Scattered Lights

[classy_cat18]

*pops open sparkling grape juice* Sorry, I would like to stay sober. I think this chapter marks the next step to a Kingdom Hearts crossover. The story's already sounding like a Final Fantasy game and I never knew!

Chapter Five - Family, Blood and Water

Terri's POV

(Day 2, Late Morning)

"Sorry, Cid. We might've been earlier but we ran into certain complications with the group and we kept misplacing things. But we corrected the problem before it was too late!"

Translation for those not learning Kanna-ese: "Sorry, Cid. We might've been earlier but my damn Raitah wouldn't get into his pokeball and buried half of my things in the sand. But we threatened to drown him in the kiddie pool and he obeyed!"

I sat heavily on a bench before anyone could call to attention my drowsiness combined with my shaky legs. It was my first time riding in a seaplane at daybreak. Cid, a blond guy that looked like he was related to Popeye with his big arms and hands, looked over at me. "Ya don't look like you're much for travel, lady," he commented in a gruff accent that matched his look.

"Not while I'm half-asleep, sir," I yawned.

"What a sissy." I barely caught that insult but wasn't up to trying a comeback.

Kanna sat beside me. "Take all the time you need. Cid isn't one for smooth rides."

I took one more look at Cid while he walked off. "Is that his real name?" I asked her.

She just laughed and stood back up. "Come on, we should get to Mom's place so we can drop off our stuff."

It didn't take me long at all to figure out why Bubbles went nuts over Altomare. It was Venice with Pokemon and a more solid base. I doubted that it was going to sink in the water anytime soon. The buildings were still cramped together, though, with many small alleys between them. So entrances to many places were well hidden.

"Oooh..." I said softly as I stopped for about the tenth time.

I could tell that Kanna was getting a little annoyed but she managed to smile. "That's Mom's favorite clothing store. They're very expensive, so she only has a couple of outfits from there." She pulled my arm until I started walking again.

I walked beside her as soon as I got over the nice dress in the window. "So you talked about your stepmom. What about your dad?"

"Researcher. But he chases after legends. The last time I heard, he was somewhere in Kanto. He's usually in a place my cell phone can't reach."

A canal was on the other side of the sidewalk, making transportation such as cars or even mopeds impossible. It was either walk or take a boat. I watched a gondola pass under a bridge that we were approaching. Kanna stopped me before we crossed it. "Do you hear that?" she asked me.

I did hear it. "It's just a bunch of shouting. So what?" I said. But then the sound got closer, and seconds later, a brown blur went by us. A group of boys followed it. It took a few seconds for my mind to register what my sharpened eyes saw. "Was that...a Buizel? What's a Buizel doing here?"

Kanna clenched her jaws shut. "That was Typhoon," she whispered, and then sighed heavily. "They're in trouble again."

She didn't explain before taking off in the direction of the angry mob with me following closely behind. We swerved around innocent bystanders and down a narrow alley. That was where we found the boys, trapping the Buizel in a dead end. There were four boys, all of them about high school age. A bunch of thugs.

"End of the line, Typhoon," one of the boys sneered at the cornered Buizel.

"CUT IT OUT!" I yelled out angrily to them without thinking.

All four of them turned to us. The leader, a tall guy with a shaved head and goggles around his neck, crossed his arms in an attempt to scare us off. "Got something to say, girlie?" he asked me.

I opened my mouth to talk but Kanna cut me off. "I assume you had nothing better to do so you decide to chase this Pokemon," she told him calmly.

Baldy glared at her. "This is none of your business! This Buizel has been sticking its nose in our turf!"

Kanna didn't seem scared, just bored. I could see why; the guy probably hadn't even graduated yet. "This is Altomare. Where would you find 'turf' in Altomare?" She got closer to him as he rolled up his sleeves. "I happen to know this Buizel, so I'll be taking him off your hands."

I could see the rusty gears turning in Baldy's head. "Oh, you must be Dee Dee Dee's sister! Hey guys, it's the retard's sis!" The other three humans laughed with their leader.

A growl escaped me before I knew it. I may not know Kanna's stepbrother, but I don't care. These guys are so dead! I looked at Kanna who seemed as angry as I've seen her, but neither of us did anything to them yet.

Kanna soon got tired of the staring contest and pushed him aside. "We'll be leaving with Typhoon now," she grumbled.

The four guys tensed, ready for a fight. But Kanna ignored them as the relieved Buizel jumped in her arms. "I said that this was none of your business!" Baldy roared.

Kanna gave him a deadly glare, her glasses reflecting the sunlight and giving her a "devious anime scientist" look. "Three things. One, I am related to the person who owns this Buizel so this is my business. Two, this Buizel hasn't done anything that deserves punishment! Three, this alley is too small to be starting anything in, so..."

The gang laughed loudly at my friend until they were gasping for breath. "Okay, girlie! We'll let you go this time!" He took a few steps back.

Typhoon shivered in Kanna's arms as I followed her out the alley. "They're lying," Typhoon whimpered. Those were the first words he uttered since he'd been cornered.

Kanna just nodded. "I know. We just need more room to retaliate."

As soon as we were out in the open, the thugs ran out with pokeballs in hand. "Did you think that we were going to just let you go?" Baldy crowed.

"Nope," I answered. My eyes widened as I saw Kanna pull out a pokeball of her own. "Don't tell me that's..."

"Prowler, go!" Kanna shouted as she threw it.

The Raitah materialized in front of the gang with a sneer on his face. Everyone but the leader took three steps back. "Oh man, is that what I think it is?" one of Baldy's flunkies asked.

"Is she even allowed to keep it?" another squeaked.

Kanna smiled. It wasn't a nice smile, either. "Prowler, meet your new chew toys."

Prowler gave his prey a toothy grin. "AT LAST!" he roared. That alone made the gang, as well as three bystanders, run for their lives. Kanna returned him before he could chase anyone.

I was only slightly nervous about Kanna's solution, but that didn't stop me from laughing at their retreating backs. They had a point; Raitah are supposed to be a protected species. Oh well, at least it was morning.

Typhoon had his eyes covered the whole time. When the coast was clear, he looked at me and smiled. "Are you Kanna's friend?" he inquired. When I nodded, he squeaked in surprise. "You can understand me!"

"What were you doing to get into trouble, Typhoon?" Kanna asked him.

The Buizel's two tails drooped. "I...wandered off again and, um, got a little lost."

I couldn't tell if he was embarrassed or just lying, but Kanna accepted his answer. "Well, why didn't you fight back? I know you're capable of defending yourself."

That rendered Typhoon speechless. He frowned and pawed at Kanna's shoulder. Kanna put him on the ground and kneeled to his level. "I'm sorry about that. Those kids are pretty intimidating," she said with a smile.

"Not as intimidating as your new Pokemon," he told her with a small smile.

"I'm guessing that you already know that Kanna can understand Pokemon," I interrupted.

"Of course I know. So does Demyx."

"Demyx?" Kanna and I echoed together.

He nodded and looked at Kanna. "You know that he thinks Demetrios is a stupid name. At first he preferred Dee, but then his classmates started calling him Dee Dee Dee. His best friend recommended his current nickname."

"That one sucks too," I grumbled. "Demyx. Sounds Final Fantasy if you ask me."

He laughed and started walking past us. "He must be worrying about me. Come on, let's go home before Prowler's 'wake-up call' gets us in trouble."

We crossed the bridge where we met Typhoon and went down a section that seemed to be mostly art galleries and stores that sold handmade things. We stopped in front of a three-story building. "Here's the museum," Typhoon announced. "It's still closed so we need to go around to the side entrance."

The side entrance in the nearby alley led to an ordinary kitchen and a small dining area. Through the doorway was a nice sized living room with a plasma screen TV and video games. At first I thought that the stereo in the corner was playing some guitar music, but then I saw that it was turned off.

Besides, the music was coming from upstairs.

"At least Dee is here," Kanna mumbled as she climbed the carpeted stairs up to the second floor. "We got here before he got out for the day."

I started to follow her, but then I heard the unseen guitar play at a faster rhythm and then slow down until the sound was like falling raindrops. Finally it stopped, and someone yelled through one of the closed doors. "Who's there?"

"It's me," Kanna answered.

"Kanna?" The voice was slightly high pitched. The door to our right flew open and Kanna's stepbrother leaned over the railing to see us.

The two could've been blood siblings. The two sets of blue eyes were certainly similar. But Demetrios was a dirty blonde, while Kanna was a brunette. But he looked ordinary. No spiky hairstyle, just a normal cut for his straight hair. One thing that I couldn't understand was his bright expression. How could any guy look that awake at ten in the morning?

Kanna wasted no more time in nagging him. "Dee, what was Typhoon doing wandering outside alone?"

"Dee" clicked his tongue and looked away. "Typhoon can take care of himself," he told his stepsister. His annoyed tone carried an accent that I couldn't recognize.

"He was being chased by a bunch of high school punks," I butted in.

I must've been invisible because he looked at me for the first time. His eyes lit up and his jaw dropped. It took him a while for him to find his voice. "Whoa. Um, Kanna? Since when did you have friends?"

"Excuse me?" I growled.

"Sorry!" he quickly said to me. "She just doesn't mention other people that often."

"She works with me...in a way," Kanna explained. "Terri can understand Pokemon too."

"Terri, huh?" I could've sworn he blushed a little. "What brings you here?" he asked me.

"I wanted to see what my friend's family was like," I said.

That time he definitely blushed. "Really? Well, we're not as annoying as Kanna says we are."

"Oh really? Then I guess you tricked me into coming here for a just cause," Kanna said with a raised eyebrow.

Her stepbrother turned four different shades of red and tried his best to laugh off his embarrassment. "Come on! Me? Trick? It wasn't a trick! Why would I trick you? I remember what happened last time..." He trailed off as he spaced out.

"Trippin'..." I sang softly.

"You are a lousy liar," Kanna commented with a smirk.

Demyx huffed. "Fine, I tricked you. But you wouldn't have come here until I graduated! I wanted you here now!" He gave us a pathetic little-kid pout. "Please, big sis?"

I looked at Kanna with wide eyes. "How old is this boy?" I asked her.

"I just turned seventeen," Demyx told me brightly.

I sighed. He might as well be ten.

"Look, Mom's so busy that she's rarely home before sundown. I have something coming up at school, a sort of family thing. Mom doesn't have Pokemon, so..." He batted his eyelashes at us.

"Is this that Pokemon contest your school has every year for the festival?" Kanna inquired. He nodded.

Kanna had been tricked somehow, but she didn't seem too upset. In fact, seconds later she was smiling. "I don't get it. Are you going to choke him or what?" I asked Kanna.

"I can't believe you used Medli," she said lightly. Demyx smiled and showed us a pokeball. Knowing that I needed further explanation, Kanna did that for me. "Medli is a Chatot. Chatot are well known in Sinnoh for their ability to mimic human speech. But mimicing someone's voice is a real challenge. Medli's perfect for contests."

Her stepbrother threw his pokeball, letting loose a strange looking bird that was slightly larger than a Pidgey. She perched on the back of Demyx's computer chair and stared at me. At first I was staring her in the face, but then her wagging tail caught my attention. It's like a metronome...

"Earth to Terri!" Demyx's loud voice snapped me back to reality. "Whoa, Medli had you spacing out!"

"Spacing out! Spacing out!" Medli echoed. In English. Sounding like Demyx.

Almost too weird for me.

Reaper's POV

(Day 2, Noon)

Just about everyone that was present at the midnight gathering was either asleep or just relaxing by the time the sun was back up. Moriko was only awake for a couple more hours before she retired for the night, but she was awake before I was. But then again, I was asleep until almost noon.

"Damn beetle," Ripper grumbled as he stared at a scratch on his armored shoulder. "If I find one dent..."

"There's one right between your eyes," I interrupted with a smirk.

He growled in frustration. "I'm-a kill her!"

I watched him pace back and forth, his eyes burning with the irritation he felt since he woke up. "I don't see why you're so angry. Both the dent and the scratch will be gone before the day is over." His natural steel armor could get rid of any flaws in time.

"That's not it! This stupid thing is proof that she beat me!"

"You still have the spectators to worry about."

He stopped pacing, looked at me thoughtfully, and rested his head against a tree. "You and your rational mind."

"One of us has to be rational."

"Such wise words from the Kai Venom Knight," a gentle voice said from behind the tree.

We both turned our heads as the stranger made himself known. The unknown Pokemon was strange; a Gardevoir but with a different shape. It smelled like a male.

"Great, a Gallade," Ripper grumbled. "Another noble pacifist."

I saw the Gallade flinch at the comment. "If you're trying to provoke me, you'll be the one looking like a fool."

I didn't want to suffer through more of Ripper's wrath so I did my best to avoid it. "I haven't seen a Pokemon like you before," I told the Gallade.

"Pokemon in Sinnoh have found other evolved forms. I have had the fortune of training there under the eye of an Aurora Knight." He extended his hand to me. "My name is Ronin."

"Reaper." He carefully shook my blade. "Who was this Aurora Knight who taught you?"

"Sorry, but they made me promise to give no one that information." He laughed a little, his smile bright. "Not even the Kai Knights."

Ripper "gently" nudged me aside. "Ronin. Any reason for the name?" he questioned.

His eyes darkened instantly. "It's just a name. It doesn't always have to have some meaning."

The sound of feathered wings alerted me of another newcomer. "What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet," Feather quoted as she landed on a branch. She had chosen to show up in her Pidgeotto form.

Ronin waved to her. "Is Joi ready for me?" he asked Feather.

"Yeah. I'll catch up after I talk to my friends."

She waited for him to disappear from sight before talking again. "No one knows anything about Ronin. He's been everywhere and he only settled down here recently," she explained quietly.

"That explains where he got the name," Ripper commented.

"Something about him unnerves me. He has this edge around him," I observed.

"I like the guy. Anyone who doesn't back down to me is okay in my book." He stretched casually.

I ignored him. "What is Joi doing here?" I asked.

"Joi visits here weekly to treat the oracle," the bird answered.

Ripper blinked twice. "Oooookay. Oracle."

"You haven't seen him yet because he's kept separated from the rest of the residents here." He looked directly into my eyes. "He's a major psychic. He can actually see into the future, even further than Future Sight allows other Pokemon."

"I can see why they would want this oracle to stay healthy," I said.

Ronin ran back to us at that moment. "Joi is bringing him to us," he informed. He looked surprised.

"Does he want to come out?" Feather asked with as much surprise.

"He practically demanded it!"

We saw Joi off in the distance, walking towards us while holding a Zangoose's paw. The Zangoose was blindfolded with a black scarf as he shuffled carefully next to the nurse.

"That's the oracle? Since when were Zangoose psychics?" Ripper said skeptically.

I found my legs carrying me closer to the wary Zangoose. At first he froze as his nose twitched. Joi stopped and held his paw tighter. He turned toward me and sniffed the air, getting a good whiff of a stranger's scent. Finally he yanked his paw out of Joi's hand. "Joi. Who stands before me?" he demanded in a faint yet harsh voice.

Joi looked at her hand, seemingly shocked that he would take such action. "That's Reaper. He's a friend of mine, so don't worry." She smiled at me. "Reaper, this is Stryker. With a 'y'."

"Reaper," the oracle rasped. "The Grim Reaper. It is a shinigami that stands before me." He took a few more steps towards me. "Blood has soaked your scythes. The blood is sweet, like a loved one's."

I took a step back. Is he just saying nonsense or does he actually know something?

Stryker kept walking to me, stretching his arms out to me. "Bend down, shinigami. You seem familiar to me." My legs moved on their own, kneeling so I was at eye level to him. He held my face still with his paws. "Joi, I cannot see him properly. Remove this thing from my eyes."

Joi obeyed, slowly pulling the scarf from him and holding it. Stryker had his eyes closed as it was removed but then carefully opening them. "Brother," he said to me with a grin. "You are no stranger to me. We both suffered here long ago."

"The lab?" I mouthed.

"Yes, the lab." He felt the contours of my face and stared straight into my eyes, freezing me with their gaze. "How long has it been since you heard that angel scream as you bathed in her blood?"

The screams. I can still hear her! A vision of frightened blue eyes flashed before me as what could only be the cry of an innocent rang through the forest. I closed my eyes to try to clear my head, before I blacked out from the rush of memories.

"Open them, Reaper!" Stryker yelled. I obeyed without thinking. "The past can never be denied! She's gone now!" The screams stopped abruptly. His voice became soft again. "Another is in your heart. You are...bonded...in some way." He smiled. "I can hear her laugh. But what else do I see?"

My eyes grew wider with his. His paws shook before he fell back on his rear. A blue aura surrounded him. "She's in pain, brother. She's running for her life. Demons raise their claws to the sky for the hunt has started!"

More screams. No, not screams. Growls and roars. Then I could clearly hear Shonta's voice. Angry. Afraid. Confused.

"Reaper?" Ripper asked.

"Reaper!" Joi cried out as darkness filled my vision.