Don't give in to darkness, Kellyn kept telling himself, but the corruption was overwhelming.
Balance, Blu repeated to him. Kellyn swore... Without him there, he probably would be a Human Gigaremo again by now. But how could he stand up to J and Lucario? Blu was still too young to activate his Rainbow Forme on his own. Kellyn would come up with something once it reached that point.
He followed the ice blocks a bit longer and eventually returned to the Castle. He was now very close to the throne room. Kellyn could tell because the negative energy was strongest there, and he recognized the two Riolu statues guarding the chamber that led to the throne. An old, blue carpet was beneath him, but that was all. The area looked like a secret room with a crumbling ceiling.
Kellyn hovered for a minute, then headed toward the Riolu statues; however, Blu suddenly shouted, "Look out! Look out!"
A beam of light appeared from the shadows. Noticing it, but just barely, Kellyn and Blu broke apart from one another, but the light hit Kellyn's Staraptor's wing. Instantly, a sheet of stone spread across it like ice, and the Pokémon crashed into the floor, taking Kellyn with it.
Yelling, he flew from Staraptor's back and smashed into the ground, sliding toward one Riolu statue, but his head missed it.
Regardless, once the dust and snow settled, Kellyn lay motionless on his side, and his Staraptor painfully called out to him. It tried lifting its petrified wing, but only managed to get it a few inches off the ground before dropping it again.
Blu squawked and rushed to Kellyn, looking up.
J stepped out from another room, her hand on her gauntlet, with her Salamence and a Drapion beside her. She sneered and said, "I meant to petrify you, Legendary, but this will do as well." She focused on Kellyn. "I finally got him."
Blu glared, examined Kellyn again, and said, "Hurt Kellyn! Hurt Kellyn!"
"Annoying, little Pokémon," J growled, pointing her gauntlet at Blu. "Come on, use your Rainbow Forme."
Blu seemed to growl. He left Kellyn and faced J, his eyes glowing. "Rainbow Forme—!"
"Stop, Blu!" someone shouted from where he and Kellyn had just come from. It sounded like Brock. "You can't successfully use your Rainbow Forme without Kellyn!"
He and the rest of the team rushed into the room, with their Pokémon teams following behind. Kellyn's Empoleon wasn't there, but Darkrai, the King of Olde, was.
Brock gasped and rushed to Kellyn, while Dawn and her Piplup approached Kellyn's Staraptor.
Dawn leered at J and yelled, "Release the Staraptor, J!"
"Piplup! Piplup!" her Piplup said, aiming a Bubble Beam toward J, who quickly leapt aside.
Darkrai jumped between the team and J, anger flashing in his exposed eye. "You hurt my heir, and for that, you will pay!"
"Heir?" J inquired, but then she cracked a sinister smile. "So, he is the Prince."
"Hold on, Darkrai," Ash told him. "You need to be careful not to give in to darkness again. That will make it harder on Kellyn."
"Pikachu!" Pikachu exclaimed, jumping down from Ash's shoulder.
Where Kellyn lay, he squirmed and slowly opened his eyes. Brock was hovering over him, but his mind was fuzzy, and it took a moment to remember where he was and what had happened. Then he saw J, and everything came back.
"J!" Kellyn sat up but bumped heads with Brock.
"Ouch!" they said together, falling on their backsides.
"What are you guys doing here?" Kellyn inquired, studying him and the rest of the team. Even… Darkrai? "I'm supposed to be doing this myself."
"Not according to Darkrai," Brock responded, helping him to his feet. "Are you okay, Kellyn?"
"Enough of this!" J faced her grounded Salamence. "Salamence, use Hyper Beam."
It nodded and stepped forward, opening its mouth.
"Oh, no you don't!" Ash said. "Pikachu, use Thunderbolt!"
"Bubble Beam, Piplup!" Dawn ordered, and then Sven and Wendy looked at their Friend Pokémon.
"Shadow Ball, Gengar," Sven said in not his usual harsh guy voice, sneezing.
Wendy jumped in. "Finally, Glalie, use Ice Beam."
All four Pokémon launched their attacks at J's Salamence, and they collided with its Hyper Beam.
There was a flash of light, and during the process, Darkrai shouted, "Dark Void!" Shadowy blobs shot from his hands, trapping J's Salamence and her Drapion. "Leave my Castle," were Darkrai's final words, and his eye glowed.
By the time everything settled, J and her Pokémon were no longer in the room with Kellyn and his team, although the tower shook slightly from the collision of Pokémon attacks. Darkrai must have teleported them out of there.
Kellyn's Staraptor smiled as its wing glimmered, and the stone faded away.
"Whoa!" Kellyn said, seeing that. J didn't stand a chance with Darkrai by his side. He wasn't part of the original plan, but Kellyn didn't regret it.
Seeming to huff, Darkrai nodded.
"Wow," Ash said. "Remind me not to anger you, Darkrai."
"Where did you teleport them to?" Dawn inquired as her chilled Pokémon team hugged her ankles.
Darkrai answered, "Somewhere where they won't bother us until we purify the Gem Guardian."
"Tha-Thank you, your Highness," Kellyn said, flinching. He bowed to Darkrai, and the others mimicked him.
"Please... rise," Darkrai said. "I only wanted to protect you guys." Did Kellyn see a smile in his eye? "You did well, working as a team to infiltrate the Castle and get Kellyn here."
"Yeah, I'm sorry, Ash, Brock, and Dawn." Sven sneezed again but exchanged glances with them. "I was wrong about you. Trainers are just as important as Rangers."
He accepted them… Finally! It only took nearly freezing to death and infiltrating Almia Castle for Sven to realize Ash, Brock, and Dawn's importance.
The Sinnoh trio smiled and nodded at Sven.
"Thank you, Sven," Ash said, looking at Kellyn, "but this isn't over yet."
"Right," Darkrai responded. "You all need to team up to weaken Lucario so Kellyn can safely channel his power and purify her. I wish I could help, but..." His voice trailed off, and he examined himself up and down. "I'm a Pokémon of darkness now."
"Don't worry, Darkrai," Ash stated. "We won't let you down."
Kellyn bit his lip and lowered his head. Ash still deserved the Vatonage power more than him, but he had to wait a little longer to ask Darkrai about it.
"I know you won't," Darkrai said. Did he sound a little too confident to Kellyn? "As long as you guys are balanced."
Well, Kellyn wasn't, so this would either end badly or by pure luck. Sigh, he just wanted it to be over.
Darkrai stayed back, but Kellyn led the team past the Riolu statues into a torch-filled chamber he remembered from his vision. There were those six unlit torches, which all lit up at once. Behind them was the entrance to the throne room.
Kellyn stopped, his heart pounding, but then Sven gripped his shoulder.
"We're right here, Kellyn," he softly spoke. Was he, tough guy Sven, finally showing empathy? Kellyn wondered for how long, but he would enjoy it while it lasted.
He inhaled, patted Sven's hand, and met Blu's eyes.
Ranger and Partner exchanged Let's do this gestures with their heads, and then, with the team close behind, entered Almia Castle's throne room.