Pokémon: An Altered Timeline

Chapter 2: A Voice in the Wind

In a dark forest in the middle of the night, a very colorful Umbreon walked through, trying to take her mind off of what she's been through during the past month. Emitting a soft glow, just enough to see, Kayla keeps walking through the reddish-orange autumn leaves, hearing them crunching under her paws is the only sound that can be heard.

Man, where am I now? I've never been to this place before Kayla thinks as she finds a cave made of almost navy blue stone with a small, circular opening. Kayla gasps, getting a cold wind blowing through her fur from the cave. Curiosity getting the better of her, Kayla makes her way into the cave. Once inside, she notices how dark the inside of the blue cavern is. Her rings slowly fade due to lack of moonlight, and she is left in complete darkness. Huh, I thought I had more moonlight built up than this. Kayla wonders as she turns around and tries to find the exit. On her way back, she finds a new tunnel leading deeper. I should remember how I got here so I can find this place again. As she was thinking this, Kayla didn't realize she was no longer moving on her own accord. Wah? I thought I was going to leave, not go check out every tunnel I see. Confused, she unwillingly padded her way through the smooth rocks on the cave's floor. Eventually, she found herself in a large underground chamber, with a purple line seemingly on the other side of the chamber's wall. Wait, that's the one thing I've found that wasn't blue in here, how odd. Once Kayla actually looked at the line on the wall, she heard a very familiar voice call to her in her head.

"It's not your fault, Kayla." The voice said. Kayla froze, recognizing the voice and invoking a stream of tears to flow out of her eyes. Why is that memory so vivid here? I didn't remember him saying my name. Kayla suddenly loses control of her body again and moved closer to the purple line. Some force caused her to reach a paw out and touch the wall. Suddenly, the line glowed, then changed colors from purple to red. A deep voice startled Kayla once she did this. Are you still afraid? The voice boomed. Kayla, no longer thinking to herself but now out loud shouts, "What are you doing here? I thought I was finally away from you in this world."

Hehehe, the voice laughed. How cute of a thought, if only that were true.

The line started to change again from red to black and then widen, as if it were opening something.

What thought in your mind convinced you that you and I were a world apart? You keep forgetting, I AM YOU.

The black ring slowly changed its appearance, displaying various scenes from the recent months. The images stopped changing at a memory of a Vaporeon with yellow on the tips of his head and nose, fighting off shadow-like creatures with a human with long dark blue hair put back in a sort of ponytail and wearing a bright green jacket. The Vaporeon was slowly becoming overwhelmed by the horde of creatures. Disappearing under the mound of darkness, the Vaporeon turns to the human, who is watching in shock, and says presumably it's last words.

"It's not your fault, Kayla."

"No, no, no no no no no no no no NONONO!" Kayla screams at the rift, tears staining her fur. "I should have done something! I should have been paying more attention to Alex than showing off!"

Oh, so you finally realize your mistake. The voice says. Hehehehehe. Now if only you'd done that then! The voice begins to cackle madly at this as Kayla watches her friend die over and over again.

"Stop this!" Kayla begged. "Stop this! Please!!!"

"It's- your fault, Kayla." With that last sentence, Kayla felt a clawed hand grab her chest, and began shaking her.

"Hey, Kayla." Shade says quietly as he rubs the Umbreon's chest fur in an attempt to wake her up. "Kayla, snap out of it!" He says, tugging her tail as a last effort to get her out of her nightmare.