WE DID IT KIDS WE CLIMBED THIS WHOLE MOUNTAIN thank you for sticking with me 3. (Also, a blatant self promo:L with this done I'll be moving further onto AO3, where my user is Experi and I am currently writing a bunch of Kekkai Sensen. Do you like Kekkai Sensen and/or gays? Find me on AO3.)

Newmoon is an exact opposite to Fullmoon island in most aspects. Unlike Cresselia's island, it doesn't glow, but nonetheless gives a strong feeling of something's presence, which sets Steven and Eldritch at ill ease until Riley has the presence of mind to give the each one of the four lunar wings he'd transferred to his pocket. That works to ease any foreboding feeling the island and its inhabitant give off, though the whole 'going to visit a place occupied by a nightmare god prone to possessing people' has its own psychological effect that no talisman can ward off.

The island has a dock, though a very questionable-looking one that appears to have been built quite a long time ago. Cresselia's guarding crystals exist here too, oddly enough, though only dotting the furthest rocks along the edges of the island. Riley supposed that is one of the things she was referring to when she mentioned her security measures against Darkrai.

"This should be simple," Steven comments blandly. Sarcasm noted and proven true, as even getting a stable enough point to dock and allow Steven and Riley off the ship is a trial for Eldritch. He manages, eventually, the darkness of the night not doing much to help him. Somehow Steven and Riley avoid old wood collapsing from under them when the walk along it onto the island, and then this time it's Riley dragging Steven by the arm through the wooded path.

He walks more confidently here, because even though he's acting entirely on impulse, Riley feels like he knows what he's doing. This place is familiar as well, the same wooded place he's occasionally visited in his dreams. Like Fullmoon and like in his dreams, there is a clearing in the woods that he approaches. He holds a hand out resolutely as Steven takes a couple wary steps back. Steven can feel Darkrai's presence, though unlike Riley he is neither determined to interact with it nor accustomed to it. Riley can't walk through the gap in the trees, which is more or less exactly what he expected. He lays a hand on the air and meets resistance, a psychic wall no doubt installed by either Cresselia or the entities that exiled Darkrai here in the first place. As if called forth by his motion, shadows on the ground shift and bubble. From them, behind the aura wall, Darkrai rises slowly from the ground.

Riley stares at it evenly. It's the first time he's seen this pokemon as a pokemon and not some odd shadow of himself, though its form has a hazy familiarity. Darkrai does and says nothing for quite a while, just staring at Riley with an icy blue eye.

Riley stares back.

So you came.

"I did. I have an offer."

I can do nothing for you, child, I am sorry.

"I don't need you to. But I can do something for you, I think."

Darkrai regard him curiously. This is new, and not at all what it expected. Darkrai's history is one of being increasingly trapped on Newmoon Island in an attempt to keep its ability as away from humans as possible. A human coming to its island and doing so peacefully, much less a shuman it inadvertently cursed, is never something Darkrai would have thought possible. Riley calls forth his aura powers, concentrating the energy in his palm. With a cerulean glow, his hand pushes through the barrier to Darkrai's clearing and pulls open a gash in it.

His plan was to free Darkrai and he's still not sure if he's going to regret this or not. But he doubts it. Riley can't help but pity the pokemon, especially after being forced to share its overwhelming loneliness in his own nightmares. He regards Darkrai carefully. The pokemon seems distinctly surprised.

What are you doing?

Riley inhales. Alright, he's here, do it. "I can let you leave here. You found me because you were looking for a way out, weren't you? I have lunar wings. You can stay with me, visit Iron Island during the day, or full moon, whatever. When it's night and people sleep, you head back. But this," he gestures at the island around him the anchors Darkrai to its location, "This clearly isn't working." And it's cruel. That's the main part. Arceus knows how long the pokemon's been stuck alone here. Riley would want to leave too.

Darkrai doesn't respond, clearly surprised and expecting some sort of takeback from Riley. "Well?" the human asks. "I'm not saying I'm becoming your trainer, but I have a spare Pokeball on me. You get linked to me as much as I am to you and we can take down some of the barriers here. It won't give you much aside from Iron Island and the rules I said, but it's an idea."

Child, you offer too much. I would like to, but you will incur Cresselia's wrath. She doesn't trust me, why do you?

"She didn't have you living in her brain for an age. Besides, she already threw me around once and I lived, what the worst that could happen." That's pretty blase of him and he knows it, but this is a marketing pitch here. It seems to work, about which Riley is not surprised. Darkrai nods.

I do my best not to harm those around me, and I will not go back on that, it tells Riley.

"Good," the aura guardian replies, drawing a pokeball out from the clips on his belt. "Because if you did, you'd be stuck back on this island in a heartbeat." Riley holds out the pokeball to Darkrai briefly before tossing it upwards. He doesn't expect much, to be honest. But the pokemon complies easily with the red light that engulfs it. The ball falls to the ground, twitches a few times, and makes the successful-capture ping noise. Not a full second after it does that, Darkrai pops back out. The pokeball isn't broken, just finds it difficult to contain Darkrai. Nor does Darkrai particularly enjoy the confinement. Riley scoops the ball up and clips the now-claimed pokeball back on his belt.

"Done," he announces. "You're connected to this now, and it'll be kept in the Iron Island cabin. You're free to visit like anyone else would be, I won't hold a grudge." Riley smiles.

Darkrai looks at itself, then at the pokeball in Riley's hands. It genuinely doubts this would work, but an attempt is worth it and it's more the gesture that Darkrai appreciates more than anything else. A human has forgiven it. A human has faith. For the first time in decades.

Thank you, Darkrai tells Riley.

"Do see if you can visit me in the morning. I hope that's enough to keep your aura from wandering." As with Cresselia, Riley bows to the pokemon before leaving.

He turns to Steven, who is even more dumbfounded than before, though this time with significantly more awe in his expression. He walks quickly to catch up with Riley's brisk pace out of the island as Darkrai considers its options in the copse. "You just caught a god," Steven whispers at Riley, "in a pokeball. Are you insane?"

Riley grins, self-satisfied. "Quite possibly. We'll have to see." He pauses to think for a second before bursting out with a laugh and pulling Steven into a haphazard hug. "We did it, though. Either way, I'm alive and we did it." He plants an enthused kiss on Steven's temple. "Thank you for staying with me."

Steven grins back and elbows Riley companionably in the side. "Any time."

They emerge from the island and return to the ship in great spirits, because now, no matter what becomes of them and of the lunar gods, it is technically over. They did it.

Dawn greets them back at Canalave harbour with a small smile and a whispered congratulations.

Riley returns with Steven to Hoenn, figuring that he may as well take a couple days to visit the region properly, and stay with Steven a bit longer with the added bonus of having his presence of mind entirely about him. The lunar wing works as advertised; so long as he keeps one in the room while he sleeps Riley is entirely fine. As is Steven, no further subconscious incidents.

A week after Riley returns to Iron Island, he notices for the first time a dark aura hovering about him as he hikes down from one of the island's outcroppings. He looks down at his shadow.

"You're free to come out," he says, "I'm glad you made it. I don't know if you eat poffins, but I've got some at the cabin if you choose to tag along."

Darkrai billows out from the shadows, blinking adjustment to the midday sun, and follows quietly along after Riley.