//------------------------------//
// Dark Ash vs Midnight Sparkle 
// Story: The Dark of Midnight 
// by TaiKetchem 
//------------------------------//

A man with black hair and a blue hat, a blue jacket with brown pants, grey shoes, and a golden necklace was sitting in the forest, under a tree by a campfire with a tall blue jackal at his side and a smaller one that was having bandages wrapped around its arm by the man himself.

“There.” He says and while he finishes patching, the small jackal moves his arm a bit. “You shouldn’t move it too much otherwise it will take longer to heal. Just take it easy with that arm for the time.” He advised, getting a nod in return.

With a hefty sigh, he got to his feet and took some dead branches, throwing them into the fire so that it would last longer. He then went back to the tree and sat against the trunk before the two jackals proceeded to do the same on the other sides, however, the smaller’s ears suddenly twitched.

It stood back up and looked around, catching the man and the taller jackal’s attention. Before the man could ask, he suddenly felt something that caused his eyes to widen before he stood up as well, looking around as well. He stopped in one direction and squinted his eyes as he saw something glowing very far from where he stood.

He took a step forward but then gasped. “Get down!” He called while jumping to the side.

The jackals looked and quickly follow his example as a red beam suddenly flew past them, a delayed explosion soon followed afterward which caused them to cover their eyes. The man sat up, seeing a sizeable burnt trail where the beam had hit which was a frightening sight to see.

Then they heard a distant boom as he and the jackals looked at the source and found that a nearby mountain had blown up. He got to his feet and looked worried before looking in the direction where the last attack had been fired.

“Lucario, Riolu, prepare yourselves.” He says before going over to the campfire and waving his hand, causing a gust of wind that put it out. “We might be dealing with a powerful enemy.”

Then they heard a crackle in the sky as they turned back to the source of the noise. A crack formed in the sky spreading like a spiderweb before a burst of light flashed, nearly blinding those in sight for a second. Looking back, they saw what seemed to be a rift opening in the sky before they watched as a being began to fly through.

“Well, perhaps two.” He says before he and the other two run off to the source.


Chapter 3: Dark Ash vs Midnight Sparkle


The two beings stood before each other, both emitting fearful auras that only affected those around them. The one that inhabited Ash’s body glared at Midnight as she gave him a smug grin in return. Pikachu and Charizard were watching from a distance, not knowing what to do, if they should go approach either of them or not. Much less, afraid of what either of them was capable of.

“My powers?” ‘Ash’ says with an eyebrow raised.

“Yes. I sensed how powerful you were from the world I have just come from, and I want the power you have.” Midnight tells him.

“Really? And you expect me to just give it all to you?” He explains before he began walking, circling around her.

“I require it to defeat the one who defeated and delayed my plans of destruction. I am not able to fight her with the power I have on my own, but with yours, I would become unstoppable and be able to be rid of her once and for all.”

“Really?” ‘Ash’ says as he appeared uninterested. “Let me ask again and be more clear, why would I give you this power to begin with? What would I gain from it? Surely you’re not thinking of giving this power back once you’ve conquered this world of yours.”

“Oh you’re most inclined to not let me have it, but I have to say that the consequences ‘will’ make you regret it.” Midnight then says as the ‘boy’ stopped in his tracks.

“Is that a threat I heard?”

“No… just a warning.” She flashed a grin at him.

He just stared back at her before snorting then lightly chuckling to himself before he turned around to fully face her.

“You think you have the power to fight me?” He laughed.

“And you think I don’t?”

‘Ash’ kept his smile before raising his hands. “You won’t last very long.”

“Oh, I beg to differ.”

Then before she said another word, she fired a beam out of her hand straight at him. It collided and caused an explosion which caused a gust of wind to blow her hair back before it returned to its fiery state.

“Quite a sight, I must say.” Her eyes widened as the boy stood behind her. “But not enough.”

Before she could react, he hit her with the back of his hand with a blast of red, sending her crashing straight into the ground far from them. Seeing his power, he chuckled to himself in amusement before the woman burst from the ground, looking angry as she gritted her teeth before she held her hand out, sending out another blast, only for him to disappear before it hit, destroying more of the ground.

The next thing Midnight knew, she was hit with a kick that sent her flying across the sky. ‘Ash’ laughed as he landed before he disappeared once more and appeared right in front of her and brought his hands together in a single fist. Midnight reacted quickly this time and dodged the incoming attack before enveloping her fist in a blue flame and she slammed into his face, sending him down to the ground.

However, ‘Ash’ flipped and landed on his feet, still causing a crash that leveled the ground where he stood. He barely seemed affected, laughing off the attack before looking at her. She scowled and fired another beam in his direction, which he jumped away from, letting it hit the ground and creating dust. She chased him around the island, trying to blast him but he was avoiding each blast.

“Stand still and accept your fate!” She yells in frustration.

“Okay.” He says as he stops and turns to face her.

Without hesitation, she shot another blast at him. However as it was just about to hit him, a barrier of red aura blocked it off as he stood. His smug face made her furious and scream in rage as her blast became larger. The barrier then started to slowly crack which made the possessed boy shocked to see before thinking quickly and jumping out of the way as his barrier was destroyed.

The beam continued past him before stopping in the air as if hitting another barrier and then causing a crack before causing an explosion that caused a tear to open, revealing the world that his opponent came from. People on the other side practically freaked out at the sight, however one remained with his phone out.

Speaking of which, Spike was running down a street, stopping to catch his breath before looking around. When he found one house in particular he ran for it, stopping at the door and started hopping. He tried to grab the doorknob, but his paws couldn’t even reach it.

“Dang it. Of all the times to not have a doggy door.” He says, muffled by his owner’s glasses in his mouth. 

He ran around the house trying to find any way of entry, but everything was out of reach. He growled before looking around again and looking up at the fence. As much of a risk as it was, it was the only choice he had.

With no other option, he backed up, got a running start, jumped, managed to get grip on the fence, pulled himself up, and then looked at the window that led to the bedroom. The ledge under the window was just big enough to fit his size and lowered his front before taking another leap, latching onto the ledge and pulling himself up.

He then looked into the window, spotting the sleeping redhead, and quickly started scratching at the glass. That didn’t seem to help, so he opted to shout through.

“Sunset!” He called, getting nowhere. “Sunset, get up!” He called once again. “Twilight needs help! Wake up!”

He kept on calling her name, but all that seemed to happen was her rubbing her eyes before turning over. He growled before hearing a crackle as he looked back, seeing another tear open up.

“SUNSET! SUNSET! WAKE UP! WAKE UP!” He then starts frantically scratching, trying to get her to wake up, but to no avail.

Meanwhile, the fight in the other world continued. ‘Ash’ was now being more cautious as he was dodging every blast from Midnight. Some of her blasts were opening up more tears in reality, revealing the other world more and more.

Pikachu and Charizard had avoided one of the blasts, though were plenty concerned about how much destruction the fight was causing. One blast, in particular, they had to duck to avoid, opening a tear right above them.

“Sunset!” Spike was still shouting trying to get the redhead’s attention before another crackle made him jump.

He slipped and grabbed the edge as his owner’s glasses fell. His grip didn’t hold and he ended up falling while yelling in fear as he fell right through one of the tears and into the unknown. The sound finally seemed to wake Sunset up as she groaned while groggily turning to the window.

“What the…?” She says before looking closer before her eyes widen. “Oh, you have got to be kidding me.” She says before hopping out of bed.

She didn’t bother to change, grabbed her jacket, her keys, her shoes, and ran out of her house before getting on her motorcycle and driving off.

“Dang it, why so soon.” She mutters to herself before looking scared as she saw more rifts around the town she was in. “For the love, what’s causing this now?”

As for Spike’s case, he groaned before he managed to get his eyes open. His vision like any was blurry, though he could make out the nightly sky anywhere. He shook his head and then turned to his side, finding Twilight’s glasses in the grass.

He reached to grab them before stopping. His arm didn’t look normal, it looked more skinny now, black and with two fingers. Seeing this, he jumped to his legs stumbling a bit before hearing a buzzing noise. He looked behind, seeing two flat diamond-shaped wings attached to his back and his legs the same as his arms. His body was more roundish and yellowish-green, and his tail was long with two smaller wings at the end.

“Oooooookay…” He says while cringing. “When I was told I’d become a dragon in Equestria, I was expecting something more intimidating.” He says while still looking at himself before seeing the glasses. “Right, gotta find Twilight.” He then picked up the glasses and put them in his mouth.

As he was about to take off, he was suddenly stopped when he saw Pikachu and Charizard in front of him, stopping him in his tracks. Pikachu didn’t give him much of a scare, but he was frightened by Charizard’s size and froze in place.

“Are you okay?” He heard from the yellow mouse, making eye contact with him.

“What?” He said while taking the glasses out of his mouth.

“Did you fall from that thing?” He says while pointing at the portal above them.

“Uh…” He says before looking up at it. “Pretty much yeah.”

“Are you with that woman?” Charizard then asked him.

“Uh…” Spike looks at the glasses. “Which woman are you talking about?”

“Well, like… what does your trainer look like?” Pikachu asked.

“Trainer?”

“Yeah, like who caught a Vibrava like you?”

“Vibrava? I-is that what I’m supposed to be?”

“Wait? You didn’t know?” Charizard asked.

Before he could answer, there was a booming that shook the ground, causing all three of them to stumble. They then looked to the source and saw the battle between the boy and girl ensue. They saw Midnight block a red Aura Sphere as ‘Ash’ appeared behind her, then kicked her, causing her to be hit and get enveloped in an explosion that made them cover their eyes.

“What? What is going on?” Spike says, wide-eyed.

“That’s what we’re here to find out.” The three all turned and saw the man in blue with the two jackals.

The sight seemed to brighten Pikachu’s face. “It’s Riley!”

“Who?” Charizard asked.

“We met him in the Sinnoh region. It’s a long story that I’ll tell you later.”

“If I’m not mistaken, you’re Ash’s Pikachu, right?” The man asked.

“That’s me.” Pikachu smiled.

“I figured as much.” He says before turning to the other two Pokemon.

“Yeah, I’m with him too.” Charizard spoke up.

“I’m not. I’m… actually I’m lost here.”

“I see.” Riley says before walking up and seeing the fight. “So, it was Ash that was causing this amount of destruction here.” He says before turning to the Vibrava. “Hey, you think you can ask Pikachu or Charizard here what happened?”

“Huh?” Spike looked confused. “Uh, can’t they just tell you themselves?” He asked.

“Wait… can you speak human?” Pikachu asked while causing some more confusion.

“What are you talking about? We’re all speaking perfect English.”

“I don’t think you notice this, but Pikachu and Charizard here aren’t speaking my language. Seems as though you can understand both humans and Pokemon and it sounds like we’re speaking the same language to you.” Riley explained.

“Really?” Spike says before looking back and forth. “Uh… okay can you explain then?” He then asks while looking at Pikachu.

“Well, we don’t know what happened. We just followed this weird light to this island, then our trainer started screaming before… well, he became that.” The mouse explained before pointing towards the possessed trainer and girl.

Spike seemed surprised to hear it before looking down. “Just like her.” He says under his breath before turning to Riley and repeating everything he was told.

“So that’s it then.” He says before sighing and looking back to the fight. “To think we’d meet again like this.”

“Okay, well, is there anything you can do to help either of them?” Spike asked.

“Unfortunately at this rate, it’d be suicide to try and intervene. The best we can do is wait for one to wear the other down.”

Spike looked worried but didn’t know if he could do anything. He felt so ashamed that he was practically useless, especially at a time like this when his owner needed help the most.

Speak of the devil, Twilight awoke from her slumber… or sort of. As she opened her eyes, she saw herself in some kind of space-like void, floating in mid-air. Her hair was no longer in a ponytail and her glasses were absent from her face, yet her sight was hindered. She tried to move but was stopped, the sounds of chains rattling filling her ears.

Looking down, she found that her wrists and ankles were bound in chains. She looked scared and tried desperately to free her hands to no avail. She was confused and didn’t catch on to what had happened or why she was in this position.

Then she suddenly grunted in pain. For some reason, her body ached as if it had just been run over. It hurt like hell and she would’ve struggled to stand if she were to. Then she looked up, seeing a window that seemed to lead to outside. She tried to shake herself free again but failed to do so.

“Help!” She screamed out. “Please! Somebody! Anybody! Help!” She continued to scream again and again. “Please!” When it seemed fruitless, she stopped trying.

Then something caught her eye. As she saw the window shake, she saw a familiar hand gripping a shoulder. It was then that she remembered what happened. It was Midnight. She was the one controlling her and that’s why she was in this position, to begin with. She had taken over and was now doing who knows what with her body.

It was then that the window showed her looking up at the boy with a dark aura around him. She seemed confused and began to wonder who that was.

Well, speaking of which, Ash was starting to awaken himself. He found himself in a void as well, though he wasn’t bound by chains and seemed to just be floating aimlessly.

“What? Where am I?” He says before looking around. “What is this?”

He was confused until he saw the window that gave him a view of the world outside. He tried to reach out for the window, but he was out of reach. Then something hit him.

“Why does this look so familiar?” He says before continuing to look out the window into the world.

Then he saw the other girl outside in front of whoever this was hunched over as if in pain. He narrowed his eyes and tried to think if it was anyone he’d seen before, but he couldn’t recognize who it was. Then a voice spoke up.

“Oh, what’s the matter? Don’t tell me, you’re tired already?” He heard a sinister voice say which perked his head up. “I expected more from you. Honestly, I’ve had so much fun bringing pain to you constantly.”

“That voice.” He says to himself. “Where have I heard that before.”

Outside, Midnight was huffing as she held her shoulder, legs shaking in pain. She glared at the possessed boy, furious, especially knowing that she was losing. ‘Ash’ stared at her before chuckling.

“Well, this has been fun, but now I’m bored.” He says before creating a sphere in his hand. “I’ll do you a favor and make it quick since you’ve entertained me on my return to this world.”

“You bastard.” Midnight says before managing to stand up, catching her breath. “I can’t let this happen… not after I finally got control again.”

“Well, that just seems unfortunate on your part, doesn’t it?” The boy laughed before approaching her then held his hand and the sphere in front of her. “Sayanora.” And so the sphere began to glow brightly.

“STOP!”

Then suddenly his eyes widened as the Aura Sphere dissipated. He stumbled backward before gripping his head in pain.

“NO!” He screamed out as Midnight looked at him in confusion. “NO! Your body belongs to me!”

“No! It doesn’t! I don’t know who you are, but I won’t-”

She saw this as her chance and quickly rushed him, punching him directly in the stomach as he flinched in pain before getting blasted back into the ground, creating another large crater. The group that watched from a distance watched in shock at what just occurred before Riley decided to make a break for it.

Midnight quickly began stumbling her way over to the crater, not wanting to take chances. ‘Ash’ groaned in pain before grabbing a nearby ledge to shakily get up.

“Y-you fool.” He groaned. “You’re gonna get us both hurt-” He was saying before being picked up by the scruff of his collar.

“Finally got you.” Midnight says smugly.

Riley got close enough to see them. “Damnit.”

Twilight saw what was happening before she began focusing on trying to break free once again. Ash was clutching his stomach in pain, unable to see what had just occurred.

“To think, it only took one hit with full power to take you down.” The girl says with a smile.

“Shut it.” ‘Ash’ says while struggling to lift his head. “That was… a lucky shot.” He then spots Riley sneaking up and raises his hand. “You wouldn’t-”

“Oh hush!” Midnight says as she slaps his hand away. “I’m done wasting my time with you. Let’s just get this over with.”

Then she grabbed him by the head and mashed her lips against his which caused his eyes to widen. The sudden act caught Riley off guard before a sudden burst of dark energy sent him back, falling onto the ground.

Ash finally got over the pain and looked up before he suddenly noticed something. Some white cracks were appearing around him. He looked through the window, seeing the woman with her face against it. Before he could process what happened the cracks spread before a burst of light blinded him.

Twilight was still desperately trying to break the chains that bound her to no avail. Unfortunately for her, darkness suddenly began to surround her as she looked around in fear. Dark energy soon began to slither around her and envelop her body.

“Help!” She screamed in fear as she continued to flail around. “Please!” She called out as she soon started to sob. “Please!” She called again through her tears before the darkness reached her shoulders. “Sunset… please help…” She says one last time before the darkness had fully consumed her.

Outside, the dark aura completely left the boy’s body and then formed around Midnight. As it did, she separated their lips before dropping him on the ground. She then floated up into the air as Riley watched in shock at what just happened.

As Ash was beginning to regain consciousness, his vision was blurry and he was still groaning from the pain in his stomach. When he seemed to recover enough, he looked up and saw the girl that he saw through the eyes of whoever was controlling him.

She lifted her head… then opened her eyes… which glowed bright red… then she smiled wickedly.

“This…” She says in a voice that sounded like two were speaking at once. “This… power…” She laughed.

Slowly her laughter turned into a cackle of insanity, shaking as she did so. The Pokemon that were still at a distance watched in fear, except for Spike who seemed to be more horrified than the rest of them. Ash and Riley had no different reactions when they saw the insane woman.

Midnight stopped before letting her laughter die down to psychotic giggles as she held her head. Then she slowly straightened up. Then she looked at her hands, curling and uncurling her fingers before she held them out to the sides of her. Red aura began to form in her fingertips before they unleashed beams that fired everywhere.

Every spot that was hit caused a blast that would open a tear in reality, revealing the other worlds of Earth and Equestria. The blasts caused more shaking to the island which alerted Pokemon both trained and wild to fear for their lives.

As Sunset was riding into town, the whole place started shaking which forced her to stop and almost crash before she grabbed a nearby pole to keep herself steady. As the shaking stopped and she looked up, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped to the disaster.

Multiple portals were opening up around and scaring off more folk in the process.

“No, no, no, this can’t be happening!” She says before stumbling a bit.

Regaining balance, she pulled out her phone and was about to do something before she stopped, looked through one of the cracks, and spotted a familiar face, much to her horror.

“Twilight?” She says. “Oh, not again.”

Ash struggled to get himself to his feet, still holding his stomach looking up at the horror as more tears in reality began to open around the island. While he had seen so much destruction in his past, he never thought he’d wake up to find something like this out of nowhere.

“Why is this-?” He started to ask himself as he tried to walk, only to trip and almost fall into the ground.

“Easy now.” Riley quickly caught him and kept him up.

“Wha?”

“Let me help.”

The man then held his hand above his stomach and emitted a blue glow. The pain he felt started to slowly go away and Ash was starting finally able to stand and glance up at him.

“Riley?” He asked. “What’re-?” Another shake cut him off.

“As much as I’d love to explain, now’s not the best of times.” The man says before looking up. “Right now, we’ve got bigger fish to fry.”

As he says that, Midnight points then started to draw a smiley face with rifts. She laughed at her work.

“But… what is… h-how are-” Ash started to say.

“Well, I was planning on doing this on my own, but I might need some help.” Riley states.

“Okay, but how?” The boy asked.

“It’s an aura technique that is supposed to remove darkness from one’s body.” The man then says as he looked shocked. “What is it?”

‘Aura? I haven’t used that in…’ Ash thought to himself before looking back at the girl. ‘Well, here goes nothing.’ He looked back. “Alright, how do I do this?”

Midnight fired some more beams, opening more rifts while laughing to herself. “I’d like to see that girl try to stop me again.” She says to herself before looking down and seeing the two talking. “If that boy has any more…”

“Do you understand everything I said?” Riley finishes explaining to the boy.

“Yeah, I mean… I’m still lost as to what’s going on, but-” Ash was saying.

“Again, I’ll explain later. Right now…” The man looked up. “Ready yourself.”

Once he finished, Midnight rushed in front of the boy, causing the man to stumble back.

“Ya know, I wanted to go to Equestria ever since I was brought to life in hopes of obtaining the power that came from it, but you…” She says while floating closer to the boy who stepped back. “Combine that with your power and I’ll…” She stopped midway to laugh, not noticing the man sneaking up behind her. “I’d be unstoppable. That girl Sunset wouldn’t be able to do anything, those other girls would be rendered useless, I don’t know if they’d be able to stop me even now.” She cackled on.

Ash looked freaked out, not knowing what she was spouting on about, but knowing her intentions, he glared at her. “That’s not gonna happen.” He says as she tilts her head in a mocking matter. “Whatever you’re planning to do, you won’t get away with it.”

“Really? Hmmm…” She then says before putting a finger to her lips, mockingly. “Well…” She then looked back and flew up into his face. “I beg to differ.” She then says, oblivious to his hands.

‘Here goes nothing.’ He thought to himself. “I don’t.”

Before she could make any more snarky replies, he grabbed her by the forehead. She seemed puzzled at first before she felt another pair of hands grab her head from behind, then suddenly a bright aura emitted from her as she screeched in agony. The Pokemon had to cover their ears as they could hear her even at the distance they were, unfortunate for their trainers who couldn’t do the same.

Spike could only cover parts where his ears would be, but it still worked the same way. He looked out, seeing his owner screaming in pain, there was some panic that began to unwind within him as he was worried about her condition.

“Hey.” He heard and turned to Pikachu. “I know it might be dangerous, but I’m heading over there.”

“What?” The bug-like Pokemon says.

“Even if I’m not able to do anything, if there’s a chance I can help my friend, I’m taking that chance.” The electric mouse says. “You’d do the same for your trainer too, right?”

Spike looked back out. “Yeah, I… but I really can’t do anything. I don’t even know if I have any special… powers or anything.”

“I get it, but as much as it sucks, I wanna at least try.”

“Yeah, me too.” Charizard says as well. “Useless or not… I’m not abandoning my trainer.” He says while standing tall.

“Me too.” They then turn to see Lucario who seemed to be talking through telepathy. “I might actually be able to assist your trainers and my own. I just need to get close enough to them to help.”

“Wait, really?” Spike says, surprised.

“Well, what’re we waiting for!? Hop on!” Charizard says as he knelt down to allow them aboard.

Without hesitation, Pikachu quickly hopped on. Spike started to climb, but then his wings suddenly started flapping, lifting him up, he was caught off guard at first, but landed on the dragon’s back as if it was natural. Riolu was about to do the same but was stopped by the taller jackal.

“I suggest you stay behind. It’s best to wait until your arm is fully healed.” Lucario then hops onto the dragon’s back as the smaller jackal sighs in disappointment. “We’ll come back once the situation is fully taken care of. Until then, rest as best as you can.”

And so, Charizard took off, flying to the source of the light. He landed, seeing  Midnight struggling to fend off whatever the boy and the man were attempting to do. Spike seemed even more worried from the sight alone as did Pikachu and Charizard.

“We cannot distract them.” Lucario says as he hops off of the dragon’s back. “If we try to interact with them, it’ll interrupt the process. And I highly doubt that they’d get another chance to do this.” He then began to make his way towards. “Just let me do what I can.”

“I-isn’t what he’s doing count as distracting and interrupting them?” Spike asked.

“I mean, he’s the professional.” Pikachu answers.

Riley caught sight of Lucario approaching and nodded to him. The jackal followed suit by standing in the middle and holding his palms out at her head as well, adding his aura to the mix. She screamed again and seemed to be less resistant to the three that were overpowering her, however, she still tried, despite it appearing futile.

The dark aura around her appeared to be dissipating which was starting to bring some hope to the Pokemon that watched, believing that they had nothing to worry about, however, Ash was starting to struggle a bit.

“Just a bit longer!” Riley says through his grunts. “Don’t lose focus!”

The boy held his ground, doing the best he could to follow through with stopping whoever this was. As he blinked, suddenly it was like the world had changed in that second. He was shocked before straightening up and looking around. He found himself floating in a void of darkness.

“What is this place?” He says to himself.

His eyes stopped on landed on what appeared to be a cocoon of darkness in front of him that stood out from the rest of the void. He squinted his eyes before looking behind him, then back before he reached out. He grabbed and pulled a bit of the darkness away like it was paper as it faded away.

The part he had removed revealed a bit of a purple-skinned closed eye. Not knowing what was inside, he continued to pull more of the darkness away until the face of a purple-skinned girl had a full view. He rose an eyebrow at the sight and leaned forward, inspecting and wondering if she was still alive. Then got the scare of a lifetime as her eyes opened wide and she gasped before he jumped back.

“Get me out of here! Get me out of here, please!” She pleaded. “Please, you have to help-MMPH!” Her cries were cut off as darkness immediately covered her face.

Ash immediately had become worried and quickly reached back out again, grabbing at and ripping the darkness away, however, the cocoon seemed to be reforming each time he ripped a piece off the girl. Then he was interrupted as he was grabbed by a tendril of darkness. He tried to remove it, but another came and grabbed his hands, then his legs.

“Let go of me!” He yelled, attempting to resist, however, was slowly being pulled away. “No! No! No!” He yelled as he reached out to no avail.

Then as he blinked, it was like he was suddenly pulled back to reality. In front of him was Midnight who was done screaming in pain and appeared to be growling in frustration. Then her fists rose before she spread her arms, and a shockwave propelled him, Riley, and Lucario back.

He landed in the dirt, causing some dust to fly up. He coughed a bit before groaning in pain as he tried to sit up. Before he could recover though, he was met with Midnight tackling him, ramming him into the dirt before flying high up into the air, holding him up by his throat as he had his hands on hers, attempting to ease the strain.

As they did, they were in front of a portal that gave Sunset a view into the world, seeing her possessed friend holding an unknown boy. She was now even more worried and began running up to portals, jumping up at them, trying to get in one, however, proving it to be again, no more than fruitless, but she didn’t give up.

“I had plenty of patience before, but now I am absolutely tired of all this nonsensical bullcrap! So you know what?” Midnight says as she raises a hand up, forming a flaming sphere. “Maybe I won’t be requiring any more of your power.” She giggled maniacally.

Ash lifted his head up as best as he could, seeing her move her hand to his head. Before she could do what he assumed to be her annihilating him, her hand suddenly twitched as the energy disappeared. Then he heard her grunting before her body began to shake and she began to grit her teeth.

“NO! NO!” She screamed as she gripped her head and arched her back. “I CAN’T! I WON’T! I WON’T LET YOU RUIN THIS… FOR ME!!!” She continued to scream before she bent forward.

He stared at her as he put the pieces together. “She’s still in there.”

With his regained confidence, he removed one of his hands from hers and placed it and wrapped his fingers around her forehead. His hand then began to glow and he reentered the girl’s mind, finding the darkness freaking out, he couldn’t tell if it was a good thing or a bad thing.

He heard some muffled screaming from the cocoon which was flailing about. Without hesitation, he reached and began tearing away at the darkness as fast as he could. He managed to free her shoulders, then her hair and her face as she gasped for nonexistent air. The darkness continued to try and envelop her again, but the boy was tearing it off faster than it could.

“What’s going on?! What is happening?!” She said, scared.

“Don’t exactly have the full story either.” He answered her. “I can’t do this on my own. I need you to fight this too.”

She looked down, then tried to pull herself free. “I-I can’t!”

“I need you to try. Don’t give up.”

She seemed to take his advice as she continued to try and free her body from the darkness. Then he pulled away some by her stomach, revealing her hands bounded by chains. Seeing this, he quickly ripped away some darkness that tried to reform around her and then grabbed the chains and ripped them apart with ease.

With her hands now free she seemed to be having an easier time getting out of it. However, the darkness seemed to have regained its previous strength. Outside, the dark aura began to envelop both of their bodies. Back into the void, tendrils grasped his arms once again, trying to pull him back.

“No!” The girl called out as the darkness began to envelop her.

She reached out as the darkness was already beginning to reach her head. Fortunately, Ash had gained enough resistance to grab her hand and hold on tightly to it. The boy used whatever strength he had to pull himself forward. The darkness began to falter and break away from him as he reached the girl again and placed his hands on her shoulder.

Outside again, the dark aura appeared to have stopped whatever it was planning to do. Sunset, Riley, and the Pokemon all watched in anticipation, however, were holding out hope for the better.

In the mind, the girl was hyperventilating as the darkness came to a halt, Ash’s hands still gripping her shoulders.

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Calm down. Breath.” He tells her in a soft tone as her breathing started to slowly steady. “Whatever this is, it’s feeding off your fear. Don’t let it overcome you.” He continues to say as her freakout seemed to subside.

As she began to calm down, the darkness around her and the void of such began to disappear at a painfully slow rate.

Outside, the dark aura around both of them began to fade, being replaced with a bright blue aura that seemed to bring relief to Riley and the Pokemon’s faces. Then the portals created by Midnight began to slowly close and repair themselves, which only further brought relief to them… except for one.

“Wait, wait!” Sunset called as she to one of the closing portals. “Hold on! Not yet!” She yelled while waving her arms. “Twilight!” She called out, but it was too late as the last portal had sealed up.

Back inside the girl’s mind, Ash had eased his grip on her shoulders as the darkness was still fading away, revealing a bright void. She looked up at him, making eye contact with him.

“Who…” She started to say. “Who are you?”

The darkness had now completely faded away and a light started to envelop them. “My name is…”

And just light that, a bright flash filled the nightly sky around the island. As the light faded out, Ash began to open his eyes, seeing that he seemed to be falling somewhere, however it wasn’t his primary focus. What was, was the girl that was below him falling as well. Seeing this, he reached out to grab her hand to grasp hers. His eyelids started to fall heavy but he didn’t care. He wasn’t about to lose consciousness before ensuring this girl was safe.

Her eyes opened as well, her sight blurry and she wasn’t able to make out who was above her, reaching towards her, but she had a feeling that it was someone she could trust. As she felt his fingers begin to touch hers she reached out for him as well, their fingers intertwining with each other.

He pulled her in and wrapped his other arm around her waste, pulling her into a tight hug before turning so that he could at least try to break her fall. The last thing he saw was an orange blur flying towards them, before they both fell into a deep slumber.

To be continued…