#note: will add read more as soon as i can. i'm on mobile so currently having trouble doing so

[kotekie]

-His dark calling part 3-

~Straiton~

Blinking herself awake. Dawn yawned and rubbed her eyes. Her starter Empoleon helping her to her feet.

After her meeting with Cresselia. Dawn had bought the first ticket to the Unova region. The place were the first of the mysterious disappearances had occurred. Next was Hoenn...Then Kalos.

While she slept as she travelled by plane, Cresselia told her what it knew. Not too long ago. A familiar yet unfamiliar force arrived in their world. It disrupted the dreams of the missing three up until their disappearance.

Why them in particular it didn't know. How they disappeared in the middle of the night it didn't have the answers too either.

Cresselia also spoke of a doppelganger of the Sinnoh Champion. Exactly like Dawn in every way.

A perfect duplicate. She wondered if it was a ditto or a zoarark... but she was sure those pokemon couldn't enter dreams... maybe it was simply an illusion created by whoever or whatever was behind this.

Dawn held up the town map. She just had to continue following the road out of Nuvema town...and then she should be at Straiton.

She hoped she could find some clues there. Hear what his brothers knew and investigate the scene. This wasn't going to be easy but she had to try.

She took down her campsite and put it away in her bag. She did a little strech before continuing on her walk down the path.

It wasn't long till she felt an unnerving presence. Like someone was watching her. Staring. Angry. She stopped and looked around. Trying to see what was looking at her so angrily.

Empoleon looked over at her. "Empoleon?"

She looked around again before shaking her head. "Nothing Empoleon. I thought I.... no never mind.....I think."

She still felt the presence. She looked around one last time. In the corner of her eye, amongst the trees. She saw herself. Staring. Before she disappeared.

She gripped her bag strap before continuing to walk. Empoleon lagged behind. Clearly more alert then it had been before.

The rest of their walked was followed by an uneasy silence. Dawn clung onto her bag strap. Constantly feeling eyes on her back but desperately trying to ignore it. She stared down at her feet. Taking in the tiniest details of the road beneath her feet in order to try and distract herself from the feeling.

She should have really been looking ahead. That way she likely would have seen the red haired gym leader blazing towards her. In her defense. He wasn't exactly looking forward, nor was he listening to his brother exclaiming:

"CHILLI. SLOW DOWN. YOU'LL-"

In his defense, because we're trying to be fair here, he would have been looking forward had his brother not been running after him trying to persuade him to calm down. As then he wouldn't have had to tell back how he was going to find Cilan because it had been a month and the police still had no clue where he was so they were clearly incompetent-

We will end this debate here. Otherwise we could write an entire novel about it.

"S-sorry miss- Look what you did Cress!" Chilli quickly got off Dawn and held out his hand to help her to her feet.

"It's fine-" she takes his hand and stands up. She brushes herself off as Cress rushed over.

"You should have been looking where you were going!!" He grabbed his brothers arm before turning his attention to Dawn. "My apologies for my brothers behaviour. Are you alright?"

"I am quite fine." She smiled. "However, Perhaps you could help me find someone? I'm heading to Straiton to meet the gym leaders there. Do you two know where they may be?"

The two looked at each other.

"You're speaking to them right now! Chilli! I light things up with fire type pokemon!"

"Cress. I'm the water type specialist..." Cress's voice grew much quieter. "and our brother Cilan..."

"He handled the grass type pokemon... but he... disappeared..." A fire lit in Chilli's eyes. "Which is why I was just on my way to go find him!"

Cress grabbed his brother by the collar as the first gym leader started to go and dash off on his quest.

"Chilli. As I said. Leave it to the police." Chilli glared at his brother as his collar was released. His fists were tightly clenched but he didn't run off. "Are you here to challenge us? I'm afraid we're not taking challengers-"

"I wish to talk to you about Cilan."

The brothers froze. Their eyes met each other before they looked at Dawn.

"....Why? Do you-"

"Do you know something we don't about his disappearance?!? Who are you anyway??"

The two brothers were on edge. Cress had his arm out in front of his brother, almost holding him back as Chilli's hand trembled.

"What do you know- no, who are you first?" Cress questioned looking directly at her.

"...My names Dawn."

"....why does the Champion of Sinnoh want to know about a Unovan gym leader? You're a long way away from Sinnoh... why are you here?"

Why indeed. Dawn wasn't fully sure how to explain it- what did you say to someone's family that their brother was likely abducted or kidnapped by some unknown force that also seemed connected to an unknown doppelganger of herself.

"I...have reason to believe his disappearance is tied to two others. Professor Sycamore of Kalos and Steven Stone from Hoenn. Cilan was the first to disappear... so I came here first."

"That doesn't explain why a Sinnoh champion is here." Cress's eyes bore through her. The roles the two brothers had now switched, Chilli was now holding his brother back.

"...I..." she paused. Empoleon placed a fin on her shoulder. "...A few days ago, I was returning to my home town. I stopped by a lake.. and I was visited by Cresselia."

"The mythical pokemon? One of the Lunar duo?!"

She nodded. Empoleon kept his fin on her shoulder. "I will not recount all that had happened... however... She reported sightings of...another me. And this other me.. seems to have a tie to these disappearances-"

"Another you?!? Like an illusion or a ditto or-"

"I don't know. But according to Cresselia.. from what she felt from this other me.. it seems she is fully human.. but she bears a dark presence. Regardless. Cresselia asked me to investigate... so please. Tell me all you know about your brothers disappearance."

There was a brief moment of hesitation between the brothers. An exchange of glances.

"...Is this really true?" Cress questioned. His voice was laced with doubt. His blue eyes felt like they were piercing through Dawn.

"Cress! Didn't Cilan have nightmares before he disappeared? Or did you not notice?"

"Nightmares?"

"...Yes... Something about-" Cress stopped. Their eyes all met. "...He never remembered clearly but it was a girl with a human like figure..."

"The figure could be Darkrai-" Dawn began before Chilli charged in.

"Wasn't it two? Pretty sure Cilan mentioned two human like pokemon. He could never remember but he mentioned one was cat like but the other blended into the background-"

"Two? Chilli are you sure it's two?"

Chilli stopped and nodded. "Yeah. Two. Sometimes one but mainly two."

"....Who is the second then?" Dawn paused and thought. Clearly one had to be Darkrai... Cresselia's involvement clearly implicated that the nightmare legendary was involved..   but then who was the second? Was it possible there were two Darkrais?

"I do not...recall Cilan ever mentioning...." Cress frowned and stared off away. "....You said that there were two other  disappearances. Are you going to investigate them?"

"Yes- Do you wish to come with me?"

"Cilan's our brother! Of course we want to go and find him! Gym's closed anyway-" Chilli waved his hand nonchalantly. "League has already given us some time off. So we're going to go with you!"

"And time is off the essence. The longer they are missing the more danger they are in. There are two more missing. We can split off and investigate the two. Then we can report our discoveries."

"Two birds with one stone..." Dawn looked over at Empoleon. He seemed cautious of the two brothers, but even so he looked over at her and nodded. "It's an excellent plan. Do you have a way for us to keep in contact and report our findings?"

The three exchanged phone numbers. Discussing the details of they're next meeting. As they did they remained unaware of the presence watching them from beyond the trees.

A girl with a dark aura. Watching and staring at the girl with the same face as her.

A single choice. One flap of a butterfrees wing that could cause a tornado.

What had made the two so different? What was different about them?

The bitter emotions fed her dark aura. Making it grow strong. She looked down at her poketch. Then looked at the three. There was still hours till night. Her abilities were strongest at night.

A presence appeared behind her.

...Should we be concerned?

She looked over at the group They seemed to have organised themselves and were moving towards the gym.

...Do you wish to deal with your other self yourself?

She nodded.

The others?

She looked at the presence. His tail moved back and forth.

Very well.