Phantoms Within The Snow [ON HOLD]

8| Losing My Mind

???? POV

Black.

Pitch black darkness.

That was what I opened my eyes to when the pain disappeared completely, after what happened to me.

"Become one..." a voice suddenly echoed around in my head. "You need to become one."

"Who-?" I went as I looked around while I floated in the darkness, searching for whoever was talking to me.

"Put a stop to the uncontrollable pokémon that awakened within you..."

"Put a stop to the chaos? Awakened?? But, how???" I asked out to the darkness, not knowing where the voice is.

"Reach into yourself. Grasp the flames of memory, determination, and resistance. Use them as your keys to unlock the truth. The truth of who you really are. And to your ancestral links."

"How? And who are you??" I questioned.

"I am ______" The voice began before it said something that I couldn't hear.

"What did you say?"

"______ is my name. Now, go child...You have a situation you must conquer and face. Find the solution, and you'll be in full control and safe. There is more to that once you achieve it later."

Then a bright light shined in my face, before I realized I was suddenly having the outer body experience that people sometimes have in their dreams.

Nightmare's POV 🌙

-Prelude Beach-

Seeing that the wild Zoroark was nowhere, and not even seen in sight, I had a strong feeling that something's amiss.

"Luna, stay quiet and get really close to me." I say as I looked around, high alert at this point.

Not saying anything and was listening to me, she got real close and stayed next to me as instructed.

Setting some of the Sticky globs and balls of mud down, aside in the grass, keeping them well hidden, I kept one in my paw and had it ready to be thrown as I looked around.

Everything was so eerily silent, except for the gentle sound of the breeze, you could almost hear someone drop a pokéball to the ground.

Looking around a bit more, my ear twitched a little before I suddenly took aim, ready to throw the Sticky glob.

Without any warning, a dark shadowy figure suddenly leaped out of nowhere in front of me and attacked, catching me off guard and to flinch as well when I tried to throw the Sticky glob at it.

Right after I threw it, the Sticky glob went past the dark shadowy figure and hitted the tree behind it instead before I was tackled and pinned down on the sandy ground.

When I looked up at the figure that tackled me, the dark shadowy figure turned out to be the Zoroark we were chasing after earlier.

"KOWOWWW!!!" The Zoroark went very loudly, the look in its eyes and on its face, showing uncontrollable fury and manipulation.

When it happened, I immediately glanced over at the spot where my little sister was standing.

"RUN AND HIDE, LUNA!!!" I yelled out at her, while trying to defend myself by blocking the other Zoroark's attacks.

In response, she quickly nodded before going into hiding.

Focusing my attention back on the Zoroark and after a few attempts, I managed to push it off of me before quickly getting up to my feet as we clashed claws with claws.

Eventually, as the battle continued, the Zoroark suddenly sent me flying, making me crash into a bunch of trees that were nearby.

"Ugh!" I went before getting myself back up.

Just when it was about to come after me again, I dodged an attack that it sent me and used Bitter Malice, aiming to hit the Zoroark, which unfortunately didn't hit it.

"How the hell can this one be so fast and strong?!" I thought to myself as I was dodging attack after attack, as the Zoroark was clearly blinded by its own fury.

But, my question about its manipulation still hangs in the air, since I got a good look at its eyes.

Is someone controlling and forcing it to go into a frenzy and attack others when it didn't want to? Or is something else going on behind our backs that caused this to happen, without us getting wind of it?

Looking over, as the Zoroark stopped for a moment to rest within a few seconds, I knew one way or the other that something didn't feel right.

After I waited, it suddenly used Shadow Ball, hitting me with Bitter Malice too at the same time when I tried to dodge, just like how I did it, except it was without the Shadow Ball.

Then it lunged out at me with such blinding speed, without any warning, when I leapt in the air and tried to land a Shadow claw on it, only for the wild Zoroark to grab me by the leg in midair and slam me down to the ground really hard.

All I did was let out a pained gasp after I came down with such painful contact, hurting not only my spine, but the back of my head too.

"Damn it, it hurts!" I thought to myself as I groaned a little and held the back of my head in pain, when I sat up, feeling blood running down on my clawed hands from the head injury I happened to notice that I got.

When I tried to get back up to my feet and prepare myself for another attack, I felt light-headed and dizzy, almost like I'm on the verge of fainting.

Seeing the Zoroark about to land another attack on me, I immediately got out of the way and swung my arm on its stomach hard, causing it to let out a painful screech before quickly getting away from me.

When it got away, I came after it and used Dark pulse, getting a direct hit on the chest.

At this point, I wasn't sure if I was the only one who could see this or not, but I noticed there was some sort of odd energy emitting from the Zoroark earlier before I used Dark Pulse.

Definitely wasn't the golden glow that I spotted in the skies before me and Luna met Yin and learned that she was the one who quelled the nobles.

This kind of energy looked more like black flames with a hint of neon purple, but an eerie shade instead.

Unfortunately, my body started to feel sluggish while I'm trying to defend myself, when I was getting attacked over and over by the other Zoroark, mostly because of the blood loss from the injuries I got during my battle for whatever reason the wild Zoroark had.

Gathering up the remaining strength I had in me, I attacked the Zoroark with Dark Pulse and Bitter Malice combined.

During that moment, the security corps and Captain Zisu had already shown up, before witnessing the battle that's currently happened to me and the other Zoroark, as I looked at them.