The air cracked open like thunder as the seal finally broke.
Deep beneath Pokémon Tower, inside a hollowed dome of ancient stone and pulsing glyphs, Darkrai hovered—shuddering, surrounded by shadows not his own.
He wasn't fully lost.
Not yet.
But the thing inside him—the corruption—was growing. Writhing. Feeding off his pain.
Skylar could feel it.
Like a second heartbeat in the room. A heartbeat that didn't belong.
And surrounding them were dozens of corrupted Pokémon—Haunter, Banette, Umbreon, all twisted by alien influence, their cries empty and hungry.
Skylar stepped forward.
"Arcanine—Flare Blitz! Clear a path!"
Arcanine burst into a ribbon of flame, scattering the first wave of attackers.
"Starmie—Light Screen and Rapid Spin!" Misty shouted.
Her Pokémon spun into the air, casting a protective field and disrupting a wave of ghost-type illusions.
Gardevoir floated into the air beside Skylar.
—"We get to him," he whispered. "No matter what."
The battle exploded into chaos.
Flashes of fire lit the room like lightning. Psychic blasts burst against corrupted claws. Misty and Skylar moved as one, carving a trail toward Darkrai.
But Darkrai wasn't idle.
He attacked without control—lashing out in waves of nightmare energy. A massive pulse knocked Starmie against a broken pillar, then twisted into the air toward Gardevoir.
"Barrier!" Skylar cried.
Gardevoir intercepted it, but the strain shook her body. The attack wasn't just powerful—it was unstable, rippling with something wrong.
Skylar pushed forward, channeling his aura.
Each step brought him closer—not just to Darkrai, but to something beneath him. A second pulse. A colder one.
Not Darkrai.Something deeper.
The source.
And he knew:
This wasn't the colony. This was just its breath.
Darkrai cried out—twisting midair as his form glitched and stuttered. Corruption spilled from his body in waves, shrieking like banshees.
Skylar raised his Key Stone.
"Gardevoir—Mega Evolve!"
A spiral of light engulfed her, and when it faded, Mega Gardevoir floated tall and glowing, eyes sharp, energy tuned to Skylar's pulse.
They launched forward.
"Moonblast! Aim for the glyphs, not him!"
She obeyed, firing silvery blasts that pierced the black glyphs floating around Darkrai. They hissed and popped like rotten glass.
Darkrai screamed again—this time in agony, not rage.
For just a moment, his red eye flickered.
Blue.
Skylar stopped.
That's it. That's him.
He extended his hand.
—"Darkrai! You're not the nightmare!"
Another shadow tendril lashed toward him—but Gardevoir blocked it.
Misty appeared at Skylar's side, breathing hard.
"His aura's fractured."
Skylar nodded. "But not gone."
"Then let's pull him back."
Together, they advanced.
More corrupted Pokémon swarmed.
But Arcanine's fury burned through them—his body a comet of flame, crashing through Banette and Gengar alike.
Starmie blasted the last Haunter into the wall with a psychic cannon.
Darkrai's corrupted shell cracked further.
The glyphs binding him shattered one by one.
And then—
He fell.
Collapsed.
Skylar caught him mid-air with aura threads, lowering him gently to the stone floor.
Darkrai trembled in his arms, barely conscious.
His eye opened.
Blue.
Clear.
"...I remember… the dreams."
Skylar smiled.
"Then remember this one."
He placed his palm against Darkrai's chest and channeled a final surge of aura into him.
Purging what was left.
The glyphs hissed.
Screamed.
And then—burst into black smoke.
Darkrai went limp.
But the air around him finally stilled.
The corruption… was gone.
The silence was thick.
The battle was over.
But Skylar's skin tingled.
He turned slowly.
Toward the obelisk.
It was no longer cracking.
Now… it was glowing again.
Misty stepped beside him.
"That's not Darkrai's energy."
Skylar nodded grimly. "It's the heart."
Misty blinked. "The what?"
Skylar pointed to the base.
New glyphs had emerged—foreign, shifting constantly.
The core of the colony.
The intelligence that had invaded through the meteorite.
The same that corrupted Mt. Moon.
That breached the seal around Darkrai.
This chamber—this battle—had only been the beginning.
Skylar turned to Gardevoir.
"We saved him… but whatever's behind this?"
He looked back at the obelisk pulsing silently in the dark.
"It's still waiting."
Darkrai stirred.
He floated slightly, shakily, beside Skylar.
"That… was only one piece. There are more."
Skylar nodded. "Then help us."
Darkrai's form shimmered faintly.
He didn't smile.
But his silence felt… resolved.