*Risk's POV*

"Look!" I heard Photon say from behind me.

"He's back! And so is Beta!"

I opened my eyes to see the Crusaders staring at me in awe.

"How did you get back from..."

"My army... That infernal tree destroyed my entire army!" Von Spectre fumed.

"It's just what they always say! 'If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself!' Prepare to meet your end, Crusaders!" The Banette descended to the ground, an odd purple liquid staining his claws.

"I didn't come through all of this just to lose to you! The Crusaders will fight you till the very end. If it means that I have to die to ensure your downfall, so be it! I've had enough of your underhanded devilry!" I could barely contain my anger as I shouted at Von Spectre. The Necromancer just laughed,

"Well," it said with a smile,

"If you're so eager to throw away your own life, then I'll be glad to take it!"

The Banette disappeared for a split second, quickly re-appearing directly in front of me and, before I could react, stabbing its claws through my chest.

Ungh...

"Spectre..." I choked out, my breathing becoming increasingly erratic as blood and purple liquid spewed from the wound.

"I won't let you win! Take this!" I shouted, as the ghostly energy from before enveloped my paw, and I slammed it into the Pokemon so hard it sent the Banette flying backwards a few hundred feet. Spectre got up slowly, its chest still sparking dark energy from the wound.

But... I... I... That liquid inside me... I looked down at the puddle of fluid and guts under me. It had been tainted a red color from my own blood, but I knew, very well, what Spectre's claws had been tainted with.

It's... Poison...

My heart rate followed the same, random rate as my breathing, and I soon collapsed from the abnormal amount of blood pumping through me.

*Alpha's POV*

"Risk!" I ran up to the collapsing Riolu and caught his head before it could hit the ground. The rest of the Crusaders soon joined me, looking at Risk with compassion. In the distance, Von Spectre laughed,

"Your friend will not survive the Toxic venom I have so graciously given him. He wanted to die for a noble cause, so I simply let him fulfill his wish!"

"You're far worse than a monster, Von Spectre!" I seethed in anger.

"Beta, let me Mega Evolve! I have a score to settle with this infernal demon of a Pokemon!"

WIthout hesitation, she threw the two objects to me, and I turned to face the Necromancer.

"It's about time I did this! I've been wanting to get rid of you ever since I first laid eyes on you!" I started to advance on Spectre, and a pink light began to envelop me. When it was over, I finally understood what Beta had underwent before- what Mega Evolution actually was. Photon, Cedric and Felix stormed up to me and all said, practically simultaneously,

"We'll back you up, Alpha! For Sophia!"

"No, I must do this alone," I said, as nicely as I could. Even though I knew more Pokemon fighting could help, I couldn't get this despicable image of the entire group of Crusaders falling prey to Von Spectre's Toxic out of my head.

"Please, let me handle this!" I said to them, and the three of them begrudgingly backed away.

"Good luck, Alpha!" Photon said, on his way back to Risk.

I turned back to the source of all my problems and bit my lower lip.

"Now, I'm going to put you out of your misery, you oversized pincushion!" I let out a battle cry and ran towards the Pokemon, fangs bared in both horn-jaws.

Von Spectre laughed, and the familiar purple liquid coated its claws once again.

Not this time, you're not pulling that one on me! I thought to myself, sidestepping the initial swipe and ripping off the Banette's arm as it flew past me. I threw it towards Risk and Beta, who had taken up the job of caring for both Riku and him.

"You won't be needing that anymore!" I laughed, turning and swinging my free horn-jaw like a club into Spectre, knocking him farther back into the room. The Pokemon hit the back wall with a thud, and a vile liquid was forced from the gaping hole in its skin.
"Why you little, insignificant pile of filth!" the Banette roared.

I was about to run Von Spectre through with my horn-jaw, when a large hand grabbed me from the back.

I turned around to see Dusknoir, smiling at me.

"Playtime's over, Alpha!" it said, and its grip on me strengthened.

"That's... What... You ... Think!" I shouted angrily, wrenching a horn-jaw free from Dusknoir's arm and jamming it into its eye.

Dusknoir howled in pain, dropped me, and tried to disappear into the shadows.

"Oh, you're not going anywhere!" I shouted, grabbing the Gripper Pokemon with one horn-jaw and slammed the other into its already-damaged eye. Dusknoir went hurtling across the room and landed, with a thud on the floor. It didn't move, and, as I walked towards the fallen Ghost, Gengar soon appeared next to it.

"Come," it said, offering a shadowy hand to Dusknoir.

"Let's get you out of here, safe and sound! And that goes the same for all of you, too! We're leaving- Spectre's orders!" Gengar commanded, and every Ghost began to disappear before my very eyes.

They're getting away... But I think we have bigger problems right now!

I disregarded the fleeing Ghosts and turned my attention back to Von Spectre, who had recently recovered from his time spent crashing into the wall.

"This is the end of the line for you!" I yelled, running at the Banette once again, spearing him with both horn-jaws for good measure. The majority of the Pokemon's body had been punctured, and that same purple fluid leaked from the wounds, as it fell to the ground.

I backed away from the broken Necromancer, but an explosion behind turned my head back to Spectre. I gasped. His wounds had been perfectly healed, and the fluid on the floor had obviously been absorbed into it once again. The Banette was still missing its arm, though, and that got me thinking,

Maybe if I progressive tear off more and more of its body, I can finally get rid of it! I thought, hopefully.

Spectre, obviously, had other ideas. It stretched out the nub of an arm that it still had, and the broken piece flew from the ground back to its socket, automatically stitching itself back into place. It grinned at me, evilly,

"You see? There really isn't a way to win! There never was from the beginning!" the Pokemon laughed, and the color of its changed to a bright red.

"So poison doesn't affect your kind, hmm? Well, how about fire?!" it crowed, running at me and jamming its claw into my ribcage.

Immediately, my body began to smolder, and I felt like I was being cooked from the inside out. The pain was unlike anything I had ever experienced before, and, the instant Spectre withdrew its claws from inside, I fell to the ground, still clutching my wound.

*Felix's POV*

"So, you want to play with fire?!" I roared, placing myself between Spectre and Alpha.

"Why don't you try this on for size?!" I opened my mouth and launched the largest fireball I had ever tried to make at the Pokemon, scorching the inside of my jaw in the process.

My Fire Blast slammed into the Banette and singed through its left arm, cleanly vaporizing the black fabric that held the Pokemon together. Spectre cursed,

"Do you know what manners even are?! I know you're a dragon, but, please, calm yourself!"

Its remaining claws took on a more bluish tint, and my eyes widened. I knew exactly what it was going to do next.

The Banette closed in on me, and I let out a war cry, hoping to conjure the power of the desert within me. Luckily, my idea worked, and a pillar of molten earth rocketed out of the ground, slamming into Spectre and pushing it backwards.

"You can't escape your fate! No matter what you do, you never can run from destiny!"

*Risk's POV*

"You're... you're, right! For once, you're right!" I yelled, from the inside of Beta's horn-jaw. She quickly spat me out, and I joined Felix's side on the battlefield.

"Von Spectre!" I couldn't contain my rage.

Pendant glowing and heart heavy, I advanced on the Necromancer.

"You've done enough to harm this world!" I shouted, running towards the Banette and slamming my fist into its chest.

For some reason, this seemed to greatly wound Spectre, as my punch not only went through the Pokemon, the attack caused it to gasp in pain and crumple to the ground.

I held my fist over Von Spectre's ugly head, and the ghostly energy from before came flooding back to it.

"Now, I'm going to do to you what you did to everyone else around you. Your heinous crimes cursed me with this dark energy, and I'm going to kill you with it!" I began to lower my fist onto the Pokemon's head, but Spectre caught my paw on the way down,

"Oh, I don't think you should do that," it laughed, clutching my paw tighter as a purple flame materialized next to it.

What is that?! And what can it do to me?! I steeled my nerves, trying not to just destroy the marionette, then and there. I knew that the purple fire posed an enormous problem, but I couldn't figure out why.

Von Spectre laughed again.

"This is the Destiny Bond. A true magician never reveals his true secrets until the trick is already finished, and I am no exception! This flame creates an interesting gambit for all of you. If I die, the killer dies with me! So come, Risk and join my fate!" the Necromancer cackled, and plunged my fist into its brain.

The marionette made a short, uneven sound that closely resembled humming before it fell to the ground, dead. The flame soon vanished into thin air, I simply stared at the fallen Pokemon, wondering what to do.

Is it over? I thought to myself. I turned back to the others, when Felix rotated my head back towards Von Spectre's corpse.

"Look!" he pointed, and my blood immediately felt like ice in my veins. The purple flame was back, and it seemed to be much stronger this time.

"I won't let it have you!" Felix cried out, and, before I could protest, he picked me up and threw me back towards the others.

I watched, helplessly, as the purple flame was absorbed into Felix's skin. At first, nothing happened, but, a few seconds later, Felix's body began to turn a dull gray color. He looked at me with a pained expression on his face,

"I... did this... for you, Risk! Always remember, a true explorer never..." The Flygon never got to finish his sentence, and he turned to stone right in front of my very eyes.

"Felix?" I ran over to him.

I can't feel his Aura anymore... he really is gone...

A tear fell from my eye and stained the earthen Flygon. It was soon joined by others- Photon, Cedric, Alpha, and Beta had joined me, each paying respects to their fallen comrade.

"Felix..." Photon looked like he was going to fall apart emotionally, when a large tremor shook the entire room.

"An earthquake?! This place will collapse from that kind of tremor! But we don't have enough time to get out of..." Alpha was cut off by a roar from the doorway of the room.

"Need some help? We finished evacuating the Guild members, so we came back to check on you!" Tyranitar shouted over the rubble falling from the ceiling. He looked at the dead Von Spectre and laughed,

"Well, you guys did a fine job of getting rid of that thing! Now," he said, taking me by the hand,

"Let's get you all out of here! I dug a tunnel to the surface so we could easily get the Guild members out of here. Guess we'll be using it for more than just the Guild members... Come on!" he called, and we followed him without a second thought. I took one last glance at the Necromancer's lair before it collapsed on itself.

...

"Don't stop running!" Tyranitar called to us, guiding us to a small alcove dug into the side of the wall.

"In here! Quickly!" he called, and we began to ascend through this new passageway.

A few minutes of climbing later, I could see light coming from a few dozen feet in front of us.

We're almost out of here! My spirits rose, until a cry of help came from behind me. I turned around and saw that Cedric's hind leg was stuck under a massive boulder. Photon was trying to move it, but he was having no luck at budging it.

"Tyranitar!" I called, and he turned around. Instantly, he saw what needed to be done and shattered the massive rock with a single punch.

"Come on! Hurry!" he said, guiding the rest of us out of the tunnel with little to no time left before the entire place caved in on itself.

Outside, I was greeted with the familiar faces of my Guildmates, who were all surprised to see me still alive.

"He's BACK!" Loudred roared in amazement.

"Oh my gosh! You're right!" Sunflora added.

Once every single member had said something of that accord to me, Alakazam simply said,

"Come, we can take our celebration back to the Guild with us. Close your eyes, everyone!" he warned, and I felt that familiar sensation of being teleported to a different place.

...

When I opened my eyes, we were all standing in front of the entrance of the Guild. The Toxic liquid inside me still felt like it would kill me at any moment, but, for now, I had never felt so happy to be home in my entire life.

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