Dark Arts and Dark Minds

Chapter 20: Though the Parting Hurts

*Risk's POV*

"So, what do you think happened to the other Ghosts?" Alpha asked me once we were inside the Guild .

"Gengar and a few others escaped from the Supernatural Bastion, but... Where do you think they went?"

"They got away?!" I was immediately stricken with horror, but, then, I remembered,

They don't have anybody controlling them anymore... Von Spectre is gone, and that infernal spellbook was destroyed in the wreckage with it.

"Well," I told him, matter-of-factly,

"Wherever they are, those Ghosts'll sure to be causing mischief, but, without the Dark Arts, I don't think they can really get away with anything more than petty pranks anymore, now that their main source of malicious power is gone..."

"Mmph! Hey, where am I?!"

A muffled voice from inside Beta's horn-jaw startled me- I had forgotten that Riku was still inside there. The Mawile promptly spat him out, and the Shaymin shook the excess saliva off of himself.

"Leave me alone! I don't want to be eaten!" he cried, fleeing up the stairs and out the entrance of the Guild.

"Stay here," I said to the waiting crowd of Pokemon,

"I'll try to figure out what's going on with Riku. Give me one moment."

Disappearing after the Shaymin, I found him outside, cowering behind a large rock- the rock that had probably been my gravestone until I turned up alive again.

"Riku?" I asked, tentatively.

"Are you OK, buddy?"

He nodded and slowly walked over to me, a small smile on his face.

"You seem much nicer than that other Pokemon was. Can we be friends?"

His words, although sweet and delicate, felt like an icy cold dagger through my heart. I remembered what I had seen in my vision of Von Spectre and Dusknoir,

"And, worst of all, you failed to fill Risk's heart with darkness and erase his memory of his friends. While I do admire your success with the closing of Riku's heart, your mistake with Risk will definitely be a costly one."

No! Did he... Did they take his memory from him?! The tears began to fall from my eyes before I could stop them.

I cried out in desperation,

"Riku, it's me! It's me, Risk! Don't you remember me?! Please...!"

"Risk? That's..." At his pause, I silently hoped that he, at least, remembered my name, if nothing else.

"That's a nice name!" he said, still smiling up at me. Then, his stomach rumbled, and the noise did nothing to ease my pain.

"Well, I'll be seeing you around, Risk!" He waved to me.

"It was nice talking to you!" he said, before catching the breeze and taking to the sky.

No! Please, Riku! You've got to remember who I am! Your friend, Risk! Please! Don't go! I ran after him as quickly as I could, but I soon lost track of the Shaymin among the clouds.

"Riku!!! Don't leave me!" I called, as loud as I could, and buried my face in my paws. The tears continued to flow, as all of my memories with him came flooding back to me:

the first time I met him, the first time he healed me, the time he almost fell to his death in a Pitfall Trap in the Aegis Cave, and the images replayed themselves over and over, a constant reminder that I would never see him again.