20. Snivy's Worst Nightmare

Snivy awoke. Or at least he supposed that he had awoken.

He wasn't in the cave with Squeak and the Metagross, all that had faded into blissful silence. There was nothing but smoke, grey swirls of dark smoke swirling around him in every direction he looked. He looked down at himself, and realised with both some surprise and with no surprise at all, that he was grey like his surroundings, everything was grey. Snivy tried to get to his feet, and barely managed it, as his legs still felt heavy and difficult to use. For a few moments more Snivy simply looked around at the grey swirls of nothingness filling the air, before suddenly the smoke engulfed him and everything went dark once more…

Once the smoke had cleared, to Snivy's amazement he was standing back on the shores of Lake Verity. He was looking out across the water from the entrance to Squeak and Prince's cave. The water wasn't blue and sparkling though, it was a dark shade of grey. Everything was still grey.

"Squeak?" Snivy called out into the air but it was like shouting through water, his voice was muffled and feeble sounding and he doubted anyone could have heard him. The lakeside was abandoned, there was no one in sight, not a single Piplup or Prinplup or Empoleon. It seemed he was the only Pokémon for miles around in this bizarre world of grey.

"You see…" said a voice behind him, but this one didn't sound like it was being spoken thickly or muffled like his. Snivy turned around quickly and found himself facing Empoleon, Squeak's mum, as she stood behind him in the cave, her grey face expressionless as she stood in the cave.

"Where is everyone?" Snivy asked her, and once again his voice was thickly muffled

"Dead." said Empoleon simply, still not wavering from the expressionless tone or appearance, "They're all dead." Snivy now felt both unnerved and sick to be staring at this emotionless and expressionless Pokémon. This wasn't real; it had to be a bad dream…what was going on?

"Where's Squeak?" Snivy asked her quickly, staring around the cave, desperate to look anywhere other than her cold empty eyes. Empoleon looked at him and then began to walk back across the cave towards a staircase Snivy could never remember being there which appeared to lead up to Squeak's room which she began to ascend. Dreading what he might find at the top, Snivy followed her, pulling his heavy feet and feeling slightly dizzy as they ascended the neat stone staircase. As they reached the top, Empoleon stepped back and allowed him passage. Snivy stepped forwards and entered the room…and immediately wished that he had not done so. There was Squeak, lying on the bed, his mouth open in a silent scream, his eyes blank and staring upwards, his flippers hanging over the edges of the bed, a sticker book that he would never again open was crumpled on the floor. Next to him, wearing an equally grotesque expression was Prince, lying motionless next to his brother, their flippers nearly touching. Snivy felt physically sick and staggered backwards with horror on his face, the image of the two dead Pokémon still swimming behind his eyelids.

"Why…this isn't real…it can't be…" he said through choked sobs, feeling weak at the knees

"You know why they're dead." Empoleon told him, she was no longer staring at him, but past him into the room, "It's because of you. They tried to defend you, they tried to protect you…and you betrayed them and left them to die."

"I'd never do that!" Snivy said aghast, falling to his knees, his eyes now streaming

"You already have." Empoleon looked down at him with those cold eyes and only now Snivy could see tears with no emotion running down her face.

"Who killed them…who did this…" he couldn't bring himself to look back at the bodies of his two best friends. Empoleon waited for a few seconds before turning around and pointing one flipper into his room. Snivy wrenched his head around and found himself staring at the enormous poster of Darkrai pinned to the wall directly over the bed and the bodies.

The scene dissolved before his eyes back into grey smoke…Snivy closed his eyes and lay down on a floor hidden somewhere beneath the smoke, but he was sure that what he'd just seen would haunt him forever.

Then Snivy heard a voice calling to him from a great distance, so that he had to strain to listen to it, it was barely audible…but it was a smooth, slightly deep male voice that was talking to him through the smoke and confusion and horror.

"Snivy…" called the voice, muffled like his had been, "It's a nightmare…it will pass…" Snivy barely heard the words they were spoken from so far away, he wasn't sure whether they were in his head or spoken to him, "Snivy…" the voice came again, "Please…stay strong…nothing can hurt you…none of it's real…"

But just as Snivy started to listen to the voice the smoke engulfed him again and he found himself alone in a deserted greyscale Eterna Woods. Except it wasn't deserted, there were Metagross there, several large Metagross standing in a large circle and then Snivy wasn't alone either, he was with Nova, Drifblim and Crobat. Nova seemed to be sobbing hopelessly as she looked around at the Metagross

"I told you he wasn't to be trusted." Drifblim's voice was harsher and lower than Snivy could remember it ever being, "I told you he was nothing good."

"We should have abandoned him with them when we had the chance." Crobat agreed angrily, his cold eyes boring into Snivy, "He led them straight to us."

"I didn't!" Snivy cried

"You betrayed us." Drifblim said coldly, "You fraternised with them and turned us all over, just because you wanted to save your own miserable neck."

"I swear I never…"

"I trusted you Snivy." And Nova's anguished cry and her tear stained face hurt Snivy more than almost anything else that he had seen so far in this horrible grey world, "I was so certain you were a good Pokémon. How could you do this to me?" she let out another horrible anguished cry and sank down. The circle of Metagross were closing in.

"I am a good Pokémon!" Snivy cried out to her, staggering forwards

"Don't touch her!" snarled Crobat

"Don't you think that you've done enough damage already? Just get out of here. Go with the Metagross. You don't belong with us. You've no right to be protected." Drifblim glowered down at him, larger and grander than Snivy could remember him.

"Nova!" Snivy tried to cry out to her, but one of the Metagross had stormed forwards and knocked her sideward. She didn't fight as the Metagross pinned her down and tried to crush her with one metal leg, "Stop him, you've got to save her!" he gasped at Crobat and Drifblim

"It's too late for that." Crobat told him viciously

"It was too late from the moment you betrayed us." Drifblim responded

"In fact…it was too late from the moment you set your cursed feet in Sinnoh."

"Let Arceus take you to the distortion world."

Snivy curled up on the floor in a ball. His mind was screaming at him, he was sweating horribly and shaking.

Then he was surrounded by smoke and lying on a cold grey floor again with nothing visible around him. The voice came again

"Snivy…please hold on…Snivy…" he begged for the voice to keep speaking to him, for what it said to be true…

"It's a nightmare…it's a lie. Everything you are seeing is a lie…a manifestation…"

He wanted to reach out to the voice and pull himself closer to it, but he couldn't move, or speak such was the pain. And then he was suddenly surrounded by the Wanted posters from Unova, depicting the fearsome images of the ghost forces pressing at him through the smoke on all sides. All of their eyes were glowing red in the greyscale of the rest of the world and he was facing the huge fearsome image of Darkrai pressing down on him. And suddenly that was all he could see, Darkrai's cold eyes pressing into him, burning into his soul…

And then it was over.

DONE! :D

So wow this story has been a very, very long work in progress of about two and a half years and so I leave it on a cliff hanger because I'm a very mean and very unkind person!

Next I plan to start writing some of the smaller character backstories, these are going to be much shorter than this first instalment of the Psy Darkness series as we move into Part 2! Where we actually finally get to meet Mistress Haunter of the Ghost Forces and the Metagross plot begins to unravel properly before Snivy's eyes as the great hunt for the Metagross Commanders begins (with a little help from Dubious ofc!) That's all I'm going to say for now, please everyone watch out for the next instalment of Psy Darkness!

Don't forget to favourite and review! :)