Linkage

25

There was an ocean, an ocean of blood that Wes was adrift upon. Gales of wind assaulted the small craft he rode upon. He tried to weather the storm, but as the waves got higher, he found himself being tipped over, drowning in the sea of blood around him. His breaths came out in gasps, but all he could taste was the awful of salt.

As he was swept away by the sea of blood and found himself laying upon a beach. He looked up to Cynthia leaning over him with a knife in her hands, laughing at him. And then he realized that the sea of blood was not a sea, rather the puddle of his own blood around him. He felt the pain of being stabbed and screamed at her.

She simply laughed and told him that she didn't love him.

He could feel something dark and twisted inside of him try to take over. He wanted to take a knife and stab her back. But he couldn't. Something inside of him fought back against the nightmare that was in front of him. He took a deep breath and tried to look at Cynthia as a person. This was a test, wasn't it? A test to defeat himself.

And then he understood. He was in Cynthia's position. He wanted to bring himself to hate her, but then he understood. She was able to accept the monster that he was despite everything. And Wes a monster. So maybe if he acknowledged that the Cynthia in front of him was still Cynthia he could escape this and have his heart purified.

"Cynthia!" he shouted. "I still love you, you know?"

The monster in front of him laughed. "What value is love? It does nothing but destroy people. I know you believe that, so don't lie to me."

Wes stepped back and it seemed like the red of the blood around him enclosed upon where he stood. The vigilante didn't know the answer to that question. Love had never brought him anything other than destruction. Love was menial, or so he thought. But wasn't everything he'd done for Rui? All of the fighting, trying to right the wrongs, wasn't it for her?

No, it wasn't. It was for him. In fact, it wasn't for Rui, it was against Rui. He was trying to run because of his fear that Cynthia would end up like her. But looking at how she was able to forgive him after what he did to her snapped something in him.

He realized that he couldn't run. Because running was what hurt him in the end.

Running was the reason he couldn't forget Rui.

"Love is everything," said Wes. "It is the linkage between me, you, and everything important in this world. Without love, what point is there in fighting, existing?"

And then he knew, the only way to move on, was to defeat those who believed that it shouldn't existing.

It was like coming up for air when he found himself in the forest again.

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Cynthia watched laid there in the forest, as if he were having a dark and bad dream. She felt the dark currents around her and couldn't help but wonder why she could. Was she bad as well? No, it had to do with her connection to Darkrai. She couldn't doubt herself now, especially in those last moments.

She knew they would have to face whoever was behind this soon.

She had to win, soon.

When Wes woke up, Cynthia could sense a new, reassuring air about him. He looked at her with a look, and felt a feeling she couldn't understand, and stood up. And she could feel him in whole again. She knew that Wes was purified.

Not long after, did the two of them sail back to Fullmoon Island. It was there, that Cresselia waited. Cynthia was surprised when Wes began to speak to everyone as soon as they returned.

"We need to defeat Cyrus and Fein," he announced, "but the problem is, they have their shadow army."

Cynthia stated at Wes. "Fein as in the Fein from Ciphr?"

She voiced that, but internally, she began to cower. Cyrus was, well, what she feared. She remembered how hard it was to defeat him and that she had lost. Suddenly, Cynthia began to doubt her ability to take on the giant.

"Yes," Wes responded. "I have a plan. They had this giant machine that they crafted to make people into shadow people. I say, that we make something that reverses that process."

"Like an antidote machine?" Byron asked.

Wes nodded. "Like an antidote machine. In fact, I have a feeling how we can reverse engineer their machine."

Cynthia perked up. "How do we do that?"

"Do you remember that book I was reading when we met? I have a feeling they read it too. Inside, there was a machine built by the ancient people of Sinnoh to turn the hearts of Pokémon and people dark. All we have to do, is go grab it from my apartment," said Wes.

Cynthia nodded, "Then let's do that. If we have any chance of saving Sinnoh we have to move now."