The Age Of Shadow 6

Ch6: Thin Ice

Ryo was thoroughly enjoying his dinner with Megan, who was thoroughly enjoying the dinner itself.
"This is the best soup that I've ever had!" Megan was drinking the soup; guzzling it as if though she were about do die of thirst.

"You like soup?" Ryo was amazed at Megan's ability to eat so voraciously.

"Yeah! 'slurp' This soup is 'slurp' incredible!" Megan ate the bulk of the soup that Ryo had made. She, stuffed, finished the last of the soup, and lied back onto her "bed". Ryo saw that she was comfortable, and half asleep, so he decided to let her rest for a bit. He had wanted to ask her more things about herself, but decided that he could wait. 

Ryo looked outside and was shocked to see that the rain had stopped. "What the hell!? Storms normally last weeks, but it's only been a couple days." (Ryo counts a day as the time in-between sleep) 

He started gathering his things; if something was different and had changed the weather, then Giratina was likely unhappy about it. He was going to at least find out what did this before Giratina started destroying things.

He shook Megan awake. "Wake up! There's something weird going on with the weather!"
Megan awoke groggily. "Wha? Who's attacking this time?"

"No one's attacking! Someone changed the weather and I want you to help me find out why." Ryo was annoyed: he had already told her that no one else could survive here! He always took any available food, he took any building materials, and he has not once found any sort of cave or building where some one could have lived. 
Oh how wrong he was...




An oddly cheerful voice speaks:
"Hi, Kei-kun!" The Glaceon approached the dead and somehow preserved body of Kei.

"Don't worry, I'll never forget you." She moved even closer, her face nearly touching Kei's lifeless one. 

"And just to be sure, I'm taking this!" She pulled loose a fang. She pressed the fang against her chest and froze it onto her fur.

She spoke again, but her voice was trembling with rage,  and tears flowed from her eyes.  "This'll help to remind me of all the times you screwed me over!" 

She paused for a moment. "Even in death, you torture and twist the minds of girls! Even in death, you make people kill each other! Even in death, your girls protect you like a pack of hunters!" 

"I guess I should thank you, though. You twisted me so much that I can kill the other girls to get to you." She stood up.

"It's because of you that I can kill." Her breath seemed to form a mist. "You'll stay here, forever, where I don't have to worry about your latest conquest trying to build a shrine." 

She took a deep breath, then exhaled, blasting frozen air toward his body. First, she encased only his body, then the area around him began to freeze, then, eventually, Kei was suspended in a 8-foot block of ice. 

The Glaceon turned away. 
"You melted me, the one with the frozen heart!" She turned back toward Kei's ice block, crying again.

"How does an evil jerk like you do that?" She looked at Kei in the ice, inspecting him, trying to find out how she had been seduced by him. Then it felt like something in her chest had melted. Her tears evaporated.

She remembered his shining white coat, with his signature blue rings. He looked like an Umbreon, but had somehow received a white and blue coloration. Even shiny Umbreon weren't white! 

She pawed at the ice block, wondering why she only took a fang. Only a fang to remind her of that beautiful fur? Only a fang to remind her of how good it felt to melt in his arms? Only a fang to remind her of the fire that could melt her heart? She should break that block and stay here with him forever.

The fang poked her chest, and then her heart froze over again. Of course only a fang. Fangs were vicious, brutal, and sharp, just like Kei had been. She had frozen him to protect her sanity. She had somehow escaped his charms years ago, and she had almost slipped back into them. If he hadn't already been frozen, she might have been trapped by now.

She turned away, blushing. She was embarrassed that just the sight of Kei was enough to melt her. 
Ever since she had left Kei, she had vowed to stay frozen, taking the name Phenna. She named herself after Phendrana, a land which was barren, permanently frozen, and filled with monsters. It was also where she built her home.

She turned back towards Kei, still blushing, but once again in control of her emotions. "You are the reason why I can kill. You are the reason why I can cry." Her voice rose, tears running free, her emotions once again bubbling over. "YOU are the reason why I can't control myself anymore!" Almost as if to emphasize that fact, she slammed her fist into the ground, leaving a small frozen crater.  She stood still for a few moments before her breathing slowed back down.

She looked at the crater she had left. "I need to leave before I destroy this place..." She started to walk away, but Kei tugged at her mind, urging her to stay. 

She shook her head. "Can't think about him. Scratch that, DON'T think about him." Kei's corpse continued to tug at her mind, each tug stronger than the last. 

"AAH!" She screamed. "Leave me alone, dammit!" She broke into a run, desperate to escape Kei. She could break through the wall if she got close enough!

Kei continued to tug at her mind, it was like he was actually calling to her now. She could hear him calling her name again: "Winter, why are you running? Winter? Win-ter..."

She tripped, and landed a few inches from from the wall. She scrambled to her feet. "If I can just cut this wall open..." She slashed at the wall, only to find that her gauntlet had refused to form. 

"What?" Bewildered, she tried and failed to form the gauntlet again. "This doesn't make any sense..." She made a few more attempts before realizing that something was off. Kei's fang felt oddly cool against her chest. Nothing should feel cool to the touch, she was the source all things cold! She touched her fur. It wasn't frozen and armor-like how it should be. "What the hell is going on!?" She touched the wall next to her. It felt cold. The air radiating from Kei's ice block felt cold. Then she realized what was wrong. 

Something had shutdown her powers. "Dammit Kei! I just want to move on!" She saw the pile of dirt and rock that was left at the entrance. "At least there's ONE way out." She began digging.