The sky screamed.
Not audibly — not at first — but the pressure had a sound to it, a low psychic resonance that vibrated through bone and thought alike. Divide City's buildings shuddered beneath it, windows spiderwebbing, lights flickering between spectrums they were never meant to display.
Mega Darkrai descended another few meters.
Slow.
Judging.
Cyrus was already moving.
The Axis Atrium's emergency shutters slammed down behind him as he burst out onto the plaza, boots striking the stone hard enough to jar his knees. The night air hit him like ice water laced with static.
Every instinct in his body screamed don't go outside.
He ignored it.
"Hoopa," he said sharply, snapping his gloves on. "Keep the rings tight. No theatrics."
"Okaaay~," Hoopa chimed, though the sing-song note wavered. Three golden rings snapped into stable formation around him, rotating slowly instead of drifting.
Sirens wailed across the city now — psychic hazard alerts, structural warnings, evacuation calls overlapping into a single wall of sound.
People ran.
Pokémon reacted faster.
Fairy-types bolted toward the city center, clustering around bioluminescent trees that flared in distress. Dark-types gathered at the edges, drawn toward Darkrai's presence like iron filings to a magnet — not obeying, but listening.
Cyrus raised his voice.
"Gengar."
A flash of violet.
Gengar emerged fully this time, floating low and alert, eyes narrowed. He didn't grin. He didn't joke.
"…Gar," he rumbled.
"Wide-range support," Cyrus ordered. "Keep panic from turning into stampede."
Gengar nodded once and vanished into shadow, reappearing down the street as civilians scattered. Where he passed, fear dulled — nightmares blurred, screams faltered, minds steadied just enough to move.
Cyrus snapped another ball open.
"Ceruledge."
Steel met flame.
Ceruledge landed in front of him with a metallic thud, sword-arms igniting brighter than before — not aggressive, but resolute. The knight angled himself between Cyrus and the descending nightmare god without hesitation.
"Tyrunt — perimeter."
Tyrunt burst out with a roar far louder than his size suggested, stomping hard enough to fracture the plaza stone. He planted himself at a crossroads, teeth bared, daring anything drawn by Darkrai's aura to come closer.
"Meltan."
The small steel-type spilled from its ball like liquid mercury, immediately magnetizing loose debris, reinforcing cracked streetlamps, eating through damaged power conduits before they could explode.
And then —
Cyrus unclipped the last ball from his belt.
Not throwing it.
Just holding it.
"You stay with me," he murmured.
The Ursaluna's presence pulsed warm through the casing.
Above them all, Mega Darkrai stopped.
Its crescent collar rotated, grinding softly.
The city fell into a terrified hush.
Then —
The dream hit.
Not sleep.
Intrusion.
People collapsed mid-run, eyes snapping shut as nightmares poured straight into waking minds. Buildings remembered things they shouldn't — shadows twisting wrong, reflections lagging behind their owners, streets stretching longer than they were.
Cyrus staggered.
Hoopa reacted instantly.
One ring snapped open sideways, not wide enough for travel — just enough.
Space folded.
The psychic pressure slid around Cyrus instead of through him.
"Oop~! Careful~!" Hoopa chimed, strained but steady.
Cyrus gritted his teeth.
"Darkrai!" he shouted, voice raw. "This isn't balance — it's collapse!"
The nightmare god turned its gaze fully onto him.
The air went cold.
Images slammed into Cyrus's mind — fractured, incomplete, probing.
Fear.
Loss.
Loneliness.
Cyrus dropped to one knee, gasping.
Ceruledge stepped forward, blades crossing, flames flaring in defiance.
Darkrai paused.
Not angered.
Curious.
Testing.
Cyrus forced himself up.
"You're not wrong to be angry," he said, breath shaking. "But this city didn't steal Cresselia."
Darkrai's aura spiked.
The shadows surged forward like a tide.
"Now!" Cyrus barked.
Hoopa clapped his hands.
Two rings flared open at once.
From one, a redirected wave of nightmare energy folded back on itself, dispersing harmlessly into the sky.
From the other,
Ceruledge lunged.
"Bitter Blade!"
The flaming strike tore through the air, slicing straight into Darkrai's shadow mass. The blow didn't damage it...not truly...but it disrupted the flow, creating a ripple that echoed across the city.
Darkrai recoiled a fraction.
Enough.
Gengar reappeared midair, eyes glowing.
"…Gen-GAR!"
A massive Shadow Ball detonated against Darkrai's aura, not as an attack, but as interference, scrambling the nightmare frequencies just enough for civilians to wake screaming instead of breaking.
Tyrunt roared triumphantly as several drawn-in dark-types backed away, instincts overridden by something stronger.
Darkrai descended again.
This time faster.
Cyrus didn't flinch.
"Hoopa," he said quietly. "One more."
Hoopa hesitated.
Then smiled... smaller, less playful.
"Okaaay~. But you owe me a game later~."
The rings aligned.
Space bent upward.
Darkrai's next pulse slammed into a warped corridor, redirected skyward in a column of black light that tore through the clouds instead of the city.
For the first time,
Darkrai stopped attacking.
It hovered.
Studied.
The nightmares eased — not gone, but quieter.
People began to move again.
Emergency crews surged in.
Darkrai's presence remained overwhelming… but controlled.
A test concluded.
Its crescent collar rotated once more.
Then Mega Darkrai rose.
Not retreating.
Withdrawing.
The pressure lifted like a held breath finally released.
Cyrus collapsed backward onto the plaza stones, chest heaving.
Ceruledge turned, flames dimming.
Gengar drifted back, exhausted but grinning faintly.
"…Gar."
Hoopa floated down beside Cyrus, rings wobbling again.
"That was fun~," he said, lying badly.
Cyrus laughed once...short, incredulous.
"That was terrifying."
Hoopa giggled softly.
"Same thing sometimes~."
Above them, the nightmare god vanished into cloud and shadow, leaving behind a city shaken — but standing.
Cyrus stared up at the empty sky.
"This was a warning," he said. "Not an attack."
Hoopa nodded.
"Test passed~. For now~."
Cyrus closed his eyes.