He dove back to Clover's leaf bundle, looking for a Chesto or Lum berry. Anything that would help her. Finding the round Lum berry first, he did his best to get Moonlight to swallow it, a task made difficult by her thrashing, screaming, and occasionally trying to bite him. Even when he finally managed to get her to eat it, she remained in her fit of nightmares. He went back for the Chesto berry. It was stronger.
A shout from nearby the den made Umbreon glance away from his daughter. They were still in an enemy clan's camp, after Moonlight had destroyed part of their sacred grounds, she had fought their clan leader, left her knocked out in the energy-draining shadow dimension, and brought down half of the den with her. None of those Pokémon in camp would be pleased to see them. He fought harder to get Moonlight to swallow the Chesto berry, resolving that, if this didn't work, he'd carry her out of here and to a safer place.
However, it seemed like he wouldn't have to. The Chesto berry didn't fully complete the job either, but it roused her enough so that she and Umbreon together could pull her back into the waking world. Her fur was coated with toxic sweat and she was breathing heavily. Her eyes flicked around the collapsed den. "Wh-what happened?" Umbreon had never heard her so scared.
"It's ok. You had... Some kind of nightmare. It's ok, I'm here. You're safe." Well... As safe as she could be right now.
Moonlight started to calm down. "I... Never want to do that again."
"What happened?"
She didn't meet his eye. "I-" She stopped suddenly as more shouts came from outside. She snapped out of her nightmare-induced daze and struggled to her paws, pushing Umbreon away when he tried to help. "I'm fine! We need to get out of here!"
Umbreon hesitated before letting her get up on her own. She was strong and independent. She'd figure it all out.
Moonlight leaned out of the den, looking around for any members of the Clan of Darkness. Seeing none, she glanced back to her father. "All clear for now. Let's get out of here."
He nodded and followed her out, saying nothing. Moonlight focused. Stealth was her specialty. She could get out of this. She tried to ignore and shut out her still-trembling paws. It had just been a dream. Just a dream. An inexplicable, horrifying, nightmare of a dream, but still just a dream. Unless Dream Eater was involved, dreams couldn't hurt you.
She forged on, leading the way towards the camp exit. She had turned her rings off easily, this time being able to manipulate the shadows to make herself nearly invisible. She could sense Umbreon doing the same thing behind her. At least she had full control over her type now.
In Dark Cave, she had known how to fully exploit her Dark Type powers, even to the point of using the Dark energy of the other Pokémon attacking her. She had drawn power from the area, the Pokémon attacking her, and somehow from the shadow dimension, even when she hadn't been in it and despite the fact that the other side of Phantom Force was supposed to drain the user, not power her up and give her more energy. She had never felt so powerful. Looking back on it now, it scared her a little.
Her senses and reflexes had been so sharp. Moonlight couldn't remember what it had felt like (it felt like she was almost at top performance levels right now), but she knew that it wasn't natural ability. She had landed a savage counterattack just after her foes had thought about attacking her. No Pokémon, not even the sharpest Psychic Type in the world, was that good. She had felt the aura around herself, jumped into the shadow dimension to power herself up further, drawn the energy into a concentrated mass in front of her, Shadow Ball, she realized, then thrown it. It was actually less like Shadow Ball and more like Shadow Explosion. If she hadn't been using Phantom Force, she would have been killed in the explosion and collapse that had followed. She'd torn down a good portion of Dark Cave with one attack.
And then she did the same thing in the fight with Brightclaw! Shadow Ball wouldn't have even been very effective, and yet it knocked Brightclaw out and blew up half of her den! And then she had turned the supernatural ability off, easy as breathing. Then... She felt the same feeling that she had when Darkrai had been nearby and passed out into nightmares.
That must have been what the legendary had given her. Most Pokémon were drained by the shadow dimension, but Moonlight's... Hyper power or whatever was fueled by it. If she wanted to reactivate that, all she'd have to do is draw power from the shadow dimension. But since that was Darkrai's power... She collapsed into nightmares after she'd used it. It made sense...
The other part of Darkrai's deal came back to her. "Dad?" she furtively whispered.
He stopped, looking at her in concern. It was hard to make him out. "What? Did you smell something?"
She shook her head. "No, I need that stone on your neck."
"What?"
"Just give it to me."
He hesitated, then pulled it off and pushed it towards her, still looking confused. Moonlight said nothing as she grabbed the stone in her teeth, used Phantom Force to open a small hole in reality, then threw the stone through and closed the opening. She kept moving without saying anything. Umbreon moved to catch up. "What was that for?"
"Not now. Maybe after we get home without dying." She kept walking to stop him from asking further. She really didn't want to talk about it. Just get out and go back home. No more superpowers. Ever, if she could help it.
She slowed down as she smelled a Mightyena and a Houndoom. Apparently, Brightclaw still had guards on the entrance even after the explosion. She and Umbreon were both too tired to fight effectively, and something was telling her that Phantom Force wasn't an option, either.
Umbreon stopped next to her. "We might be able to fight them off if we take them by surprise..."
An idea came to Moonlight. She flashed her father a sly smirk. "Or we use diplomacy instead." With that, she shed her shadowy camouflage and let her rings light up again, shoving Umbreon with her shoulder. "Move it!" she barked, doing her best imitation of Brightclaw. "Don't try and sneak away, you pathetic excuse for a Pokémon!"
Umbreon almost turned on her until he caught onto what she was trying to do. He backed away from Moonlight, staying low to the ground and acting defeated. Moonlight marched towards the entrance, occasionally shoving her father along just for show. She felt a little weird about this, but as long as it got them out. "I'll show you what we do to traitorous sneaks like you..." she growled as they slipped through the entrance. The guards watched them pass, but said nothing. The ruse had worked.
She kept up the façade just long enough for them to get out of earshot of the dog Pokémon before she relaxed and Umbreon stood back up to his full height, giving her a stern look. "If you ever try anything like that again without a very good reason or bring this up to anyone..."
"Got it, got it, sorry, Dad..." she said, resisting the urge to roll her eyes again. This was more like it. This was the relationship with her father that she was used to. "I just figured that, since shiny Umbreons aren't exactly common, they'd be used to seeing one and not messing with her."
"So you pretended to be Brightclaw," he said, falling into step next to her. "That doesn't mean you get to behave like that."
"Well the alternative was getting killed or captured, so." She picked up her pace to end the conversation. She was heading away from the Eevee Clan right now, but that was just so that they could use Phantom Force to lose their scent trails. The last thing the Clan needed was a feud with the Clan of Darkness.
Still, they were away from the danger, the moon was out and shining despite the dust still in the air from the explosion, and Moonlight now had full control over her Dark Type powers, even more so than is normally possible, in fact. But she dismissed that thought. It was over, and she was going home. That was the important part.
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