//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2: Escaping the Cult of Darkrai 
// Story: Pokemon: Sunset's Insurgence 
// by UnknownOrigin 
//------------------------------//

After the door closed behind the robe figure, they walked down a set of stairs as the figure was now in some sort of complex that was hidden within the rocky mound. The walls were black with blue lights trailing the walls just right above the floor, with said floor being made of dark gray tiles. The ceiling was the same gray as the tiles with lights in the ceiling assisting in keeping the underground complex lit. However, it also appeared that the complex wasn't in the best shape, as right at the bottom of the staircase and immediately across a room that the figure carrying Sunset had descended into, were holes that were filled with a bubbling green substance. Lastly, on both sides of the bottom of the staircase, were two golden statues that seemed to show off a strange humanoid figure with the statue being connected to a golden base by its waist. The figure itself had a small waist that eventually gave way to a somewhat larger upper body. Its arms were thin and ended with three-clawed hands where the shoulders looked as though they were smoking as what appeared to be gas rose up from them. Around its neck appeared to be some sort of spiky collar that partially hid its face where piercing eyes could be seen. Finally, what appeared to be its hair also appeared to be smoke as it rose up and flowed back a little behind its head.

Once the robed figure reached the bottom of the staircase, a second figure wearing the same robe as the first approached them.

"Took you long enough. I thought you were going to miss out on watching the ritual." The second figure said before it noticed the first figure carrying Sunset over their shoulder. "What's with the girl?"

"I found her passed out in a clearing close to the base. I figured that we could possibly use her as a sacrifice." The figure carrying Sunset said.

"While I do like the idea, don't you think she'll wake up before we can even sacrifice her?" The second figure asked.

"Don't worry. As far as I can tell, she's out cold. I don't think she's gonna wake up anytime soon." The first figure said.

"Well, if your sure. Go ahead and put her in one of the cells. Also, check up on the status with the prisoner, I'm sure Persephone would want to hear how progress is coming along." The second figure said.

"Will do. I'll see you in the central chamber then." The first figure said before they headed down a hallway that was connected to the room they were in. 

After taking it and turning left, the figure had to take one of their hands holding Sunset off of her as they approached a locked door with what appeared to be a fingerprint reader on the wall next to it. Placing their hand on it, it took a few seconds before the fingerprint leader let off a ding as the door slid into the wall, allowing the figure to carry on into another hall where a staircase leading up and another leading down could be seen. Taking the staircase down, the figure took a left after reaching the bottom floor of the complex and began heading down another hallway and then took another left as the hallway went left. Walking down the hallway, the figure walked pass a couple of open cells that only contained a couple of boxes. One cell however had a bookcase tucked away in the far right corner. The figure then had to take another left turn and then one more as the hall had now formed a U shape, where at the end a robed figure could be seen right beside what appeared to be a round bipedal creature. The creature was purple in color and had small arms and legs with spiky purple ears at the top of its body. On its back were a multitude of small purple spikes that followed from the top all the way down to a small spiky tail. Finally, its face was that of two sharp red eyes with a sinister grin right below it. As the figure continued down the hall, the creature entered the cell that it and the other robed figure were standing in front of with the figure closing the door to the cell behind it.

Passing by one last cell filled with boxes, the figure approached the cell right before the last one in the hall. There, they entered the cell and sat Sunset against the wall in an upright position before exiting the cell. As a precaution, the figure put their hand on a fingerprint reader right beside the cell, after which the door to the cell closed and was locked, preventing Sunset from escaping if she woke up. A window in the door allowed the figure to look into the cell, where after confirming that she wasn't waking up, approached the other robed figure who was standing by a console at the end of the hallway.

"So, how's progress with the prisoner?" The first figure asked.

"The door has just been locked, and Gengar is doing her thing. Soon, Dream Eater will rid the prisoner of the last of their memories. Hopefully, we'll be done within the hour." The second figure said.

It was at this moment that someone walked down the hallway and towards the two robed figures. Hearing the person's footsteps, the two robed figures turned towards the person approaching. The person in question was that of a woman with white skin, red eyes, and long pure white hair. She wore a short black dress with short sleeves that was longer on one side than the other and trailed off forming a sort of tail that wrapped around her right leg. Around her neck was a spiky, yet puffy, red collar that was similar to the ones the two robed figures were wearing. Around both of her wrists were red bracelets that were also spiky, though they appeared to actual be made of some sort of metal. She also wore short red boots with white bottoms with long white socks extending out from the inside of the boots. Finally, she wore a white hat that had the appearance of a hood, with the tip of the hat extending outward and drooping a bit behind her.





"Well, how is our youngest prisoner fairing?' The woman asked.

"According to the computer, Miss Persephone, their memories should be completely gone very soon. Everything is going as planned." The second robed figure said.

"Excellent. Finally, we'll have fulfilled our end of the bargain. Good work, you two." The woman, now known as Persephone, said. "We are starting the ritual soon in the upstairs room. Will you be attending?"

"Of course, Miss. I would never miss a sacrifice." The second robed figure said.

"Very well, I'll see you both upstairs then." Persephone said. However, before she could leave, the first robed figure spoke up.

"Miss, wait. I actually have something to ask and tell you. Firstly, after the child's memories are gone, what do you plan to do  with them?"

"Kill them, of course." Persephone said in a calm manner as though she was saying she was going for a walk.

"Ok then. Um, the next thing is that I found a girl passed out in a clearing near the base. So I took them here and locked them up in hopes that we could possibly use them as a sacrifice." The first robed figure said.

Persephone seemed to think on this for a moment before she spoke up. "How close were they?" She asked.

"Roughly a quarter mile towards Telnor Cave." The figure responded.

"Interesting. Where is she being held?" Persephone asked.

"Right in the next cell." The robed figure responded.

Persephone made her way over to the locked cell and saw Sunset propped up against the wall. After looking at her for a bit, she returned back to the two robed figures.

"She's quite young, maybe late teens if I were to guess, possibly even the same age as the prisoner. She could have been possibly heading to Telnor Town in hopes of becoming a trainer, though something may have knocked her out. In any case I suppose that it wouldn't hurt using her as a sacrifice in the next ritual. Regardless, I expect to see you both upstairs within two minutes." Persephone said before she walked back down the hall and disappeared around the corner. Once she was out of sight and after waiting a couple of seconds, the first robed figure turned towards the second.

"Why are we bothering to wipe their memories if we're just going to kill them anyways?" The robed figure questioned.

"No clue, but thanks for not asking that in front of her. You know she hates being questioned." The second robed figure responded.

"Yeah, I suppose let's go upstairs then. It's always fun to see a ritual being performed." The first robed figure said.

And with that, the two robed figures headed back down the hall and left behind the last cell. Within it was a bed with purple sheets where someone could be seen sleeping and was covered up by the sheets. Right next to the bed, the creature known as Gengar had its mouth open, were a stream of pink energy flowed from the person sleeping into Gengar's open mouth.





Within an endless expanse of purple and pink fog, a blacked out silhouette could be seen laying down on an invisible floor, supposedly sleeping with how still they were. The silhouette was featureless, bearing no unique features whatsoever that could  identify who they were. The silhouette felt at ease as their mind felt empty and cloudy, as though they were to sleep for eternity. However, the fog around them slowly began to clear before it disappeared entirely, leaving the silhouette now in an purple void as a voice reverberated throughout the empty expanse.

"Hello? Is this thing working? Can you hear me?" The voice called out. The presence of the voice triggered something within the silhouette, as they began to rouse from their slumber. Slowly, the began to wake up and rose up into a sitting position.

"Huh, what?" The silhouette sleepily said as they rubbed where their eyes were supposed to be. They then looked around where they were, seeing how they were in a endless expanse before they slowly stood up. "Where, am I?"

"Oh thank Arceus. You're not gone just yet." The voice said with relief.

"What, who's there?" The silhouette said as they were startled by the voice.

"You've got to listen to me, we don't have much time. You need to stay focused, and remember all you can." The voice quickly said. "If you value your memories at all, you'll listen to what I have to say."

"My memories? Just what is going on?" The silhouette questioned.

"We need to be quick. You at least remember your name, right?" The voice asked.

"My name? It's, it's..." The silhouette said as they tried to remember their name. It felt as though they were trying to grasp something elusive within their mind, and every time they felt as though they had grabbed it it managed to slip away at the last second.

"Come on, you can do it. Try and remember your name." The voice said encouragingly.

"W... Wy..." The silhouette said as they felt as though they were finally getting a grasp of what they were trying to remember. "Wy... Wyatt. My name is Wyatt!" The silhouette shouted confidently.

"Ok, ok. Good, you remember your name." The voice said happily. "What else do you remember? Are you a boy or a girl?"

"What?" The silhouette asked.

"Do you remember or not?" The voice asked again. The silhouette racked their mind once again, and while they did struggle a bit to find the answer, they managed to grasp onto the answer much quicker than before and was able to answer with confidence.

"I'm a boy."

"Perfect. Now, do you remember what you look like?" The voice asked.

"What I look like?" The silhouette repeated. He thought long and hard about it, slowly searching his mind for anything that was about what he looked like. As he did, the silhouette slowly began to become more detailed as he was able to slowly remember about what exactly he looked like. A short sleeve shirt appeared on their torso that was immediately covered by an unzipped hoodless jacket. Sweat pants covered their legs as sneakers appeared over their feet. Finally, short, scruffy hair appeared on their head. Finally, eyes, a nose, and a mouth appeared on their face as the silhouette began to gain some color. The shirt they were wearing was a light gray, the jacket was mostly black with a golden yellow trimming on the collar, ends of the sleeves, and the bottom of the jacket as what appeared to be a golden yellow circle appeared on the shoulder with both halves being split with a line that also surrounded a smaller circle within it. The sweat pants were black and the running shoes were also black, though the bottom of the shoes were light gray. Their hair slowly turned from black into a nice shade of purple with their eyes also gaining color with the irises also being the same shade of purple as the hair. Finally, their skin changed to a light white color as their eyebrows also changed to the same purple as their hair. Once the last bit of color appeared, the boy now looked at himself with confidence.





"Yeah. This is what I look like."

"Thank goodness, you haven't forgotten everything!" The voice said with glee. Suddenly, the entire void seemed to suddenly shake as the fog slowly began to come back.

"We're running out of time. Wyatt, you need to wake up! I've sent someone to fend off the one doing this and get you out of here. You need to wake up!" The voice said as it began to fade away. As the fog crept closer, the boy now known as Wyatt backed away from it. Suddenly, Wyatt's vision was filled with a bright white light as the purple void that surrounded him faded away.





In the cell, the stream of pink energy continued to flow into Gengar's mouth as it focused on trying to eat the person's memories. Because of this, it didn't notice as the air right above the bed began to distort before a small, floating pink cat with a long tail and blue eyes appeared right above the bed as the cat had teleported. Looking down, it saw the Gengar and floated down to it and getting within its line of sight. Seeing the floating cat, the Gengar was startled and backed away from the bed, causing the remaning stream of pink energy to flow right back into the person in the bed. And then, it began to talk without moving its mouth.





"Hey there! Sorry, but I'm afraid I'm gonna have to stop you right there." The cat said playfully. The Gengar was confused for a moment before the cat lifted up one of its small arms, its hand covered in a pink glow. The same glow appeared around the Gengar where it was then lifted up into the air. Then, the small cat swiftly swung its arm towards the door of the cell with the Gengar then being thrown against the cell door with so much force that the door busted open and hit the opposite wall. The Gengar then hit the door and slowly slid down onto the floor. The Gengar then weakly tried to stand up, only for it to fall on its side as it passed out. During this, the person in the bed slowly began to wake up.

"The Gengar's been knocked out... go. Follow Mew, get out of here, and never look back. Good luck." The voice said one last time as the person was waking up. As the voice faded away, the cat floated over to the person and began to pull them out of bed, revealing that the person sleeping in the bed was Wyatt as he tumbled out of the bed and onto the floor.

"Ow. I guess I'm up." Wyatt said as he slowly stood back up, only to be face to face with the floating cat. The two of them stared in silence at eachother before Wyatt decided to break the silence.

"Um, hello?"

"Hi!" The cat said, causing Wyatt to look at it in shock.

"You can talk?!" Wyatt asked.

"Eh, kinda. It's more like telepathy. I am currently talking to you by transmitting my thoughts directly into your head!" The cat said. "Anyways, I'm Mew. And I have been sent to help you get out of here."

"Wait, so you're the Mew that the voice was talking about?" Wyatt asked.

"Yep! Oh, also, the voice wanted you to have this." Mew said as it held out its hands and the air above the bed began to distort again as a backpack fell onto it.

The backpack itself was somewhat simple, the top half of it was white and the bottom half of it was purple. The two shoulder straps also followed the coloring as the top halves were white while the bottom halves were purple. There were three zippers that allowed access to the three different compartments the backpack had which each had small pockets were stuff could be stored. On the sides and towards the front were two more zipped up compartments as well that looked like they could also fit bottles inside them. Finally, the same symbol on the shoulders of Wyatt's jacket was also towards the top of the backpack and was right under one of the zippers, though it was the same purple as the backpack instead of golden yellow. Walking over to it, Wyatt slipped on the backpack and found that it fit perfectly.

"Alright, now let's get you out of here." Mew said as it floated over to white and sat on one of his shoulders, surprisingly hardly weighing anything. Looking towards the busted open entrance to the cell and walked through it, finding himself in a hallway. Walking down it, he eventually noticed the closed door of the cell next to his and looked through the window. He gasped upon seeing Sunset's still unconscious form.

"There's someone in there!" Wyatt exclaimed.

"Yeah. She might have been taken from somewhere and locked in there. Maybe the cult plans to use her as a sacrifice?" Mew said.

"Cult? What cult?" Wyatt asked.

"Oh yeah, you won't know anything about them since you lost your memories. But, just to be sure, let's test to see what you remember. First, do you know what a Pokemon is?" Mew asked.

"Yeah. Pokemon are creatures that we live alongside with. We work together, play together, and some even train and battle together. Pokemon can learn moves and have abilities, and some can even evolve once they reach a certain requirement. There also exist Pokemon that are considered Legendary and Mythical as there is only one of them or very few of them, and some of them also have control over certain aspects of the world. Though, I don't know if I have ever heard or seen a Pokemon like you." Wyatt answered.

"Ding ding ding! Correct, at least you know everything important about Pokemon. And if you're wondering, you probably have heard of me before you lost your memories, just know that I am considered a Mythical Pokemon." Mew said.

"Really?" Wyatt asked in disbelief that he was talking to a Mythical.

"Yep. Next question: What region are we in?" Mew asked.

Wyatt took a bit ton think about this, though an answer popped into his head. "We're in the Torren region, right?"

"Ding ding ding, that's another correct answer! Now then, what do you know about the cults of Torren?" Mew asked.

This was unfortunately were Wyatt's mind couldn't provide any answer, no matter how hard he tried to remember. Eventually he gave up trying to remember and gave an honest answer.

"I'm afraid I can't remember." Wyatt said sheepishly.

"Eh, I guess that's fine. Just know that they're bad, and when I say bad I mean they do some pretty bad and evil stuff, and that you are currently within one of their bases." Mew answered. This caused Wyatt to become nervous as he realized the seriousness of the situation he was in.

"Well, then we should get her out of here with us." Wyatt said as he looked back at Sunset through the door.

"Really? But I was told to get you specifically out of here. Can't we just, you know, leave her?" Mew asked.

"Sorry, but it doesn't sit with me right thinking about leaving someone here. And if what you said about these cults is true, then we shouldn't leave her for this cult to do whatever they want to her." Wyatt said.

Mew seemed to think over Wyatt's words a bit before she gave a defeated sigh. "Fine, I guess we can take her with us. Now, how are we going to get her out of there? There isn't a handle and the door seems to be locked."

Wyatt looked around a bit before he noticed a fingerprint reader next to the door. Curious, he placed his hand on it and after a few seconds, the reader gave off a negative sounding buzz as the scanner flashed red, indicating that it wasn't going to accept Wyatt's fingerprint.

"Well, so much for thinking that would work." Wyatt said. Seeing this, Mew then got an idea and tapped the sides of Wyatt's head.

"I know what we can do. But we need to leave her for now. Don't worry, we'll come right back for her."

"Are you sure?" Wyatt asked.

"Positive!" Mew said with confidence.

"Ok, if you say so. Then, I guess, let's keep going." Wyatt said as he looked back at Sunset once last time before continuing to walk down the hall until they reached the next cell which was also where the hall turned to the right. As they passed it, Mew looked inside and floated off of Wyatt's shoulder into the open cell.

"Wyatt, over here!" Mew called out.

"What is it?" Wyatt asked as he followed Mew into the cell and towards the back right corner. There, he saw Mew pointing at a purple spray bottle with a white and purple nozzle.

"A Potion?" Wyatt asked.

"Yeah, take it!" Mew said.

"Um, are you sure? I feel like stealing from an evil cult is something you shouldn't do." Wyatt said.

"Think of it like this, by taking it, you are inconveniencing the cult and making it harder for them to do evil stuff!" Mew said as it grabbed the Potion and handed it to Wyatt.

"Well, when you put it like that, I suppose I might as well take it." Wyatt said as he unslung the backpack off his back and opened the middle compartment. Right before he put the Potion in, it shrunk until it was slightly smaller than the palm of his hand, which caused him to accidentally drop it into the bag. "Whoops!"

"Did you forget Potions and stuff like that could shrink to save space?" Mew asked.

"Y-yeah. I guess it just caught me off guard." Wyatt said before he picked back up the shrunken Potion and then pulled it out of the bag, where it grew back to its original size. "I wonder how it works? Maybe something similar to how Pokeballs can grow and shrink?"

"Maybe. Now put the Potion away so we can get going!" Mew impatiently said. Wyatt, stuck the Potion back into his bad, though he stuck it into one of the many pouches that lined the middle compartment. Closing back up his backpack and slinging it back on, Mew hopped back onto Wyatt's shoulder as they continued down the hall and went down the turn, only to immediately turn right again. Passing by a cell closed with a locked door that could only be unlocked via the fingerprint reader, they stopped and looked into an open cell where a bookshelf could be seen in the back right corner. Curious, Wyatt approached the bookshelf.

"Why are we looking at a bookshelf?" Mew asked.

"I wanna see if there's anything about this cult here, maybe secret plans or something that we can take to the authorities once the three of us escape." Wyatt said.

"Well, nothing jumps out to me as being 'Top Secret'. It all looks like reading material to me." Mew said.

"Wait, how about this?" Wyatt asked as he pulled out a black book with the title "The Cults of the Torren Region". "This might be something.

"It looks like it was written by some random author. Store it and you can read it later once we're out of here." Mew said.

"Yeah, nothing else is catching my eye." Wyatt said as he opened the first and largest compartment and slid the book in there, though it didn't shrink like the Potion did. After that, they left the cell and continued once more down the hall and took one last right after passing one last locked cell. They then ran into the staircase leading to the upper floor and began ascending it. They now found themselves in a small hallway where up ahead the hallway split to the right and kept going straight. Unfortunately, there was a door locked by a fingerprint reader on the right side where the hall kept going straight, so they took the path to the right and saw another staircase. Before going up, however, Mew floated off of Wyatt's shoulder and got in front of him.

"Alright Wyatt, here you go!" Mew said as a note appeared in its hand.

"What's this for?" Wyatt asked.

"Just read it. It also ties into my idea." Mew said, in response, Wyatt looked down at the note and began to read it.


I chose Mew to help you out of this mess due to its special ability. It is able to use Transform to change its form and disguise itself as something else. However, unlike Ditto, Mew can transform you as well. If you can find DNA, Mew can disguise you as someone else. You should be able to use this to escape the base.

Good luck.
- Your Benefactor


"Wait, you can transform me into another person?!" Wyatt exclaimed.

"Yep! That means that if we can find some DNA of someone who is a member of this cult, then I can transform you into that person, which will allow you to open those doors locked by those fingerprint readers and rescue that girl." Mew said.

"That's great." Wyatt said as he looked at the note again, though mostly at the person who signed it. "My Benefactor? Who are they?"

"Just someone who cares about your safety. Didn't you hear a voice telling you to remember stuff?" Mew asked.

"Yeah, I did. I guess I'll have to thank whoever this benefactor is when I meet them. Now, let's see if we can find the DNA of a cultist." Wyatt said as Mew got back onto his shoulder. Going up the stairs, Wyatt and Mew found themselves in a massive room where they were on a small tiled path that was surrounded by a pit filled with a bubbling green substance.

"Yeah, I should probably avoid falling into that." Wyatt said as they followed the path and walked up a small staircase and found themselves in front of what appeared to be a giant red ritual circle with a four-pointed star in the middle and lines coming out of it and connecting to the edges. Right beside it to the left and right were bronze versions of the statues found at the staircase of the entrance.

Oh, and there was dried up blood splattered all over the ground on the ritual circle.

"Ok, blood. Probably should have expected to see this in the base of a cult." Wyatt said as he approached it with Mew floating off his shoulder and getting closer to it. After rubbing the dried up blood and getting some of it on its hand, Mew's eyes briefly glowed pink as it began to analyze the DNA within the blood. A couple of seconds later, its eyes returned to normal and it wiped off the blood and turned back to Wyatt.

"Ok, are you ready to be transformed into someone else?" Mew asked.

"I guess so. But, what I'm worried about is what if this blood wasn't that of a cultist." Wyatt asked with worry.

"Then we'll just have to find another way." Mew said.

After a few moments, Wyatt took a couple of breaths to calm his nerves before he looked back at Mew with a determined expression. "Ok, do it."

"Alrighty, here we go!" Mew said as its eyes began to glow white. Holding an arm towards Wyatt, its hand was also surrounded in a white glow while a white glow began to envelope Wyatt before he disappeared under the blinding light. A couple of seconds later, the light faded and revealed a robed figure standing in Wyatt's place, looking exactly like the cultists. Wyatt opened his eyes after closing them while the light enveloped him and was amazed at his new appearance. The transformation to him was both quick and painless, though he did feel a little dizzy while it happened.

"So, how do you feel?" Mew asked.

"I feel great!" Wyatt said, though his voice didn't change with the transformation.

"And Mew has once again done an amazing job." Mew said.

"You sure did. Now let's go see if I can unlock those door now." Wyatt said. The two of them rushed back down both flights of stairs until they reached the first locked cell on the left of the hallway. Placing his hand on the fingerprint reader, it scanned Wyatt's transformed hand and gave off a ding as the door unlocked and slid open.

"It worked!" Wyatt said in victory. Going inside the cell, there was a lone Potion that Wyatt took. Thankfully, Mew was able to allow Wyatt's backpack to be on his back even if he was transformed, though it would remain invisible unless it was taken off. Putting the Potion in the bag, they made their way pass the second cell with the bookcase and opened the locked cell next to it, though they didn't find anything inside other than a few empty boxes. Finally, they continued further down the hallway until they reached the cell where Sunset was. After opening the door, they made their way to Sunset where she was still out cold.

"It looks like she was knocked out." Wyatt said.

"Yeah, maybe the cultists knocked her out. In any case, how are we gonna get her out of here?" Mew asked.

"I guess I'll just have to carry her. Help her onto my back." Wyatt said as she lifted Sunset up. Mew then assisted Wyatt so that he could carry her on his back in a piggyback style, with Wyatt holding on to Sunset's legs as she was slumped against his back.

"Alright, now let's get out of here." Wyatt said. The three of them then headed back down the hallway and up the stairs and approached the locked door, after unlocking it Wyatt stepped through the door, though Mew turned invisible as they turned right and began walking down the hall and avoiding small halls filled with more of the bubbling green substance.

"Being invisible will allow us to sneak around easier if a cultist sees us. Though you carrying her might arouse some suspicion. Wait stop!" Mew said, prompting Wyatt to stop as he was about to round a corner. Peeking behind it, they saw the exit of the base, though there was a cultist at the bottom of the stairs. The cultist noticed to them and spoke out to them.

"Hey man, you should probably head upstairs where the sacrifice is happening. I'll be there in just a bit, but you go on ahead." The cultist said.

"Um, thanks. I'll, uh, see you there." Wyatt said before the three of them went back down the hall where they were back at the door.

"That was close. If you leaned any further that cultist might have seen the girl." Mew said.

"Yeah. I don't think we can sneak past them either. We might be left with only one option." Wyatt said.

"Yeah. I guess let's go watch a sacrifice, though where can we hide her?" Mew asked as they gestured towards Sunset.

"Maybe we can hide her somewhere and after the sacrifice is done and all the cultists are still their, we can sneak out=, grab her and escape." Wyatt said.

"Sounds good. Now, I guess we continue going down this hall." Mew said.

They continued down the hall in the opposite direction of the entrance and entered a room to their right where their question had been answered. Lined up in the middle of the room were tables covered in black tablecloths with boxes on top of them.

"We can hide her under one of these tables, that way if someone comes in here, they wouldn't see her unless they moved the tablecloth." Wyatt said, which they did. They slid Sunset under the table closest to the room's entrance and once ensuring there weren't any limbs sticking out, looked around the rest of the room where they found another Potion and a pink bottle with a gray nozzle that was known as an Ice Heal. Taking them, they exited the room and continued down the hall and avoided more pits filled with the strange substance and arrived in a room with a couple of small tables and a strange tube with a console connected to it. Ignoring the tube they found another Potion and a bottle similar to the Ice Heal but was light blue instead of pink that was known as an Awakening before they saw and went down another hallway connected to the room where they ascended a flight of stairs at the end. 

The room the ascended into was almost identical to the one where they found the ritual circle and dried up blood. All around the tiled path were numerous cultists all standing and looking towards the direction of where Wyatt assumed was another summoning circle. Looking around, Wyatt saw that there was a path leading to a hallway at the end of the room. Seeing how no one was looking, he went down it until he reached a room with two tables and two bookshelves in the farthest corners. Looking at the bookshelves, Wyatt found two more books that he decided to take: a black book with the title "The Cult of Darkrai" written in red and a book titled "The Kalos War". After which, he headed back into the room and slowly made his way through the small crowd of cultists until he eventually reached the front, where to the left was a tube like machine like the one Wyatt and Mew saw earlier and multiple computers hooked up to it. Finally, up the stairs was the ritual circle, though this one was green where the one in the other room was red and the statues were gold instead of bronze. Standing in the middle of it was a cultist trembling in fear as Persephone stood in front of them, her back facing the crowd.

"And so we begin..." Persephone said.

"Miss, please! You cant do this! I don't want to die!" The cultist pleaded.

"You swore when you joined that you would give your life for us. How is this different?" Persephone said before she turned towards a cultist at the computers. "Turn on the ritual circle!"

The cultist gave a nod and pushed a button in front of one of the computers. Then, the ritual circle changed from green to red as Persephone began to speak.

"Darkrai, lord of darkness! I call upon you to enter our world! In return, I offer you the soul of this loyal servant, to be bound to your world of nightmares forever!" Persephone chanted before she began speaking in Latin. "Voco virtutem umbrarum dominum!"

As soon as she finished, a large puddle of darkness appeared under the feet of the cultist who began to sink into it, crying and screaming for their life until they sank completely into it. Then, the puddle disappeared as the lights began to dim before they were barely giving off any light and changed to a sinister red. Then, another puddle of darkness appeared in the middle of the ritual circle. Slowly, the same humanoid figure that the statues showed rose up out of the puddle and floated in midair.

Almost its entire body was deep black, it had no legs to speak of as the bottom of its body were its waist was spread out like a skirt and was spiky at the end. What appeared to be a flowing, spiky tail also flowed out at the back of the bottom of its body. The strange spike around its neck were red in color, almost appearing like some sort of collar. Its eyes were a piercing blue, almost as if they were staring right into the soul of those it looked at, and what appeared to be its hair was pure white, a major contrast to the rest of its body. It floated in place and watched Persephone.





"Darkrai, the lord of nightmares..." Persephone began. "You are the great balancer of the world. You punish the great, and slay the immortal. It has been a year since I saw you last. You remember what occurred then? We accomplished something incredible that day. I thought that you had finally accepted our offer to join us. But you fled soon after, never to be seen again. But now I call upon you again... Darkrai, why will you not join me? I know my sister has seen you time and time again... Why do you favor her over me? I beseech you, Darkrai. Join me. Join the cult that has worshipped you for so long. With my guidance, and your power, the world could be ours."

Darkrai floated there as still as a statue, watching Persephone all the way until she finished her speech. Then, a couple of seconds after she finished, Darkrai floated back down into the puddle of darkness it had emerged from and disappeared, seemingly rejecting Persephone's offer. As soon as it left, the lights returned back to normal, though Persephone stood there with an irritated expression.

"Well isn't that just lovely." Persephone said, struggling to control her anger. "It's probably gone off to Selene City to see my sister again. What a waste of a grunt..."

She then turned around and began to walk down the steps, only for two cultists to walk in front of her.

"And what do you two want, exactly?" Persephone asked.

"Miss, please. I'm confident that if we had another try, we could trap Darkrai here! We don't know why it didn't work this time, but if you'll just give us another chance..." One of the cultists said.

"Get out of my way." Persephone said, as her temper finally snapped. She pulled out a small black sphere with green dots on it and an orange band circling around the middle of it. Clicking a button that extended out of the band, the sphere grew several times in size before it was roughly the size of a baseball.

"Fire Blast." Persephone said as the ball split in half but was held together at the back as a purple and black stream of energy was released from the ball. The stream of energy flowed forwards and onto the ground, taking a canine shape before the energy dissipated and revealed a black canine like creature an orange muzzle filled with sharp teeth, piercing red eyes, an orange underbelly, and a tail that had a black spearhead shape at the end. Two curved horns protruded from the canine's head as a gray collar with an oval gray shape with outlines of what appeared to be eyes was on its chest, with curved gray ridges on its back as there were gray bands around its legs above its paws.





The creature opened its mouth while it lifted its head as a small ball of fire began to charge up before it whipped its head back down and launched the fireball forward. Five streams of fire then shot out of the fireball forming a star shape as it hit the cultists as they were covered in raging flames. When the flames finally disappeared, all that was left of the cultists were a couple of piles of ashes.

"I'm going to check on the prisoner. None of you had better follow me." Persephone said as she walked directly by Wyatt and went down the stairs with the canine following closely behind her.

As the cultists in the room began milling about, Wyatt and Mew snuck down the stairs unnoticed and one the reached the bottom, Wyatt took off sprinting as fast as he could. Wyatt himself had gone pale from what he had witnessed, both from the cultist being sacrificed and two other cultists being burned to ash.

"We need to get out of here, now!" Wyatt said as he continued running.

"No argument there. That was absolutely brutal." Mew said as it had also been a little shaken up by what it had witnessed.

Running to the room filled with tables, Wyatt was relieved that Sunset was still where they had left her. Getting her back onto his back and piggybacking her once again, they made their way back to the entrance and, seeing how there wasn't anyone there, ran up the stairs and reached the door. There, all they had to was hit a button, and the door opened to the outside, where they sprinted through it. As the door closed, however, they were unaware of a security camera pointed directly at the entrance.