily.
Another scream resounded out, cutting across his own inquiry. Derek heard the sound of rocks falling, and the scream turned into a whimper. Throwing caution aside, Derek jogged along the tunnel, rounding a bend before coming to a ledge that dropped about six feet. Beyond the ledge was total darkness. Pulling out his flashlight and switching it on, Derek shone it about the cavern, unable to see anything but rugged, rocky expanse. He heard a moan up ahead, but was unable to see anything that might suggest someone in danger.
"Help..."
Derek heard the soft call, and jumped off the ledge onto the lower floor. Still keeping his flashlight pointed ahead of him, he walked forward. He called out, asking where the person was, and in response, got a moan coming from his left. Walking that way, Derek immediately froze when his flashlight's light alightedd on a single ruby eye, paired with a yellow mouth fixed into a maniacal smile.
Derek froze in mid-step, paralyzed by shock and a degree of fear. His shock soon gave way, and he began to turn back the way he had come and sprint out through the opening, away from the abomination. But his hesitation was too long, and a ball of swirling, jet-black energy flew around him and hit the ceiling. Rocks cascaded down onto the floor, and Derek had to cover his head run back towards his attacker to avoid getting crushed. When the avalanche ended, there was a small opening at the top that led to a medium-sized hole in the ceiling, through which light poured. Stones blocked the exit way, and he was left alone with the ruby-eyed spectre. Derek stood up from where he had fallen in escaping the falling debris, and started brushing off dust from his clothes. The flashlight, which had either been turned off or destroyed in the chaos, was nowhere to be seen.
"I wondered when I would see you again, Derek."
Derek jerked his head up, once again seeing the glowing eye and grin floating in mid-air. As his eyes became accustomed to the dark, and as the the face came more into the faint light, Derek was able to see the body of a Banette with a missing eye. The Pokémon spoke without moving its mouth at all, and its voice was whispy, but not weak. The Banette stopped about a foot from Derek, and as the two stared at each other, the Pokémon's grin became a frown.
Derek stared back at the pokemon coldly. Having dealt with such creatures before, he attempted to push aside his fear and allow years of experience to tell himself that he was all right. However, he was alone with this odd spectre, and had just witnessed it sending a Shadow Ball strong enough to cause the cave to collapse. Something about the ghost creature sparked familiarity, though Derek couldn't figure out why. Above all, he was disturbed to realize that the creature knew his name.
"Don't you remember me, Derek? Don't you know who I am?", the Banette whispered softly.
Tilting his head to the side, the human tried to see what the Banette could be talking about. He stared into its single eye, glowing like a ruby in firelight, as if were trying to burn its way through his skull...
Shapes twisted and distorted before Derek's eyes, and the cave around him vanished. Instead, a rag doll, with a spotted dress and red yarn for hair took Banette's floating place. She was smiling at first, but then began to change rapidly. Her dress tore, the stitches on her leg became undone and cotton spilled out. Her right eye was torn off, and the color drained from her body and clothing. Hanging in the air, she smiled for a minute, before the smile distorted and turned upside down. Her hands clenched into fists, and the smile reappeared on her face as she started to laugh. It was not a pleasant laugh, but a cold, harsh laugh, that chilled Derek's bones.
The doll vanished, and the cave and Banette re-appeared. The ghost's face was livid, and shaking with fury. Derek stared, his face enlightened with understanding.
"Mrs. Lovette?" The words sprung to his lips incredulously. As he spoke those words, he realized that he had always been mentally referring to the Banette as "it". Though the Banette was not really an "it" at all, but if it was from Mrs. Lovette, it must have been a "she".
Banette answered, still looking furious, and as she spoke, her voice grew harder and stronger. "Yes, I am Mrs. Lovette. The doll you once cared for, carried around everywhere, spent time with, talked to, the doll that you loved!" She screamed out the last words, clenched her single eye shut, shaking with fury. Her eye re-opened, staring at her ex-companion in front of her.
Chills ran down Derek's spine, and as he stared at the scarlet eye, glowing eerily in the dank cave, fear crept into his heart. He reached to his pocket for his Pokéballs, but grasped nothing. He mentally swore, remembering that he had let his Mightyena go out hunting and set his Golbat to fly freely for a while. His eyes darted toward the hole in the ceiling, and the mound of stones piling up toward it. If he could climb up there quickly enough....
He pelted toward the pile, scrambling up the stones quickly. His hands scuffed against the rough surfaces of the debris, but he ignored them as he aimed for the escape not five meters above him. He heard the Banette let out a shriek below him, and suddenly began to lose feeling, as if his mind was being detatched from his body. The images of the cave and rocks before him began to fade. Everything turned black for a moment before the world began materializing again.
Sparkling blue ocean water washed up against pale sandy shores. People were dotting the landscape; frolicking in the water, laying under the sun, and some playing volleyball or frisbee. The weather was perfect for a beach day, with a few puffy cumulus clouds lazily traveling across the expanse of the azure sky. People were playing, laughing, chatting, and sunbathing. And Derek was immediately filled with dread.
His heart nearly stopped as he realized where he was. The shores of Lilycove were as bright and sunny as ever, and the day was just as he had remembered it: perfect, with hearts feeling light and all bad feelings pushed to the back of one's mind. To contrast the ease and peace, Derek's mind began to feel terror, and an impending sense of doom.
The purple-haired man's head turned to the right, where he saw a small family sitting together under a large beach umbrella. A small girl ran to the shoreline with a boy a bit taller than her following. Their pale, skinny bodies rushed into the crashing waves, the crystal-clear waters sometimes tripping their feet and causing them to fall under. The two children's laughter mingled with everyone else's.
"No..... Stop." Derek ran forward, his heart racing as adrenaline pumped throughout his body.
The two children ran further and further into the deep ocean. The lifeguards dozing under the sun paid no attention to the small figures making their way into deeper waters. The parents lay under their large umbrella, the warm sunlight and brisk breezes getting the better of them and sending off into a slumber.
Laughter transformed into screams as the little girl was pulled under. The boy let out his own cry of terror before a bulky, navy-blue form leapt at him from beneath the waves and clamped it's many razor-sharp teeth into the kid's arm. However, the Pokémon spat out the bony appendage almost immediately and dove after his previous victim as the boy ran back squealing toward shore, deaf to his sister's screams for help.
Derek cried out in anguish as he reached the shore. His lower body became very wet and he plunged into the water, which was quickly becoming a nasty shade of crimson. The Sharpedo was now tossing the small girl around under the waves. A section of her torso came off, and the Sharpedo swam off with it, leaving the rest of her mangled body behind.
Tears streamed from Derek's eyes as he ran toward the lifeless form floating in the water. He reached his sister, and cradled her torn body in his arms, weeping over her inanimate form; unaware of the people and Pokémon gathered around.
"N-n-noo...." the single word came from Derek's stuttering mouth, as he was unable to speak anymore through his sobbing. Grief and guilt overwhelmed him as he looked back towards the other body lying on the beach, blood staining the sand. People were hurrying to provide what aid they could to the boy--the boy who ran away in fear when his sister needed him most.
As Derek sobbed, he sat for what felt like several hours; but in less than a minute, everything before him became dark and swirling, and he found himself back inside the cave with Banette. His legs were soaked, and he found himself kneeling in a puddle.
"You could have saved her." The comment was thrown-out, almost off-handedly, but the statement drove like a nail into Derek's conscience. He glared at the Pokemon, hate welling up inside his chest as he saw the old doll floating, staring at the human with a half-closed eye.
"W-Why? Why did you do that?" Derek demanded furiously. Tears were still spilling down his face as he gave way to his fury and allowed it to mingle with his misery.
"Why? Why did I decide to put you through your own worst memory? Why did I decde to make you re-live what you had tried to forget? Are you asking why I reminded you not to forget someone you love?! Her screeches rose to an unbearable pitch as they echoed around the dim cavern. "It was because you loved ME! You and I had been the best friends in this world! You loved me, held me, but when it became 'girly' or 'stupid' to play with dolls, you threw me away like it was NOTHING! You left me to rot, and you chose to play with real people and real pokemon." Her mouth curled in disgust as she glared with intense loathing at Derek, her blood-ruby eye glowing with a fury hotter than the fires from Hell. "You made me who I am, and now, Derek, I will shape your personality, and I will shape your life. You will never, ever forget to be there when others need you. But Derek," Benette's face took on an expression of mock pity as she whispered, "what will you do when the people you need are not there for you?"
Derek stared dumbly at his previous best friend as horror overtook him. His limbs locked in place as her ghostly mouth curved into a smile and her eye glowed intensely with a sociopathic pleasure. He felt the ground leaving, everything going dark as Lilycove's beach became clearer and clearer. He let out a desperate cry of despair, but nothing was there to stop him from witnessing his sister's death and his own cowardice. Remorse and grief grew so greatly inside him, but nothing ever changed, for he was always too late to save her, always to late to aid her, and his 10-year-old was form always running away in terror. Just as nothing could save her from the pokemon attack, nothing would save him from this restless spirit....
"HYDRO PUMP!"
The dark cavern returned as a jet of high-pressured water slammed into Benette and sent her crashing into the rocks. Derek snapped out of his vision and stared towards the source of the water stream. At the top of the pile of rocks, silhouetted against the sunlight pouring in from the opening, Maressa stood with her Golduck. Her normally lax features were livid as she looked down on the ghost pokemon with disdain. Commanding her pokemon to cease the attack, she looked down at Derek.
"Are you all right?" she questioned.
Realizing her eyes had not fully adjusted to the dark, Derek stood up shakily as he tried to reply. But he could utter no words as his emotions overwhelmed him again. He fought back a fresh stream of tears and tried to save face as Maressa hopped down from the rock pile and walked over to him.
"What is it?" But she needed no answer as her eyes adjusted to the dark and saw the light reflect off his shining cheeks.
"I'm sorry," he sniffed. He reached a hand up to wipe away his tears, but was stopped Maressa's own hand.
"Don't be," she told him soothingly. She wrapped her arms around him comofortingly. Derek felt her warmth reach him like a comet lighting up the sky in a dark night. He could feel her heartbeat, slow and steadily, and her face exprerssed pity as she compassionately held him in his sorrowful state. She held him there for a few minutes, allowing him to catch his breath and slow his heartbeat, until it matched hers like a played rhythm matching a metronome, and his sobs and tears gradually ceased.
"I don't have to know what happened," she cut him off as he began to speak. "If you don't want to tell me, or if you're not ready to, then don't."
Gratitude overcame him as he looked down at his golden-haired companion. He fell mute, unable to express his how irrevocably grateful he was at these words. Her only response to his dumbfounded expression was to give him a wan smile, and he hugged her tighter as he let out a barely audible, "Thank you."
"Gol?" The duo ceased their hugging as they looked over at Maressa's Golduck, who was pinning the unconscious Banette against the rock wall. His frazzled expression clearly asked, "What the heck do you want me to do with this thing?"
Crossing her arms over her chest, Maressa looked troubled and indecisive. "I don't know.... there isn't really much we can do, is there?"
Derek sighed. "There really isn't. The Banette is just a doll possessed by a restless spirit, and I don't think that spirit will find peace until it defeats me."
Maressa questioned, "But what if we defeat it? I don't really know much about spirits, but if we knock the body unconscious and release the spirit, will it just fly away to the afterlife? Or do you think it will keep floating around, possessing different figures and spreading its malevolence?"
"I think..." Derek hesitated. "I think I might know of one way to get rid of it safely, I just hope that it works. I think it will be best if we go to the Kami shrine, in the Shakina forest."
Sunlight fell to the ground in patches, bringing light to the quiet forest floor. The trees stood well over a hundred meters tall, their broad leaves giving the light a green hue as it dappled the ground. Derek, holding the unconscious Banette, and Maressa walked through the trees, enjoying the serenity and grace of the silent woodlands. The duo stopped suddenly as Derek nodded to Maressa. Sitting down on a large tree root, she looked up at him uneasily.
"Are you sure you'll be okay?"
He nodded. "I don't think I'll have to worry about anything more, and if I do, I'll be able to call for you." He detatched the Poke balls from his belt and handed them to his friend.
Her ocean-blue eyes gazed at him with concern. "Stay safe."
"I will," he murmured as he continued through the forest.
For much of the way, Maressa stared at him as he walked, unwilling to let him go by himself with the Pokemon through the forest; but her fear was needless. The walk was peaceful and unperturbed, and the little ghostly doll did not wake up.
When Maressa was far behind and out of sight, Derek stopped before a large monolith. An assembly of stones leaned on each other, forming a small, open-walled temple. The grey stones were centuries old, yet still smooth, and with the edges not worn away by any amount of wind or rain. The little temple was in full-view of the sunlight, and the slate-colored stones took on an almost alabaster appeareance from the golden light pouring down.
Derek walked over to the monolith and placed the Banette inside. Stepping back, he kneeled on the grassy forest floor, clasped his hands, closed his eyes, and began to pray. If his hopes that the spirit's misdeeds could be forgiven and for its malice to be forgotten, he knew that it would be here, in this most holy and ancient of temples.
After a short while, Derek began to sense that he was being watched. Raising his eyelids, he found the monochrome eye of the Banette staring back at him. Despite his prayers, he could not help feel the hairs rise on his back and his heartbeat quicken. But the blood-ruby eye, which had burned with the intense fire of hatred before, now stared him dully, devoid of almost any emotion. The yellow zipper-mouth curved upward into a slight grin as a little hand reached up and clasped the zipper. Derek let loose a gasp as the pokemon undid the zipper, allowing the mouth to open wide. A shapeless white form rose from the mouth and soared straight up into the air, becoming invisible in the sunlight. All that was left was the little doll, still damaged and colorless, laying on the temple floor with a small grin fixed on its face.
Derek stayed kneeling for a while longer, staring into the sun before he remembered Maressa. Standing upright, he dusted off his pants, collected Mrs. Lovette, and began walking back to where Maressa would be there for him like she promised. As he began his first steps away from the deserted temple, he thought he heard words, whispered in his ear:
"Thank you."
Out-Dated Love
Rated PG
The verdant dumpster stood in the middle of the brick bulding-lined alleyway. The sky was drained of color, with only the flat expanse of one enormous stratus to fill the space over the buildings. A newspaper fluttered down the littered alley, and the dumpster was empty, save for one small rag doll.
The doll lay in the middle of the dumpster, with its once-scarlet yarn hair now almost colorless from years of exposure to rain and sun. It had a single button eye, the other having been lost long ago. Its sewn-in mouth, which was once a fixed grin, was a frown. The toy stared at the sky, and slowly reached one of its cotton arms and placed a fingerless hand over its breast. Beneath the spotted design of the dress and underneath layers of decayed cotton, a heart, sewn together from scraps of materials one would find lying around the house, rested. A heart that once received copious amounts of love was now loveless, for the child that had once snuggled with it and had given it love had been the same child that tossed it into the dumpster. As the child had grown older, the doll had grown more ragged, and the boy began to lose interest. The doll had been deemed as unwanted, and was thrown out by the child who's heart it once held.
If it had been possible, perhaps the toy would have wept, or would have called out for the boy to hold on to it, and not leave. But, having been as inanimate as it was, it was able to do nothing. It only knew, and now it missed him. But, a new feeling, some strange alien sensation, filled the forgotten toy. Its frown became more pronounced, and its hands bent over themselves, forming tiny fists. From its heart--where rotted and out-dated love still left a trace--to its brainless mind, the manufactured item felt something besides happiness, love, and nothingness.
Anger.
Anger filled the toy as it remembered the times of fun it had had with its owner. Memories of the two flashed by--riding on shoulders while the purple-headed child galloped through woods, varieties of foods staining its mouth as the boy had tried to feed it, peering through an opening in his owner's snow-pants pocket while the child had been skiing, watching from the parting in the zipper at the beach--
As the doll remembered the beach, other feelings mixed with its anger. Hate washed alongside the fury, and the toy felt happiness again, too. However; it was not a happiness that came from the joy of being cared for; but rather, it was happiness that told the doll that it would be able to wreak vengeance on the human that had let it be abused before throwing it out without even sparing it another glance.
A cackle emanated from the doll, and its threaded mouth was torn open as a white spectre fluttered in. The mouth re-sealed itself, but instead of being bleached and colorless as before, it was a sulphurous yellow, with a zipper hanging from a corner. The toy began to float upwards into the air, morphing as its shrieks of laughter resounded throughout the alleyway. It gained fingers, and its yarn hair melded together and twisted itself into a long ponytail. A saffron tail sprouted from the doll's rear, and its button eye became scarlet, with an ebony pupil slit parting the middle. No longer colorless, the doll magnified in size as it became over two feet tall, and its body turned the color of storm clouds at night.
With its new form, the doll knew that it was more than a left-behind item. With the ability to direct its movements by itself and to think complex thoughts on its own, it could feel power flowing through its ghastly form, and it knew that with these powers, it would be able to fulfill its revenge.
With its levitating ability, it flew into the sky, its hopes rising along with its body. It had little idea where the boy might be now, but the creature was prepared to look for as long as it would take. It flew off, skimming the bottom of the cloud over the inactive town to where it remembered the boy having lived long ago.
Water dripped from the stalactites, the little plip-plop sounds echoing around the circular cave. Derek walked through the dank tunnel, sometimes stooping a bit so his head wouldn't hit the ceiling. His dark, violet hair was damp from the droplets of water occasionally falling from the pointed rocks overhead. Sunlight filtered in through the occasional openings in the ceiling, rendering the flashlight at his side temporarily useless.
He trudged on through the cavern, feeling fairly relaxed and pleased to be with himself. He gazed around the interior of the cave, appreciating the great beauty that nature had wrought over the centuries. He would've liked Maressa to come, but she had preferred to go walking through the forest and had let him explore by himself.
Derek shrugged inwardly and pushed the thought aside. There would be plenty of time to see her later; for now, he was determined to enjoy himself and continued trudging along through the circular tunnel.
A brief shriek broke Derek's lighthearted mood. He stopped in his tracks, and became tense, trying to see ahead along the bluish-black rocky walls to where the sound had come from.
"Hello?" he called out a little warily.
Another scream resounded out, cutting across his own inquiry. Derek heard the sound of rocks falling, and the scream turned into a whimper. Throwing caution aside, Derek jogged along the tunnel, rounding a bend before coming to a ledge that dropped about six feet. Beyond the ledge was total darkness. Pulling out his flashlight and switching it on, Derek shone it about the cavern, unable to see anything but rugged, rocky expanse. He heard a moan up ahead, but was unable to see anything that might suggest someone in danger.
"Help..."
Derek heard the soft call, and jumped off the ledge onto the lower floor. Still keeping his flashlight pointed ahead of him, he walked forward. He called out, asking where the person was, and in response, got a moan coming from his left. Walking that way, Derek immediately froze when his flashlight's light alightedd on a single ruby eye, paired with a yellow mouth fixed into a maniacal smile.
Derek froze in mid-step, paralyzed by shock and a degree of fear. His shock soon gave way, and he began to turn back the way he had come and sprint out through the opening, away from the abomination. But his hesitation was too long, and a ball of swirling, jet-black energy flew around him and hit the ceiling. Rocks cascaded down onto the floor, and Derek had to cover his head run back towards his attacker to avoid getting crushed. When the avalanche ended, there was a small opening at the top that led to a medium-sized hole in the ceiling, through which light poured. Stones blocked the exit way, and he was left alone with the ruby-eyed spectre. Derek stood up from where he had fallen in escaping the falling debris, and started brushing off dust from his clothes. The flashlight, which had either been turned off or destroyed in the chaos, was nowhere to be seen.
"I wondered when I would see you again, Derek."
Derek jerked his head up, once again seeing the glowing eye and grin floating in mid-air. As his eyes became accustomed to the dark, and as the the face came more into the faint light, Derek was able to see the body of a Banette with a missing eye. The Pokémon spoke without moving its mouth at all, and its voice was whispy, but not weak. The Banette stopped about a foot from Derek, and as the two stared at each other, the Pokémon's grin became a frown.
Derek stared back at the pokemon coldly. Having dealt with such creatures before, he attempted to push aside his fear and allow years of experience to tell himself that he was all right. However, he was alone with this odd spectre, and had just witnessed it sending a Shadow Ball strong enough to cause the cave to collapse. Something about the ghost creature sparked familiarity, though Derek couldn't figure out why. Above all, he was disturbed to realize that the creature knew his name.
"Don't you remember me, Derek? Don't you know who I am?", the Banette whispered softly.
Tilting his head to the side, the human tried to see what the Banette could be talking about. He stared into its single eye, glowing like a ruby in firelight, as if were trying to burn its way through his skull...
Shapes twisted and distorted before Derek's eyes, and the cave around him vanished. Instead, a rag doll, with a spotted dress and red yarn for hair took Banette's floating place. She was smiling at first, but then began to change rapidly. Her dress tore, the stitches on her leg became undone and cotton spilled out. Her right eye was torn off, and the color drained from her body and clothing. Hanging in the air, she smiled for a minute, before the smile distorted and turned upside down. Her hands clenched into fists, and the smile reappeared on her face as she started to laugh. It was not a pleasant laugh, but a cold, harsh laugh, that chilled Derek's bones.
The doll vanished, and the cave and Banette re-appeared. The ghost's face was livid, and shaking with fury. Derek stared, his face enlightened with understanding.
"Mrs. Lovette?" The words sprung to his lips incredulously. As he spoke those words, he realized that he had always been mentally referring to the Banette as "it". Though the Banette was not really an "it" at all, but if it was from Mrs. Lovette, it must have been a "she".
Banette answered, still looking furious, and as she spoke, her voice grew harder and stronger. "Yes, I am Mrs. Lovette. The doll you once cared for, carried around everywhere, spent time with, talked to, the doll that you loved!" She screamed out the last words, clenched her single eye shut, shaking with fury. Her eye re-opened, staring at her ex-companion in front of her.
Chills ran down Derek's spine, and as he stared at the scarlet eye, glowing eerily in the dank cave, fear crept into his heart. He reached to his pocket for his Pokéballs, but grasped nothing. He mentally swore, remembering that he had let his Mightyena go out hunting and set his Golbat to fly freely for a while. His eyes darted toward the hole in the ceiling, and the mound of stones piling up toward it. If he could climb up there quickly enough....
He pelted toward the pile, scrambling up the stones quickly. His hands scuffed against the rough surfaces of the debris, but he ignored them as he aimed for the escape not five meters above him. He heard the Banette let out a shriek below him, and suddenly began to lose feeling, as if his mind was being detatched from his body. The images of the cave and rocks before him began to fade. Everything turned black for a moment before the world began materializing again.
Sparkling blue ocean water washed up against pale sandy shores. People were dotting the landscape; frolicking in the water, laying under the sun, and some playing volleyball or frisbee. The weather was perfect for a beach day, with a few puffy cumulus clouds lazily traveling across the expanse of the azure sky. People were playing, laughing, chatting, and sunbathing. And Derek was immediately filled with dread.
His heart nearly stopped as he realized where he was. The shores of Lilycove were as bright and sunny as ever, and the day was just as he had remembered it: perfect, with hearts feeling light and all bad feelings pushed to the back of one's mind. To contrast the ease and peace, Derek's mind began to feel terror, and an impending sense of doom.
The purple-haired man's head turned to the right, where he saw a small family sitting together under a large beach umbrella. A small girl ran to the shoreline with a boy a bit taller than her following. Their pale, skinny bodies rushed into the crashing waves, the crystal-clear waters sometimes tripping their feet and causing them to fall under. The two children's laughter mingled with everyone else's.
"No..... Stop." Derek ran forward, his heart racing as adrenaline pumped throughout his body.
The two children ran further and further into the deep ocean. The lifeguards dozing under the sun paid no attention to the small figures making their way into deeper waters. The parents lay under their large umbrella, the warm sunlight and brisk breezes getting the better of them and sending off into a slumber.
Laughter transformed into screams as the little girl was pulled under. The boy let out his own cry of terror before a bulky, navy-blue form leapt at him from beneath the waves and clamped it's many razor-sharp teeth into the kid's arm. However, the Pokémon spat out the bony appendage almost immediately and dove after his previous victim as the boy ran back squealing toward shore, deaf to his sister's screams for help.
Derek cried out in anguish as he reached the shore. His lower body became very wet and he plunged into the water, which was quickly becoming a nasty shade of crimson. The Sharpedo was now tossing the small girl around under the waves. A section of her torso came off, and the Sharpedo swam off with it, leaving the rest of her mangled body behind.
Tears streamed from Derek's eyes as he ran toward the lifeless form floating in the water. He reached his sister, and cradled her torn body in his arms, weeping over her inanimate form; unaware of the people and Pokémon gathered around.
"N-n-noo...." the single word came from Derek's stuttering mouth, as he was unable to speak anymore through his sobbing. Grief and guilt overwhelmed him as he looked back towards the other body lying on the beach, blood staining the sand. People were hurrying to provide what aid they could to the boy--the boy who ran away in fear when his sister needed him most.
As Derek sobbed, he sat for what felt like several hours; but in less than a minute, everything before him became dark and swirling, and he found himself back inside the cave with Banette. His legs were soaked, and he found himself kneeling in a puddle.
"You could have saved her." The comment was thrown-out, almost off-handedly, but the statement drove like a nail into Derek's conscience. He glared at the Pokemon, hate welling up inside his chest as he saw the old doll floating, staring at the human with a half-closed eye.
"W-Why? Why did you do that?" Derek demanded furiously. Tears were still spilling down his face as he gave way to his fury and allowed it to mingle with his misery.
"Why? Why did I decide to put you through your own worst memory? Why did I decde to make you re-live what you had tried to forget? Are you asking why I reminded you not to forget someone you love?! Her screeches rose to an unbearable pitch as they echoed around the dim cavern. "It was because you loved ME! You and I had been the best friends in this world! You loved me, held me, but when it became 'girly' or 'stupid' to play with dolls, you threw me away like it was NOTHING! You left me to rot, and you chose to play with real people and real pokemon." Her mouth curled in disgust as she glared with intense loathing at Derek, her blood-ruby eye glowing with a fury hotter than the fires from Hell. "You made me who I am, and now, Derek, I will shape your personality, and I will shape your life. You will never, ever forget to be there when others need you. But Derek," Benette's face took on an expression of mock pity as she whispered, "what will you do when the people you need are not there for you?"
Derek stared dumbly at his previous best friend as horror overtook him. His limbs locked in place as her ghostly mouth curved into a smile and her eye glowed intensely with a sociopathic pleasure. He felt the ground leaving, everything going dark as Lilycove's beach became clearer and clearer. He let out a desperate cry of despair, but nothing was there to stop him from witnessing his sister's death and his own cowardice. Remorse and grief grew so greatly inside him, but nothing ever changed, for he was always too late to save her, always to late to aid her, and his 10-year-old was form always running away in terror. Just as nothing could save her from the pokemon attack, nothing would save him from this restless spirit....
"HYDRO PUMP!"
The dark cavern returned as a jet of high-pressured water slammed into Benette and sent her crashing into the rocks. Derek snapped out of his vision and stared towards the source of the water stream. At the top of the pile of rocks, silhouetted against the sunlight pouring in from the opening, Maressa stood with her Golduck. Her normally lax features were livid as she looked down on the ghost pokemon with disdain. Commanding her pokemon to cease the attack, she looked down at Derek.
"Are you all right?" she questioned.
Realizing her eyes had not fully adjusted to the dark, Derek stood up shakily as he tried to reply. But he could utter no words as his emotions overwhelmed him again. He fought back a fresh stream of tears and tried to save face as Maressa hopped down from the rock pile and walked over to him.
"What is it?" But she needed no answer as her eyes adjusted to the dark and saw the light reflect off his shining cheeks.
"I'm sorry," he sniffed. He reached a hand up to wipe away his tears, but was stopped Maressa's own hand.
"Don't be," she told him soothingly. She wrapped her arms around him comofortingly. Derek felt her warmth reach him like a comet lighting up the sky in a dark night. He could feel her heartbeat, slow and steadily, and her face exprerssed pity as she compassionately held him in his sorrowful state. She held him there for a few minutes, allowing him to catch his breath and slow his heartbeat, until it matched hers like a played rhythm matching a metronome, and his sobs and tears gradually ceased.
"I don't have to know what happened," she cut him off as he began to speak. "If you don't want to tell me, or if you're not ready to, then don't."
Gratitude overcame him as he looked down at his golden-haired companion. He fell mute, unable to express his how irrevocably grateful he was at these words. Her only response to his dumbfounded expression was to give him a wan smile, and he hugged her tighter as he let out a barely audible, "Thank you."
"Gol?" The duo ceased their hugging as they looked over at Maressa's Golduck, who was pinning the unconscious Banette against the rock wall. His frazzled expression clearly asked, "What the heck do you want me to do with this thing?"
Crossing her arms over her chest, Maressa looked troubled and indecisive. "I don't know.... there isn't really much we can do, is there?"
Derek sighed. "There really isn't. The Banette is just a doll possessed by a restless spirit, and I don't think that spirit will find peace until it defeats me."
Maressa questioned, "But what if we defeat it? I don't really know much about spirits, but if we knock the body unconscious and release the spirit, will it just fly away to the afterlife? Or do you think it will keep floating around, possessing different figures and spreading its malevolence?"
"I think..." Derek hesitated. "I think I might know of one way to get rid of it safely, I just hope that it works. I think it will be best if we go to the Kami shrine, in the Shakina forest."
Sunlight fell to the ground in patches, bringing light to the quiet forest floor. The trees stood well over a hundred meters tall, their broad leaves giving the light a green hue as it dappled the ground. Derek, holding the unconscious Banette, and Maressa walked through the trees, enjoying the serenity and grace of the silent woodlands. The duo stopped suddenly as Derek nodded to Maressa. Sitting down on a large tree root, she looked up at him uneasily.
"Are you sure you'll be okay?"
He nodded. "I don't think I'll have to worry about anything more, and if I do, I'll be able to call for you." He detatched the Poke balls from his belt and handed them to his friend.
Her ocean-blue eyes gazed at him with concern. "Stay safe."
"I will," he murmured as he continued through the forest.
For much of the way, Maressa stared at him as he walked, unwilling to let him go by himself with the Pokemon through the forest; but her fear was needless. The walk was peaceful and unperturbed, and the little ghostly doll did not wake up.
When Maressa was far behind and out of sight, Derek stopped before a large monolith. An assembly of stones leaned on each other, forming a small, open-walled temple. The grey stones were centuries old, yet still smooth, and with the edges not worn away by any amount of wind or rain. The little temple was in full-view of the sunlight, and the slate-colored stones took on an almost alabaster appeareance from the golden light pouring down.
Derek walked over to the monolith and placed the Banette inside. Stepping back, he kneeled on the grassy forest floor, clasped his hands, closed his eyes, and began to pray. If his hopes that the spirit's misdeeds could be forgiven and for its malice to be forgotten, he knew that it would be here, in this most holy and ancient of temples.
After a short while, Derek began to sense that he was being watched. Raising his eyelids, he found the monochrome eye of the Banette staring back at him. Despite his prayers, he could not help feel the hairs rise on his back and his heartbeat quicken. But the blood-ruby eye, which had burned with the intense fire of hatred before, now stared him dully, devoid of almost any emotion. The yellow zipper-mouth curved upward into a slight grin as a little hand reached up and clasped the zipper. Derek let loose a gasp as the pokemon undid the zipper, allowing the mouth to open wide. A shapeless white form rose from the mouth and soared straight up into the air, becoming invisible in the sunlight. All that was left was the little doll, still damaged and colorless, laying on the temple floor with a small grin fixed on its face.
Derek stayed kneeling for a while longer, staring into the sun before he remembered Maressa. Standing upright, he dusted off his pants, collected Mrs. Lovette, and began walking back to where Maressa would be there for him like she promised. As he began his first steps away from the deserted temple, he thought he heard words, whispered in his ear:
"Thank you."
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