Two white long haired, blue eyed twin boys walked deep into the woods, hand in hand, looking for something. One had a blue ribbon and the other had a yellow ribbon, the ribbons were holding the twins hair up in neat ponytails.

"I'm not too sure about this...... Can't we just ask mom and dad?" The one with the yellow ribbon asked cautiously.

The one with the blue ribbon responds "They'll just say that we have to wait until we're older. Don't you want to get your own pokémon now? Besides, they’ve already bonded with us."

"We’re six! I'd rather wait four years than get yelled at for wandering into the woods in a few hours. I'm sure she'll understand."

"Well, I don't know why you came with me then."

"To try and talk you out of it? I should’ve known you wouldn't listen to me."

"You really should have! I don't even know the way ba-" 

Knock Knock Knock.

"...did you hear that?"

"What? I don't hear anything..."

The blue ribbon twin looked around before looking back at his brother. When he looked back at his sibling, there was a small flash of white. The next thing he knew, he was standing in the snow, now a year older, in his backyard, seemingly alone. The backyard was littered with pokétoys that the twins forgot to clean up after dinner last night, an obstacle course they would do along-side their pokemon every weekend and the Shocking Desaulnier fort. Something brushed up against his leg. When he looked down, he saw his partner, and second best friend, a Shinx with a matching blue ribbon tied on his tail. He bent down and pet his pokemon. The pokemon purred happily, then looked ahead and suddenly started growling at something. The boy looked forward at what his pokemon was growling. A wild Absol.

The Absol ran at them, grabbing the Shinx by the tail with its mouth, and started running towards the forest. The boy ran after the pokemon who took his partner, screaming at the pokemon to give his partner back. They ran for what felt like forever, before the Disaster pokemon stopped in front of a large stream, and dropped the Shinx. The boy finally caught up, only to see a golden Shinx getting swept away by the current and his brother on the other side of the stream, following his partner, trying to reach out to her. He knew that his brother would do anything for his shiny Shinx, so when he jumped into the ice cold stream and swam with the current to get to his partner, he briefly wondered how they were going to explain this one to their parents, before running after them on the side, his Shinx right at his heels.

The yellow ribbon twin managed to hug his Shinx, which nuzzled back affectionately, before remembering that they were in danger. The blue ribbon twin saw a large, dead tree up ahead and had an idea. "Shinx, use Swift on the dead tree! We can climb on it and grab them!" The Shinx attacked the trunk of the tree and watched it spinter then fall, making a bridge to the other side. The boy ran on the dead tree and held his hand out for his brother to grab on to. The brother saw this and the bright yellow Shinx climbed on to his back, to allow the brother to grab on to the boy's hand.

The blue ribbon twin helped the yellow ribbon twin up. The yellow ribbon one was soaked in the water with his partner. Everything was alright, until the blue ribbon twin saw it again. The wild Absol, staring directly at him. 

Knock Knock. "Joseph?"

The blue ribbon twin looked around, darting his eyes back and forth, wondering who was this woman who had called his name. The twin's mother had previously told them an old tale about Absols. When a person sees a Absol twice, something horrible or traumatic happens. There have been numerous accounts of people who have seen an Absol twice and all of them have had something happen to them: Death in the family, pokemon getting stolen and never returned, or something precious getting lost forever. The list goes on and on. Skeptics say that they're just rumors and coincidences.

As the yellow ribbon twin stumbles a bit, his Shinx accidentally lets go and falls back into the stream, headed straight to a waterfall. "SHINX!!" The boy screamed, trying to go back into the water to save his partner, Joseph holds him back. "Claude, Stop it! I'm not letting my brother die!" "Let me go!! Let me go! I CAN SAVE HER!!!!" He screams back, desperation clear in his eyes as tears form in the corner of his eyes.The twins and the other Shinx watched in horror as the yellow Shinx plummeted to the bottom of the waterfall.

Tears began to drop down Claude's face slowly as he started to cry quietly, he then glared at Joseph with hatred as his eyes darken. He shouted, getting into his brother's face, "I COULD HAVE SAVED HER!! YOU LET HER DIE." Joseph tried to speak but he couldn't find the words. "I HATE YOU, JOSEPH!!" Claude ran off back towards the house, tears in his eyes. Joseph just stood there in silence, repeating the words Claude had said to him in his mind.

Joseph started to run after him, only to be stopped by another flash of white light. This time, he was in his house standing in front of his and Claude's room, now eight years old. He took a deep breath and opened the door. He looks at a deadly sick Claude. Claude simply glared at him, then turned away from him before having a coughing fit. Joseph softly asked "I really am sorry, Claude. What can I do to fix this?"

Without even turning to acknowledge his own brother, Claude simply muttered back in a monotone voice "Bring my Shinx back from the dead...."

Knock knock. BANG! "Joseph, opened up!"

Joseph looked around for the old man who called for him. Why was the voice so angry? What needed to be opened? Who were they? He decided to forget the weird voices for now and focus his full attention back on his sick brother. Joseph said "I would give my life to bring her back, you know that brother! However we both know that that's impossible! We would need a legendary pokemon, like Celebi, Jirachi or Xerneas and we don't have that! Claude, I understand that you-" Claude snapped back at him "No, you don't! The only way you would ever be able to begin understanding is if something you loved and cared about died! So why don't you leave me alone and never talk to me ever again?" before coughing harder than ever before. Joseph flinched back and chose to respect his brother's wishes by exiting the room.

Joseph went to the backyard, where his Cutiefly landed on his head, went into the Shocking Desaulnier fort and sat down on the bench, which he and Claude 'borrowed' from a nearby park, tears falling from his eyes. The tiny bug pokemon tried to comfort the boy but to no avail. The sad twin felt something nuzzle against his hand. When he looked up, he saw his Shinx, holding in his mouth a rope which he remembered the two Shinx using to play tug-of-war with the twins, it was always either the twins against the Shinx's, Joseph and his Shinx against Claude and his Shinx or Claude's Shinx against each other, trying to make him feel better. Just as he was about to give a small smile to his partner, an increasingly familiar flash of light blinded him again. He was now in black funeral clothes and his pokemon were nowhere to be seen. They were many adults, including their mother and father. Joseph feared the worst. He walked through the empty, huge and pitch black house, feeling his chest getting tighter and tighter, making it harder to breathe, as he approached his and Claude's room. 

The door slams open as it is thrown open by force, his bedroom light now being the only source of light. His mother walked out of his room, sobbing into her hands. His father, right beside his mother like always, glared at Joseph. The man said "You killed him, Joseph. You killed your own brother. He couldn't even die a peaceful death. His last words were '...Make sure Joseph knows…the pain I felt…' So...We are going to do just that, after all, it's Claude's last wish." Faceless adults, poured out of his room by the thousands, surrounded him, making it so only a small bit of light wasn't covered up by the overwhelming amount of adults, constantly screaming things of hatred and saying things of concern:

"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"

"Joseph!? Wake up!"

"THEY'RE DEAD BECAUSE OF YOU!"

"What is happening? Why won't he wake up?"

"YOU SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE ONE WHO DIED!!"

"Someone, get Miss Nigh-"

The voices became muffled as the ground began to crack underneath him. He gripped the sides of his head, trying to figure out if he was going crazy or not. Why did he feel guilty about Claude and his Shinx's death? It was an accident, right? There was nothing he could've done, right? RIGHT?!

Wrong.

He could have held on tighter when he got them out of the river the first time. He could have ran into his house and told his parents when the Absol took his Shinx. He could have done something more! He let his own brother and his pokemon die. He deserves to be the one dead… The ground underneath him shattered like glass. Everything when quiet. He was falling but he didn't care. He closed his eyes, hoping the fall kills him and he will get sent to wherever bad people go when they die. When he eventually landed, the fall unfortunately didn't kill him. Instead, when he opened his eyes, he was now standing in front of two graves.

Claude's and his beloved Shinx's graves.

Joseph was about to leave, tears in his eyes, but he heard it. The voice that haunts his every waking and sleeping moment, every second every day. A voice that he felt he hadn't heard in a long time. The voice sounded muffled.

"Joseph...why?"

Joseph looked around frantically, eyes darting rapidly, looking for any sign of him, tears close to falling down his face. There was no doubt now, he was insane. Hearing the voice of his dead brother. Until he looked at the graves again. 

They were dug up. Joseph had sworn that he hadn't touched them. He was terrified of what this could mean. He didn't want his parents yelling at him again like they did before when he accidentally fell and barely touched the tombstone. He wanted to run but he was stopped by the voice from behind him, sounding crystal clear. His voice. 

"Joseph...why did you kill us? Do you hate us that much? Do you have not any regrets for what you did?" Joseph turned around, and never wanted to vomit and die so much in his life. He backs away, face pale as all color drains from his face. Cold sweat appears all over his body as he stares at the figure in front of him. It was a familiar face, it was his own face, it was Claude’s face. With the same clothes that Joseph had last seen him in, expect duller caused by being underground inside a coffin. His face is flawless, having been preserved by the best embalmer that his parents found for the funeral. There’s no expression on his once warm face, when he opens his eyes, it’s filled with hate and disgust. Joseph backs up, almost falling into the now open grave. There is nowhere left to go. Out from behind Claude suddenly approaches a small disfigured shape. Dirty, patchy, matted fur with dried blood caked all over. Places where dusty grey once was slick jet back, and dirty yellow used to be bright, shining gold. It's natural sparkle dulled down. There’s a large tear in the ear, and chunks of flesh missing from the body and face which exposes bone. A low rumbling sound comes from its ripped muzzle, as it exposes its fangs in a growl. 

A caw comes from above. Joseph looks up, to spot four Mandibuzz circling overhead, staring at them all like a hunter checking a filled trap. Claude asked "So, brother...how do you feel going up against my trusted and only friend?" Before Joseph could even say anything, the Shinx attacked him, tackling him to the ground, attempting to bite his face off. A Swift attack immediately knocked the reanimated Shinx back. Joseph immediately got up and ran over to his own Shinx. Joseph wanted to run, but as if Claude could read his mind, he said "Are you going to run away? You're nothing but a coward. YOU CAN'T EVEN FACE THE FACT THAT YOU KILLED MY BEST FRIEND AND I!!" Joseph fell to his knees and cried. "I..I didn't m-mean to…I-It was an accident…I swear..." he said, sobbing. He deserves to suffer. He's the one who killed them. 

"Joseph, can you hear me? Whatever is happening, isn't real. It's all a nightmare. Please, wake up!"

"Why won't he wake up? Is he going to sleep forever?"

"...I need to speak to my master about this. Try to convince him that he wasn't at fault. It appears that a pokemon friend of my master has been given a bit more freedom than expected. I honestly hoped that he wouldn't try to save him."

Joseph heard the strange voices but he ignored them. He didn't care that the voices sounded like a family friend, a child and a woman, who he's never heard before but at the same time sounded familiar, had to say. He was the one who killed them. He was the reason they were dead. 

Joseph felt a large shock of electricity, a large amount of hard pokes to the forehead and something heavy whacked him right across the face so hard that he fell to the ground. When he looked up, he saw his Shinx, Cutiefly and Honedge, looking very upset but also worried about him. He watched as his Shinx talked to him with a determined tone, his Honedge spoke with a worried tone, and his Cutiefly landed on his nose and spoke with an encouraging tone. Joseph went quiet for a few minutes then got up, wiped the tears from his eyes and smiled at his pokemon. "Claude, I am truly sorry for everything that I have done to you, but I can't be sad forever! My pokemon can't stand to see me like this. So, for the sake of them, your Shinx, me and yourself.....We will help both of you be at peace! Honedge, use Aerial Ace on Shinx! Shinx, Cutiefly use Bite and Acrobatics on Claude!" Claude simply smiled darkly, now having an insane and hateful look in his eyes and said "Alright then brother, if it's a fight you want, it's a fight you're going to get! Shinx, use Crunch on Honedge! I AM GOING TO MAKE SURE YOU FEEL WORSE THAT I DID, JOSEPH!!" 

The Honedge charges at the decaying Shinx, but the attack missed. The dirty decaying yellow Shinx bit the blade of the Honedge. A large, metallic cracking sound can be heard, but Joseph was too focused on his brother to notice. His Cutiefly attacks missed due to Claude stepping out of the way, causing it to crash nose first into a large tombstone. Claude walked over to the dazed bee fly pokemon, looked down at it and stomped on the pokemon hard, it screamed in agony, then fell silent. Joseph felt so much despair, so much pain when he heard his pokemon scream. He wanted to beg Claude to stop, but he couldn't move or talk. He could only watch in horror. Claude scraped off the Cutiefly's black guts and blood on the tombstone from off his shoe. Another scream of agony can be heard from beside him. Joseph turned to see his Honedge's blade shattered into pieces, the hilt laying dead on the ground. Joseph couldn't stop the tears from falling down. He was trying his hardest not to collapse on the floor and cry his eyes out, looking down at the ground. He heard the one thing that he hoped to never hear: his Shinx sounds of pain. He looked up to see that they were no longer at the graveyard but in front of a lake and that Claude was holding his Shinx by the neck in front of the lake.

Joseph didn't even have time to react or even think as Claude forced Joseph's Shinx under the water. The pokemon struggled to escape from the undead boy's grasp as the water splashed. Joseph felt helpless as he begged his twin brother to make him drown instead of his beloved partner, but his pleading fell on deaf ears. He collapsed to his knees, hands on the ground and cried harder than ever before. He wasn't sure how much time had passed before he could no longer cry and looked up. The lake was still, mirror like almost. Claude pulled Joseph's now dead Shinx from out of the water and threw it towards his brother. Joseph immediately went to his Shinx, wanting to hold it one last time, but fate had other plans. Just as he was about to barely touch his Shinx, it slowly vanished into a sinister dark purple cloud of smoke. The surrounding area was surrounded by the dark purple smoke. Claude and his Shinx were engulfed in the smoke, leaving Joseph alone in a small little circular clearing which was growing smaller by the second. As the sinister dark purple clouds grew closer and closer to Joseph, he didn't seem to care. All of his pokemon are dead, his brother hates him and he's committed unspeakable crimes. He deserves to die, he's a disgusting human being. The shadow clouds were engulfing him, slowly creeping their way up. By the time they made it to Joseph's neck, something was fluttering down to him, something glistening. He didn't care about anything anymore. The small glistening feather landed on his nose and everything turned white.

Joseph jolted up from the bed he was in. He looked around, breathing heavily, tears still in his eyes, before something large and black pounced on him, obscuring his vision. He looked at the Luxray who was on top of him. The man hugged his partner, glad to see his horrible nightmare was over. His Ribombee and Aegislash rushed over to him, grateful that he was up and ok. Miss Nightingale walked in and asked in her normal monotone voice "Can you return the feather from around your neck?" Ribombee gently took the greenish yellow, crescent moon shaped feather tied to a string from his neck, placed it in her hand and landed on top of Joseph's head. The woman sighs "The host said that you have a week off from battling. You should use that time to work out what you saw in your nightmare." She then proceeds to walk out. "Wait!" Joseph said, stopping the woman in her tracks. "Miss Nightingale, last thing I remember was I was about to become a corpse by a hyper beam. Afterward, I don't remember a thing except for the nightmare. What happened?" Miss Nightingale simply said "For now, let's say that someone regrets something they did and said in a past life." She then left the room, leaving Joseph confused on what she meant by that. Joseph looked at his most trusted partner to see that he had something in his mouth. It was an extremely old, frayed rope.

Jack, Michiko, Burke, Leo and Robbie were waiting outside. The second the door was open, Michiko, Robbie and Leo rushed inside to see how he was doing. Jack stopped Miss Nightingale by asking "It was a Darkrai, wasn't it?" Miss Nightingale only answered "Yes." The tall man glared at the woman "And you just let it happen?! You allowed Joseph to face his worst nightmare!?" Miss Nightingale said "I talked to C- Darkrai and they said that they saved Joseph from a hyper beam from the Prisoner's Raichu." Jack asked, still not satisfied "Why would that evil pokemon want to save someone they haven't even met?!" Miss Nightingale replied with "There's a rumor about people being reincarnated as a pokemon. Those pokemon go on to protect those who they have loved or didn't get to spend enough time with them when they were human or go off to do their own thing. What type they are depends on how they were feeling when they died. So, let's say, someone dies with hate in their mind and heart. They become a dark type. Or maybe they feel guilty about something that they had no control over. They become a physic type. I have a list that I can lend you, if you wish to know more." Jack was just more confused now. "What happens if they stop feeling those feelings?" Miss Nightingale said "Nothing really, the pokemon would still be pokemon." Jack sighed as Miss Nightingale leaves somewhere.

~•~

Something runs down the hallways of the manor. It stops at a door and opens it. Inside the room was a semi large table and ten chairs. Hastur and Bane were talking, Bane signing, about something to a older man who seemed rather tired ,a young man who seemed to be a pilot, a young woman who looked a lot like Vera, a man who was fiddling with a grandfather clock in the corner, a young woman who seem like she was from the country and a woman who had burned marks on her bare feet. The woman who entered asked "Is everyone here? I thought it was Henry's turn to gather everyone." To a normal person, they would only be able to hear the cries of an Espurr. The man who is a Riolu responded "The new kid will be here shortly. He's just a bit nervous." Hastur sighed, looking at the Kadabra, Riolu, Snubull, Dedenne, Maractus, Espurr and Excadrill and then said "Everyone, listen up. The kid is not what you'd expect from a reincarnated child. He's been through a lot before he died like you. So try and be nice."

A young boy with snow white hair and stunning blue eyes walked through the wall and said "Hello. My name is Claude. It's nice to meet you all." Everyone except for Henry, Hastur and Bane almost screamed. This child was a Darkrai! "I know, it's rather shocking that a child can have so much hatred in his heart that he'd be reincarnated as a legendary pokemon. But then I listened to his story and understood. If you want to know, ask him yourself when you have the time. But for now, we should talk about the plan." Everyone agreed and took a seat. 

---

Not dead, just move to a different fandom.

Hope you enjoy.