He thought it was all over, but he couldn't have been more wrong...

After defeating Galeem, Kyo, the blue Inkling boy, expected for things to return to normal; his powers would return, and the worlds would have returned to normal, returning everyone back, but out of nowhere, that monster in black showed up, absorbing what was left of Galeem’s powers, taking over what they didn’t free.

“Ugh…”

Kyo was laying on the floor, tired from his fight against the crystal monster.

“Huh?”

His senses returned to him quickly after he opened his eyes to see almost nothing.

Darkness surrounded him, as well as the familiar mist that plagued the world that he thought he just freed.

Rising to his feet, he realized quickly that he was in a very different world than the one he was just in.

There was darkness everywhere.

The sound of thumping interrupted his thoughts, and looking in the direction where it came from, seeing a small ball of light in the sky.

Behind it was not just Kio, his orange Inkling girl friend, but the others who had also stood with him the last couple weeks after being freed.

“Guys!!” He shouted.

However, he wasn’t sure if they would be able to hear him, seeing how they were trying to speak, but he could hear no words coming from them behind that barrier.

He was alone now…

Looking around him, though there was darkness and fog, he could make out three rope bridges.

North, east, and southwest…

…

He sighed, knowing that there wasn’t much of an option of what he could do.

“I can’t stay here…” Kyo said.

The Inkling looked back up at his friends from behind the barrier one last time, then turned and headed towards the north bridge.

At least, that was his plans until one of the hands showed up out of nowhere, snapped his finger, then created small barriers blocking off both the north and the east bridges. The hand then spazzed for a bit, then vanished back to nothingness.

…

“Southwest it is then…”

Kyo wasn’t scared, but he would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little nervous being on his own again.

‘Maybe there’s more people here.’ He thought was he walked down the bridge. ‘Ugh, and here I thought we were all done. How many freaking entities are even in this world?’

He couldn’t help but shudder though. That dark eye monster that appeared in the sky that took over as soon as Galeem was defeated gave him some seriously bad vibes.

It reminded him of someone, or something, that he really didn’t want to be reminded of.

With a sigh, Kyo reached the end of the bridge, approaching the dark fog.

He closed his eyes, then placed his hand over his heart, and just like in the light world, a blinding light shined from his heart, clearing away all the fog that stood before him, revealing a ruined city.

The Inkling still didn’t understand how exactly that worked, but it was a power that him and his friends all seemed to possess, that they used multiple times to progress earlier.

Kyo began walking again, taking the path that lead through the city.

Seeing how the place was in ruins and completely abandoned, it wasn’t any surprise that everything was quiet; only the sound of light wind blowing could be heard.

It was actually quite eerie.

‘I hope the others will be fine on their own…’ He though, looking around him as he walked on what he assumed must have been a highway once. ‘Well, with all the other Inklings there, I think they’ll be fine.’

Kyo didn’t really like to think that he was too big of a deal, but he apparently grew to be one of the leaders of the group that he was just separated from. After all, he was the one to take down Galeem, and along with Kirby, were the only two who managed to escape from Galeem’s first attack.

He sighed.

However, though he did manage to get a group of the smashers back together, they still had yet to find several people; only a little more of half of them had been assembled.

His thoughts were interrupted when he heard the sound of maniacal laughter coming from in front of him.

At first there was nothing, but out of nowhere, the hand showed up and appeared right before him.

Nervous as he was, he didn’t hesitate to pull out his Splattershot, and was more than ready to take down the gloved menace.

However, the glove stopped moving for a second, almost as if time just stopped around it.

…

…

Kyo wasn’t ready to let his guard down, but something told him that if the hand wanted a fight, then it would have struck him by now.

The Inkling was about to take this opportunity to make a break for it, but at soon as the thought came to mind, the ground below him began to shake violently.

‘Earthquake?!’ He thought, doing his best to keep his footing.

Then out of nowhere, a giant, black tentacle shot up, the pointed edge piercing the hand, causing it to let out a high-pitched scream. Kyo couldn’t help but cover his ears, and if it wasn’t for the earthquake getting lighter, he might have fallen over and stumbled about.

The hand had began to vanish from the sudden attack on in, but Kyo noticed something. There was a light resonating in the hand as the rest of it faded to darkness.

All that was left was a little white orb of light.

The black tentacle also retreated back into the ground.

“Okay…”

Kyo was about to approach the light, but it began moving further down the road.

Having no other option, he decided it was best to follow it.

The Inkling spent the next, what he thought, five minutes running after the ball of light, the orb leading him further down the road, leading to what looked like a twisted forest. Seeing how the ball wasn’t going too fast, it was more of a jog rather than a run. Kyo had some good endurance, so keeping up wasn’t too much of a problem for him, but he did wonder where it was taking him.

He was in the middle of his jog/run, and the orb suddenly stopped, resulting in the Inking colliding with it.

“Ack!”

Kyo closed his eyes as the orb flashed as he ran into it, but when he opened his eyes, he realized that he was no longer in his Inking outfit, but his Dark Rito Armor.

“What the…”

Not that he wasn’t happy of course, he was just surprised. When Galeem stripped him of his powers, his Rito outfit also disappeared.

‘Wait!’ He thought. ‘Does that mean?!’

Kyo held out his hand, attempting to summon his Great Eagle Bow.

…

…

Nothing appeared.

He sighed.

“Tease…” He couldn’t help but mutter. “Oh well, it’s nice to have my outfit back though, I guess it was getting a little chilly here in this world.”

He almost fell over though.

In the midst of him being glad, he did not realize what he was led to.

Or who… He should say.

There was a gate before him, just like the ones in the light world, that led to captured smashers.

This one however, was one Kyo wasn’t sure if he wanted to enter.

The one man he despised the most.

Incineroar…

“Ugh… Was my own light leading me here?” He asked no one, staring at the image of the unconscious red cat, tied to a post.

He really didn’t want to free him.

However…

With a deep sigh, the Inkling jumped to the gate, leading to the Spear Pillar stage. Incineroar was there to the side, but just like in the light world, a fake was there as well.

However, this time it was different.

Normally the fake would be standing ready, ready to strike as soon as whoever came through. This time, the fake was at the edge of the stage, looking away from Kyo.

…

“I see you’ve finally arrived.”

Kyo jumped a little as the fake Incineroar turned to face him.

“I thought you would want that uniform of yours.” The fake said, smiling. “I think it suits you well.”

What was the most off-putting about this was the fact that these fakes never spoke a word. Normally Kyo and the others would have immediately got into a fight with one at sight. They were usually just mindless animals with nothing but the thought of killing.

Something was very different.

“Allow me to introduce myself.” The cat stated, bowing. “My name is Dharkon. You may see me as Incineroar now, but that monster you saw in the sky, that would be me, I’m just speaking through this man you know as Incineroar.”

Kyo had no words…

He had no idea what was going on.

He realized something from Dharkon’s previous statement though.

“Wait…” Me finally managed to utter. “Did you… Were you the one who led me here?”

The man chuckled.

“Why yes, I did.”

That said, Kyo summoned his Splattershot again.

“Peace, Kyo.”

“Huh?”

The fake held a hand in front of him, and for some reason, Kyo couldn't help but put down his weapon.

“I brought you here to strike a deal.” Dharkon stated.

Also, Kyo felt a little weird; Incineroar never called him by his actual name, so it was a little strange to hear it from the fake.

There was a bit of an awkward pause between them, but the Inkling managed to break it.

“What do you want?” He asked.

Dharkon chuckled, and his smile soon turned into an evil grin.

“Well, I noticed how strong you and your friends were while fighting Galeem.” He said, turning away from Kyo. “Of course, things will be different when you face me, but let’s just say that I need this man…”

Kyo looked back at the sleeping man in bondage.

The fake Incineroar looked back at him.

“More of your friends are here, and I assume that you’ll be opposing me. By some chance that you actually gain the upper hand, I’m going to need a vessel in order to continue living.”

The man chuckled again and walked up to the real Incineroar, looking up at him.

“This man is the only one in this world with a heart as dark as mine.” He stated, taking a look of interest. “It was rather surprising, seeing his history. He is your enemy, and I’ve seen the times you crossed paths in Hyrule.”

“Hmph,” Kyo scoffed. “Yeah, he’s a pain.”

However, the Inkling felt a little uneasy about Incineroar being taken as a vessel. Whoever this guy was, he was clearly more of the threat.

He was basically Galeem’s counterpart.

“He has tried to kill me several times…” Kyo continued. “But what’s it to you?”

Dharkon’s chuckle soon turned into a laugh.

“Oh Kyo…” He said, wiping away what must have been a tear from laughing. “Yeah, he tried to kill you, but you don’t know the half of what this man has done. Like I said, he’s got just as dark as a heart as mine. Do you know what his goal is in life?”

Kyo didn’t. He was honestly surprised that he’d never asked.


The prize to winning the Smash competition was a wish after all. A wish that didn’t break the laws of existence; so pretty much ruling their world or power wasn’t off the table.

“Incineroar wishes for the death of all legendary pokemon.” The fake explained, not bothering to wait for a response. “You see, Incineroar was brought up believing that it was his duty as a dark-type to slay legendaries. He lived in a region that only had a few, and he was close to killing one. However, after his region returned to the mainland, he was both pleased and annoyed.”

As the man spoke, the area around them began to shift; the scenery changing from the Spear Pillar to what looked like the edge of a city.

“Follow me.”

The smaller male wasn’t too sure what was going on, but he didn’t feel like straying was a good option in an unknown place.

The two of them walked for about a few minutes until they ran into a scene he wasn’t expecting to see.

There was Incineroar; he was holding someone, who Kyo assumed was another pokemon. Said Pokemon was wrapped in a white blanket, and had white fur with some green marks on his face.

Kyo started to feel really strange all of a sudden.

First of all, the scene before him was rather creepy and unsettling. Incineroar was just licking the sleeping pokemon’s neck and face.

Next, Kyo wasn’t sure why, but despite knowing nothing about what was going on, he felt this burning sensation in his stomach.

“Wha-what?” Was the only thing that was able to leave his mouth.

“You see,” Dharkon piped up. “This was an act of spite. One towards a legendary pokemon to be exact. However, Incineroar also developed a new desire. That Zangoose…”

After those words, the world seemed to shift again, but this time, instead of transforming or anything, time just seemed to speed up.

Another pokemon entered to scene, one that was actually familiar to him.

However, this version of said pokemon was more… Human-like.

“Solgaleo…”

“Correct.”

“You!!” The Solgaleo growled. “What did you do to him?!”

“What do you think?” Incineroar replied. “The same thing I did to you.”

Once again, though Kyo wasn’t sure what was going on, he felt very angry all of a sudden. His stomach dropped a little after processing what Incineroar just said.

‘He didn’t…’

“Yes, yes he did.” Dharkon purred.

That said, the world shifted once again, this time returning them to Spear Pillar.

“Kyo…”

The Inkling couldn't help but shudder a little as the fake Incineroar approached him and looked him dead in the eye.

“That young pokemon that Incineroar lusts for... The one who you saw in his arms that belonged to Solgaleo.”

He then looked back at the real Incineroar who was bound.

“That was Aladar.”

Dharkon’s playful attitude seemed to have vanished, and Kyo was pretty much at a loss for words at the moment.

Aladar was the name that Incineroar always called the Inkling.

“D-does he call me that…” He finally managed to say. “Because… I remind him of that pokemon?”

Dharkon shook his head.

“No,” He replied. “Incineroar calls you Aladar because you are that pokemon! You’re Aladar, you’re just a different version of him from a different world!”

“What?!”

That was definitely something that Kyo wasn’t expecting to hear.

“Listen Kyo, what you just saw was only one of his many crimes!” The fake Incineroar stated, almost yelling at this point. "He’s stolen power from another legendary pokemon named Giratina, hence how you were able to meet him in Hyrule. He’s been to several other words besides the ones you know, and has taken many lives.”

Not that Kyo wasn’t listening, but the Inkling was still at the part where Dharkon said that he was Aladar.

Thinking about all the things that Incineroar has said to him. Constantly calling him Aladar and playing around. Putting all of those thoughts together along with the sight of Incineroar basically drooling over the real Aladar…

There was pretty much no way to describe how creepy and who knows how dangerous Incineroar really was.

“Is this man really worth saving?”

That question popped Kyo from his thoughts.

“Do you honestly think he deserves to be free after what he’s done?” The fake asked. “If this man were to win this competition you’re in, many, many pokemon will die, and even if he doesn’t, just by being alive, will he continue to torment others until his final breath.”

Kyo was a little shaken from Dharkon’s voice.

However, as much sense as the fake was making, there was something incredibly odd that the Inkling couldn't help but point out.

“Hold on,” He interrupted. “You yourself said that Incineroar’s heart was just as dark as yours. How exactly do you expect me to pick you over him?”

Dharkon looked at Kyo with a look that couldn't really be described.

Blank, but dark…

That was the only way he could describe it.

“I kill with mercy…” The fake finally answered. “I’ll kill everyone, yeah, but it’ll be like drifting into an everlasting slumber. That man, however, he’ll torment them, whether it be physical or mental.”

Dharkon left Kyo speechless.

The fake then stepped over to the ledge, his playful demeanor suddenly returning.

“So, I give you a choice. I’m not going to fight you, Kyo; our battle is for later when I’m in my true form.” He stated, facing away from Inkling. “Will you choose to free him and face me with the chance he’ll betray you? Or will you do the world a favor, and keep him here? His soul will eventually die while in my posession. He’ll no longer be a threat to you or Aladar.”

…

Kyo pulled out a Splat Bomb from the ink tank on his back, then stared at it.

He wanted nothing more than to be done with Incineroar. Not only was he a horrible person in general, but Kyo finding out that he was another version of the Aladar, and that was the reason Incineroar was always bugging him.

Not to mention that now he knew what Incineroar had done to Aladar and that Solgaleo…

…

But…

“I’ll be the one to stop him, Dharkon.”

That said, the smaller male chucked the Splat Bomb at the fake Incineroar, knocking him off the arena.

“I don’t need you. Incineroar is no match for me.”

...

He hoped at least.

Kyo waited for some sort of response, but none came. Walking over the edge, he looked down at the void that seemed to be materializing a portal back to the twisted forest he had arrived from back to the Dark World.

He sighed, wondering if he had made the right decision.

His thoughts were interrupted however, when he heard a groan coming from beside him.

“Whew, that was some nap~”

That voice belonged to none other than Incineroar.

The real Incineroar.

“Well, good morning Aladar, I suppose it’s fate that you were the one to come save m-”

Before the larger male could finish that sentence, Kyo punched him square in the nose.

“Shut up.” He replied. “Just, shut up! I know everything about you, you creep.”

Kyo turned away from Incineroar, crossing his arms and huffing.

“I’m Aladar because I’m an Aladar that reminds you of your Zangoose.”

That was probably the stupidest thing the Inkling had ever said about himself.

“And it’s true~” Incineroar replied. “What everything Dharkon revealed to you was true. Gotta admit, it feels nice to have someone understand without me having to explain a single word; saves me lots of time~”

Kyo wanted to scoff more.

Incineroar had pretty much admitted to everything, and didn’t seem to have a single care in the world about it.

“But enough of that~” The cat said, Kyo unsure if he was just trying to change the subject, or just didn’t care at all. “I’m glad you decided to trust me to be your companion to take on Dharkon. I knew you’d make the right choice, Aladar~”

Incineroar was obviously teasing him at this point.

“But huh, where’s that girl that’s always with you? It isn’t often I see you apart when you’re not in our room.”

“I get separated from the others.” Kyo replied. “It’s just me and you right now.”

With another sigh, Kyo finally turned and looked at the larger male.

“And know that I don’t trust you.”

“Aww, you wound me~” Incineroar teased. “But you have every right to do so, and good for you~”

That said, the feline extended his hand.

“However, I think a truce will do the best for both of us right now. There’s things we both need to do, and with Dharkon wanting to kill us all, it’s better if we work together for the time being. What do you say, Aladar?”

Kyo grumbled and placed his hand in Incineroar’s, shaking it.

“I want to say many things, but unfortunately you’re right for once.” He replied.

“Glad to have ya~” Incineroar replied back, smiling as he usually was. “Now, let’s get out of here~”
____________________________________________________________________________________________

Here's where we stand,
Hand clenched in hand.

Art is by Ankey from Twitter: https://twitter.com/HeeyAnkey