[Pokémon] Revolution (Rated T)

3.2. Hell Is A Fun Place




"Ow. Reyes, I'm not into bondage play."

"Be quiet." Reyes tapped Dominic on the nose with his fist as he dangled helplessly from a thick tree branch, bound and strung up by Reyes' vines. "So you're 'O for five now, am I right?"

"Six…" he corrected petulantly. He squirmed until Reyes finally severed the vines with his leaf blades, causing Dominic to unceremoniously hit the grass.

"Is it just me, or are you out of practice?" He smirked, crossing his arms over his chest. "I thought that this sparring would be just that, but apparently it's just a butt-kicking session. Maybe you should've done more than lie around and watch T.V. for three months."

"Shut up before I prune your leaves," he grumbled, running his claws through his mane to pick out the twigs and leaves. He was still getting used to not having anything in there after so long. "I'm just a little out of practice, okay?"

"A little? Try a lot. Or maybe the last six times were a big fluke?"

"Square up!" He made to claw Reyes' arm off but Reyes grabbed his wrist and flipped him onto his back.

"I've got a question," he said seriously. "Why are you talking like that?"

"Like…what?" he groaned, getting to his knees. Reyes offered a hand to help him up.

"Different."

"I, uh… Because of… I used to…" He sighed. "I didn't want to waste time speaking because I really believed that I wouldn't have the time, so I shortened my words as much as possible."

"Then what's the difference now?"

"I realized I was hyper paranoid," he smiled. "Now, well, there's too much that I want to say."

"For now, at least, we have the time." He looked at Sinclair's house curiously. "How did you meet that man?"

"I didn't meet him so much as he found me," Dominic explained. "In the aftermath of Mossdeep City, I wasn't in any state to get by or even survive. Sinclair was one of the Pokémon there to help repair, and I really needed him to repair me…" He made, as best he could, an image of what it was like when Sinclair found him. It wasn't to a T, but Reyes got the point.

"You were in a horrible state."

"I know. Had it not been for him, I'd be dead." He smiled ruefully. "Or maybe that's not such a bad thing?" His illusion dispelled into a cloud of grey smoke as Reyes grabbed his shoulders.

"Don't say that—ever," he growled. "Your life is valuable no matter what. Never forget that, Dominic."

"Trust me, I don't think I can. Now, my life is attributed to all of the stupid decisions that you make to keep me alive."

"My 'stupidity' is my business. Please, Dominic, no more," he said tiredly, and Dominic relented.

"Sinclair taught me how to fight for my life, but it was the King that turned it into fighting to take others'. I left him when I turned thirteen to…ah…make my own path or some stupid crap like that. And for all of those two years, I got two dozen scars and no headway. Still, these scars served as Pokémon School for me." He dropped his bodily illusion and pointed to three long claw marks on his shoulder. "These taught me never to wake a sleeping Zangoose." He moved his claws to a nearly-faded gouge over his spleen. "This taught me that a hungry Victreebell is nothing to patronize, even on a good day." He took hold of his chewed-off ear. "This taught me that even a Chansey can turn savage with the right provocation." He hesitated before grabbing Reyes' wrist, laying his hand over the scar on his heart. "This taught me that even if I have to subjugate myself and lay down as a common dog, so be it, because Pokémon like Blaziken will completely disintegrate me if I do otherwise."

"…I'm sorry," Reyes said, taking his hand away. "As a Grass-type, I don't have scars to show."

"Yes, you do," he said. "They're on your heart though, and they hurt ten times as much as all of these. Worse still, you can't make an illusion to make yourself feel better."

"I've survived so far," he said in the same contrite tone. "It'll take a lot to end my life now, huh?"

"Maybe not a lot," he smirked right before he tackled Reyes to the ground, pinning his arms to the dirt. "Hah! I got you!"

"So it seems," Reyes smiled. "Perhaps you can be taught." Reyes turned his hands downwards and buried his claws into the dirt, and a second later Dominic felt his ankles get seized by them as they grew under their bodies. "Seven times."

"Seven times," he acknowledged sullenly, standing up. Reyes released his vines and stood up as well, putting them eye-to-eye.

"How is this?" Reyes asked all of a sudden, poking Dominic in his sore chest. It appeared that he was referring to his self-inflicted claw marks.

"They'll heal."

"Yes, but why did you gouge your own chest out?" he demanded.

"You were going to die," he said harshly. "The King was going to burn you up… I had to stop him, and to stop hellfire you either take away the malice or the man—in my case, I had to take away the man." His shoulders slumped as he remembered.

"You…what?" They were distracted as Sinclair poked his head through the open window.

"There's food available if you two lovers are done talking."

"I don't know about you, but I'm in the mood to eat," Dominic said, effectively ending that conversation as he went inside. Sinclair's living room had become a mess of blood, used bandages, and stray leaves, and no matter how often they cleaned it the same thing happened again and again. Dominic had the nasty feeling that he would be forced to atone one way or another, but for the moment he was focused on their dinner. He went into the little kitchen and stopped cold. "I forgot," he muttered dejectedly, for he had forgotten that unlike himself, Sinclair was a vegetarian. It was one of the few things he remembered hating about living with him.

"I had a feeling you did, otherwise you wouldn't have been so ecstatic," Sinclair smiled, sliding the dreaded bowl of Berries over to Dominic. He blew a raspberry as he sunk to the ground.

"I haven't had meat in so long… Look, my canines are going dull. I'm supposed to be a predator, you guys."

"You don't even have enough teeth to eat meat anymore. And technically, you're killing these plants," Sinclair said, taking up a large Oran Berry. "Just imagine that the juice is their blood."

"I'm not eight anymore," he complained, stuffing his mouth full of Berries.

"And we'll be leaving in the morning, so be sure to sleep as well as you can," Sinclair told them.

"To where?" Reyes asked.

"We're going to find some friends of mine. It'll be better than going in as we are."

"Have I met these friends?" Dominic asked, swallowing.

"You've met Jay and AB," Sinclair said. "And there are others."

"Jay, sure, but AB? I'll take my chances with Alakazam."

"Who is AB?" Reyes asked. Sinclair laughed while Dominic filled his mouth with as many sour Berries as possible to match his mood.

"AB is Abdullah, this Haunter that used to play the dumbest pranks on me… He didn't even talk to me when we first met, just haunted me for three days until I damn near went psycho—no comments on that!"

"It was good-natured fun between children," Sinclair chuckled. Dominic exhaled through his nose but didn't argue further. "And that was almost eight years ago. My friends are rebels and revolutionaries now."

"Neither of which are very fond of us at the moment," Reyes pointed out.

"Yes, but as long as I ask them for the favor, they'll help. Dominic is not the only one that I've saved from the revolution. There were very many pieces to pick up afterwards and not nearly enough people and Pokémon to do it, however I've tried my hardest. Still, I could not save all that I tried to…" His expression grew dark as he remembered, and Dominic did too. Sinclair's house didn't just have him in the beginning—it was him and a Cascoon and a wingless Venomoth and a Houndour with a broken leg. None of them had the strength to live through the first week except Dominic, and those were just the first batch. "But you can't save them all, I suppose," he sighed, getting back to reality.

"I used to be a revolutionary soldier," Reyes said hesitantly. "I know that more than anybody."

"I can tell. There's a profound sadness in your eyes, Reyes. It's curious, really, how much sadness coexists with kindness inside of you. One cannot be born without the other, maybe," he thought aloud. "But what would I know?"

"I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not, but you're quite knowledgeable."

"I've never considered myself as much, I just pay attention to the little things." He peeled a Tamato Berry carefully before taking a bite. "You'd be amazed how much you can learn simply from watching others. You, for instance, had a Trainer that you've loved and lost, as well as a mate and…a son? No, a daughter," he corrected, but it didn't affect Reyes' shocked expression. "Little nuances can mean the world."

"It's…hard to keep secrets around Sinclair, and that's putting it mildly," Dominic muttered, pushing the remainder of his Berries away. "I'm going to sleep."

"Don't," Sinclair warned him. "You should finish your Berries—they'll help you heal faster. In your state you still have a chance of going critical, Dominic."

"I'll be fine." He went to the corner and laid down, curling into a ball. "Just need a nap and I'll be perfectly fine."

"Or you'll go into shock and never wake up."

"That would be nice…" At the look that they gave him, he returned a jocular grin. "I'm kidding around." But really, he was thinking: Is this really what it felt like back then…being around people that love you? In the end he did go into shock, and when he got out of it Reyes tied him down so that Sinclair could force Berries down his throat for the second time in his life, but he was smiling through it. They cared, as stupid and irresponsible and ridiculous as it was, and he wouldn't trade that for anything in any world.

3.3. Turn Back To Revolution​

"Let's go," Sinclair said from his position on Dominic's head. Dominic was so blasé about it that Reyes got the feeling he used to do it very frequently.

"Won't you miss this place?" Reyes asked, looking at his home.

"It's just a house, Reyes, and lately it's felt like less than that with just myself living there."

"Aww, did you miss me?" Dominic asked.

"I miss being like a father," Sinclair agreed. That statement threw Dominic off and he stared resolutely into the distance. "Although I don't miss how broken you were those years ago. I enjoy seeing you now as a young adult, crazier and kinder than I thought you could be."

"Kind? Me?" he sputtered, shocked.

"You'd be surprised. But we're burning daylight, you two."

"Right you are." Reyes hiked his new backpack higher on his shoulders and looked out into the trees with determination. "We've got some trash to take out."

——————

It took two hours' worth of walking, but they were deep within Petalburg Woods, darkness and the smell of damp moss settling over them. Sinclair left Dominic's head to skitter up a tree and onto a branch, raising his ears to the noises of the forest.

"Oh, he's here," he said after a while. He raised his tail and ears as sparks flared off of them, setting nearby leaves aflame, and he glanced at Dominic and Reyes upon remembering their presence. "I suggest that you two ground yourselves now…otherwise you'll be in extreme pain."

"I suggest that we take his suggestion," Dominic said, grabbing Reyes' arm and pulling him to the ground before digging his claws into the dirt. Seeing that they were prepared, Sinclair braced himself before releasing a wave of electricity that severely blackened the trunks of nearby trees and sent every living being in the woods scattering with pain. Reyes felt the power prickle over his skin, giving it an uncomfortable tingle, but obviously it could've been worse. Dominic appeared fine, although his mane was standing entirely on end. Reyes waited until the last of the electricity dissipated before raising his head.

"Done gave me one hell of a wakeup call, Sinclair," a grouchy voice said in the distance. Reyes' head was knocked back down as something jumped on it. "And I was having a great nap…"

"You've been napping as long as I've known you," Sinclair smirked. "It's nice to see you out of hibernation, Jacob."

"Jacob?" The thing finally left Reyes' head and hit the ground. He looked through the dirt to see a Pichu, although something about its coloring was odd. He couldn't see well within the dark woods but it appeared to be Pikachu-colored.

"That's Jay to you," the Pichu said, turning to look at Reyes. He scowled as Dominic raised his head. "And Dominic…how long it's been."

"Yeah, that," Dominic muttered, smoothing his fur down. "You used to turn me into a fur-ball every time you came over."

"It was funny," he grinned. "Still is, matter of fact." Sinclair jumped to the ground and ran over to touch tails with Jay. They raised their ears and laughed at the contact.

"How old is he?" Reyes asked Dominic. He shrugged in response.

"Hell if I know. He may be two hundred."

"You know what? I think I've seen those two before," Reyes said, staring at them playing together.

"Must've been a video game event or something. And I hope that we don't have other business in these woods—they're giving me bad memories." Dominic shuddered, finally catching Sinclair's attention.

"Right, right. We do have places to be." Sinclair ran up Dominic's body to nest in his mane, followed by his friend Jay. Dominic jumped as it frizzed out again from their voltage, then Sinclair's head poked out.

"Next, Rustboro," he said before disappearing inside again. Dominic and Reyes exchanged a look.

"Things are looking bright so far," Reyes said sarcastically.

"Better than before," he replied, looking through the trees. Still, he seemed uneasy.

"What's the matter?"

"Oh, nothing." Reyes grabbed Dominic's shoulder as he attempted to walk away.

"Dominic, don't shake me off. We've been through too much together for you to do that." He spun Dominic around so that he was forced to make eye contact.

"Jeez, don't be such a worrywart. You should look out for yourself more." He wasn't good at dodging a subject but he looked genuinely uncomfortable.

"You're lucky that we're pressed for time." Reyes released him. "But I want the truth."

"You'll get it," he mumbled, turning his back. "Eventually."

——————

Being in Rustboro should have made Dominic as apprehensive as Petalburg Woods, yet he only seemed deep in thought. His expression changed when they reached a certain spot within the city. "Police tape," he commented, tugging on the remnants of it around the house.

"What did you expect?"

"It not to still be here? I don't know. It's been months, hasn't it?" He scratched his neck, visibly uncomfortable, before forcibly drawing his attention away.

"What exactly did you do?" Jay questioned.

"I, uh, broke in and ate their breakfast cereal," Dominic said. "My love of variety packs is downright sinful."

"Oi, that ain't funny."

"Well? Who are we looking for?" Sinclair crawled to the apex of his head.

"You don't know her."

"Her?" he repeated.

"Yes, she's a female, hence the her." He sniffed the air before pointing towards the Pokémon Trainer's School. "She's over there. Hurry up."

"Jeez," Dominic complained, shuddering as Sinclair began sparking again. Reyes looked around and couldn't help but notice the marks of desolation growing on the city. It wasn't too obvious at first glance, but there were freshly-built parts of buildings, some being entire floors, and lingering scorch marks on the dirt. Moreover, the streets of the large city were almost completely deserted with only a few stragglers. He remembered something that Dominic had said before, that the revolution was escalating again, and he could see the signs in front of him. On top of that, it had to be worse in other cities, not just the little scuff marks he was seeing in Rustboro. "Reyes?" Dominic asked, nudging his arm. "Earth to Reyes?"

"I'm fine." Dominic narrowed his eyes in his old King manner. It made Reyes wonder about the King; he helped Reyes earlier in Lilycove but Reyes hadn't seen ear nor ponytail of the guy since then. It didn't seem right to ask Dominic to subjugate himself for the King either, so he had been waiting for him to make an expected domination, yet he hadn't in all of the twelve weeks they spent at Sinclair's house. Dominic hadn't brought it up at all though, so he didn't see too much cause to worry.

"Don't lie."

"You're one to talk. You've had that expression on your face since we got here."

"What expression?"

"The expression one makes when they think of something horrible."

"I'm always thinking of something horrible—you have to be a little more specific." He wasn't exactly being smart-mouthed but it was the Dominic equivalent of it. Dominic saw Reyes' expression and led out a heavy breath. "Thinking about what the revolution is doing to others?" he asked.

"Yes."

"Me too," he responded, and they became silent.

The Pokémon Trainer's School was in the midst of a lesson on self-defense when they entered. Gym Leader Roxanne was teaching alongside a young man with a white cap over dark hair, but the class halted when the students and teachers caught sight of the three (or rather, four) of them. Roxanne's Pokémon, expectedly a Geodude, took a little while to notice them, but the man's Blaziken was too quick in recognizing their presence. Reyes stared at the Blaziken for several seconds before recognition clicked and his jaw dropped.

"Who's the goof with the bike shorts?" Dominic asked Reyes obliviously. Even Sinclair let out a disappointed sigh, and inside his mane Jay complained profanely.

"Goof with bike shorts," Asterisk, undoubtedly one of the most well-known Pokémon in the regions and even more certainly the most well-known Blaziken in Hoenn alongside the Blaziken, repeated hesitantly, seemingly doubting her hearing. "…I hope you have a will written already, saying those words."

"I'm sorry, I'm not used to my dinner speaking back to me—what did you say?" Dominic's fur was standing on end, his claws out, and Reyes grabbed his shoulder before he could make mincemeat and a nice pelt out of himself.

"Dominic, that—that young man right there is the one who beat Steven years ago, Pokémon Trainer Brendan—the Brendan—and that's his Blaziken, Asterisk."

"Brendan?" he repeated, perplexed. "But Brendan was a little boy right?"

"There's a thing called 'the passage of time', Dominic…"

"That's one genius that you're paired up with, Sceptile," Asterisk commented deprecatingly, glancing at her Trainer before returning her piercing gaze to them. She eyed Reyes from top to bottom, making him feel exposed, before doing the same to Dominic, who got a weird dazed expression on his face as she did so. Her eyes finally landed on Sinclair and a little smile crossed her beak.

"…Am I missing something here?" Brendan asked, grabbing her shoulder. She looked at him obediently and returned to his side as Roxanne took control of the class.

"Okay, um… Class dismissed early!" she said, clapping her hands together. The students eyed Dominic and Reyes like a floor show as they shuffled past with their Pokémon. They waited until the building had completely emptied before they faced off against each other.

"Are they rebels?" Brendan asked Asterisk seriously.

"No," Reyes answered.

"Well, not anymore," Dominic said somewhat bitterly.

"What do you think?" Sinclair and Jay asked.

"I think that you've always been inclined to take in anybody regardless of transgressions," Asterisk said to Sinclair, pointing her talon at him. "For all I know, they're serial killers."

"Well—" Dominic started before Reyes grabbed his muzzle.

"And haven't I seen your faces before?" she continued in a more vehement voice, eyes narrowed at the two of them. "From the destruction of Lilycove City three months ago. And you—" She gripped Dominic's face tightly, angling it this way and that. "…You're the King, aren't you?" Her wrists flared up and Dominic unsuccessfully tried to pry her talons off as his fur singed.

"Risky, can you please let him go?" Sinclair asked. Asterisk gritted her beak as her grip tightened. She was clenching his muzzle so hard that Dominic's feet cleared the floor a few inches and started flailing, his eyes wild. Brendan looked from him to her and to Sinclair, who was still sitting comfortably on Dominic's head, and frowned.

"Are you following what's going on?" Roxanne asked him, taking her Geodude into her arms. Brendan sighed and made to shake his head before stopping.

"Somewhat. I don't understand why they've come here—obviously it's not to attack us."

"It doesn't matter," Asterisk growled. "They're enemies."

"Lady I am public enemy number-arceusdamn-two at the moment! Change your arceusdamn priorities!" Dominic hissed. It sure as hell wasn't helping his cause and Asterisk was still in the perfect position to squeeze his eyeballs out of his thick skull.

"Risky," Sinclair chided. "Let him go." Reyes didn't think that he could get away with speaking to Asterisk as if she was a child like that, but to his jaw-dropping amazement she let Dominic hit the ground. Dominic scrambled to his feet so fast that he almost fell on his face. Sinclair jumped from his head to Reyes' shoulder, getting eye-level with Asterisk. "Now, I know that these aren't the most ideal of allies," he started, giving a not-so-subtle head shake in their direction, "but their hearts are in the right place."

"That's not what the general populace says," Asterisk argued.

"They don't know the truth." He held out his paws defenselessly. "I don't see morals in saving children's lives, which you're not the first to berate me for, but when it comes to thousands of lives, I choose the side of justice—these two, as hard as it is to believe, would be that side." Asterisk narrowed her eyes, still skeptical. "And we want you on this side as well."

"For what, precisely?" Asterisk demanded.

"We're fighting Alakazam."

"I hope you're speaking of a different Alakazam than in my imaginings."

"No, the very same."

"Then you must have gone senile. I will not fight that man and I've no idea on Earth why you would want to," she said bolshily. Sinclair sighed, although not with impatience. Obviously he expected her response.

"Risky, these two have good reason for the idiotic task they've taken up."

"Yes, thank you," Reyes said sardonically. "Alakazam is becoming crooked, and he's getting even more so by the day. He's harming innocents and we won't stand for it." She held out her talons.

"Proof?" They exchanged a look.

"I, uh, he tried to kill me?" Dominic said.

"That's not proof. I am very certain that many Pokémon wish to kill you at the moment."

"Damn! Am I really that transparent?"

"Shut up, Dominic? Asterisk, we really do have good reason—"

"Not as far as I can see," she interrupted.

"Then you must be farsighted," Jay said. She spotted him and glared with all the ferocity of a predator to prey, causing Jay to take his immediate leave from her field of vision and retreat back into Dominic's mane.

"Please, Asterisk, for the sake of humankind and pokémonkind," Reyes pleaded. She set her jaw and remained in pace; comically, Brendan emulated the gesture.

"No," she repeated with steel in her voice. "My final answer is no."

"Aster—"

"Wait, let me handle this," Dominic said, cutting him off as he leaned in close to her. He whispered in her ear and Reyes was briefly reminded of when he did the same to Azalea. Sans the initial shock of pain and grief, he remembered that it didn't end well for him, but suddenly Asterisk was…blushing? He leaned back and she suddenly grabbed his forearms, startling him and Brendan still.

"Were you…serious?" she asked enthusiastically.

"…Yes," he said, quickly recovering. "One hundred percent."

"Brendan," she said to her Trainer. "This will only take a few days' worth of my absence." Brendan was still looking between them, perplexed.

"Uh, Asterisk—" Roxanne put her hand on his arm, shaking her head at him.

"If I were you, I wouldn't get in this," she warned in response to Asterisk's fervent expression. "Asterisk is strong—she can survive anything. Besides, your team is already perfect without her."

"Mm… For now," Brendan conceded, hiking his travelling pack higher on his shoulders. "I have to go visit Mom anyway and make sure she's all right. Asterisk, be safe—don't lose your virtue or anything," he said, but for all the response he got, he was wasting his breath. Roxanne herded him away before he had time to protest.

"Wow," was all Reyes could say.

"It seems Dominic has a hidden repertoire of skills," Sinclair smirked. Jay's grumbles caused Dominic's mane to vibrate.

"You think?"

"Uh…" Dominic said warily as she kept their intense eye-contact. Her blush slowly faded as she released him, sweeping past him.

"Onto the next city, I guess," Sinclair said. They turned towards the door, but as Dominic passed by Asterisk she suddenly grabbed his arm, pulling him flush against her much taller body, and shoved her beak against his muzzle none too gracefully. She released him a couple of seconds later and continued as if nothing had happened, but Dominic's bad leg suddenly buckled and Reyes had to catch him.

"Hello? Dominic?" He had a goofy grin on his face and his eyes were crossed.

"I'm here, I'm here."

"Are you sure?"

"No, not really." He managed to stand but kept that ridiculous look on his face, and even when he clapped his claws against his cheeks the expression stayed. "I didn't know I could get a Champion Pokémon."

"Call it Arceus' pity on a soul doomed to be alone and let's hurry up." The goofy grin finally left his face and he was sullen for the rest of the trip.

——————

They had to camp out just outside of Rusturf Tunnel as the sun set. Dominic of course was still ready to go, but the other non-nocturnal creatures weren't. He sulked under a tree as they prepared to go to sleep. "Take watch for us," Reyes told him. "In case Alakazam or Blaziken try something else."

"I'm already awake," he said. "So I guess I'm already watching." Reyes didn't reply, mainly because he knew Dominic would be bored and lonely just sitting around with nowhere to go. He laid down to sleep but was woken maybe fifteen minutes later by two things: Jay's obnoxiously loud snoring and Sinclair and Dominic's more muted conversation. It was, however, a better thing to focus on than snoring.

"It's nice to know that your brain hasn't completely rotted in all of your lethargy," Sinclair commented. Dominic snorted through his nose.

"I feel weaker. Also, if I take one hit in this leg, I'm done." He sighed. "We wasted so much time. Do you know how many lives could've been lost?"

"No," he admitted. "But I know that had you two gone out there in that condition, then you would've become casualties as well." Reyes swallowed. "Is that what you want? To go out there and die fighting? It is noble in a way, I'll admit, but to just give up on everything—"

"I don't want to die," he interrupted angrily before he lost his steam. "…I just don't want to be bad luck for everyone that I meet anymore. I'm always ruining people's lives…"

"You didn't ruin my life," he pointed out.

"Reyes…"

"I don't think you ruined his life either." He did, in fact, Reyes thought. But now, I don't mind quite as much.

"How about every other living being I've come in contact with?" he muttered. "Arceus… I'm just like poison to people." He let out a bitter laugh and then a weak moan. "But I'm just kicking a dead Rapidash right?"

"I don't believe I get the analogy."

"I don't think I got it right anyway." He moaned again, making Reyes think that he was crying. "You can't change my mind, you know. I'll always believe that I can't do anything except hurt people. It's been that way for seven years."

"Oh, I know how stubborn you are with a thought," Sinclair said. "But even if you're a walking nuclear bomb or Absol in disguise, I'll still love you."

"I don't… I can't understand why." But his tone said that he did. Sinclair laughed anyway.

"We may not be blood related, but you and I, we're like father and son." Dominic took a deep breath as if it physically pained him to speak.

"Don't you know the story of Oedipus?" Reyes forced himself to go to sleep then, because Dominic's reply was very unsettling.

——————

The last that Reyes heard of Verdanturf, it was the territory of a Sableye rebel, but the town looked majorly unchanged, if not a little scruffy, as they entered from the Rusturf Tunnel. Nostalgia hit him like a sledgehammer as the sweet, clean wind whistled through his ears as some forgotten song, the scent of spring flowers filling his nose as he saw the usual manicured neighborhoods, which had grown larger but remained otherwise just as he remembered. Pikachu Park was still the best place for a game of basketball, baseball, and/or hockey; the Neills had the best lawn out of all southern houses; Goose was still selling homemade and half-burnt popcorn at the corner, chili and salt and antacid optional; Brendan's house, even, was still there, but any hopes Reyes had were crushed when a different family walked through the door and to the car.

"Do you…need a minute?" Dominic muttered, looking at Reyes from the corner of his eye. Compared to Verdanturf, Dominic was another kind of familiar, not particularly bad but different. Different, yeah.

"I'm…fine. This place just caught me off guard, that's all." Sinclair eyed him but didn't say anything on the matter.

"AB said that he's working in the Pokémon Center."

"For what?" Dominic asked. "Do they pay him with pizza or something?"

"Come on, we're burning time." Reyes was behind as the group headed towards the Pokémon Center. Everything down to the dirt pathway beneath his feet was so achingly familiar… He kept thinking that Brendan was going to walk out of the PokéMart with a pair of triple-cheese nachos and extra-large Oran-Rawst slushies along with two crappy DVD movies just for them, but it never happened. Moreover, he thought he would see Azalea sitting under her favorite tree next to the Contest Hall, the one that bloomed purple and orange—her favorite colors—three times a season, and Reyes would sit with her and enjoy the smell and the sight of the children playing after a long day of school and—

He felt Dominic's claws nick his face a little, then he caught himself and was dragging his fuzzy palms down Reyes' cheeks, alerting him to the fact that he was crying. "You should have just stayed in the tunnel," Dominic told him, his expression pitiful. "I knew this would be too painful for you."

"Don't worry about me," he protested, pushing Dominic away. He looked slightly hurt as Reyes continued, "These memories will always be painful for me—that won't change. But I believe I'm strong enough to continue despite that, and that's what's important." Dominic smiled a little.

"Good boy."

"I'm not a dog, you moron."

"Good boy," he repeated with a grin. He dodged Reyes' blades when he swung at him and laughed. "Now who's slow, huh?"

"Still you, you bastard." Dominic received a fist on the back of his head, and despite the extreme density of his skull he cried out in pain before falling out on his face. The attacker sighed from behind him, a Haunter, before turning his attention to Reyes. He stared at Reyes for a long time before snickering. "You wanna know what it feels like to be possessed?"

"No thank you." AB snickered again.

"AB, not everybody appreciates your…humor," Jay said matter-of-factly, skittering in their direction. Asterisk was behind him, Sinclair riding on her shoulder, but she hurried to lift Dominic to his feet when she saw he was down.

"Uh, thanks," he said awkwardly as she went on to brush dirt and stray leaves from his fur. "And AB, you can go ahead and suck my—"

"Excuse me," Sinclair interrupted, slapping his cheek. "That's not how you talk to family."

"Family?" Reyes repeated, perplexed. Sinclair nodded.

"AB was a Gastly when I rescued him from one of the rebel-infested cities in southern Hoenn—it's been a good few years since then. He still has the sense of humor of a hatchling, however."

"What can I say?" AB cackled, waving his hands as he dissolved into formless purple mist. "Boo."

"Anyhow, the last Pokémon we're going to get is in Lavaridge. It's a long way out from here, so we'll only take a brief break here to eat before setting out." He pulled out a bag of Berries from…what, hammer space? They sat in the shade of a brick house to eat, Dominic complaining as per usual about the lack of meat. AB, already being dead, didn't need to eat, yet he still did a strange disappearing act with a couple of Cheri Berries.

"…I think I'll take a walk," Reyes said, standing. Sinclair just shrugged it off and Dominic was still busy throwing a fit. It didn't matter anyway; he felt fine and he was confident that there wasn't anything to set him off. He just wanted a stroll down memory lane…while he still had the chance.

Parts of the town were just as he remembered, like the neighborhood he used to live in with the odd abundance of Oddish and the elementary school/daycare just down the street, meaning a copious amount of children's giggles and screeches as they played outside with the wild Pokémon. On the other hand, the ice cream shop Brendan used to always go to afterschool, Helena's Rainbows, was gone and replaced by a video game store, and the old oak tree that the middle school kids used to climb near the park had been cut down into an uneven stump. He sat on it for a while to think, watching the wisps of his old life fade away to make room for new kids and new Pokémon and new memories.

He realized how much time he had wasted just sitting there and stood up, heading back towards the group, when a clawed paw clamped around his mouth and another around his forehead. He blindly flailed his leaf blades behind him but couldn't make contact with his assailant as he was dragged backwards, away from the town and away from any possible rescuers. He stumbled a little as the polished grass and smooth walkway under his feet changed to rough and stony dirt, then he tried to find his footing as the dirt became looser beneath his feet. Finally, he collapsed all together as he was pulled to a burrow, slipping down the dark tunnel and landing flat on his back to stare at the small circle of light above.

"Reyes?" Two faces appeared to him from the darkness. He stared, blinking wildly until his eyes could adjust, and he sucked in a breath.

"Kim… Leroy… Don't tell me you're here to…" His chest constricted as if an Arbok was wrapped around it and his breath shortened.

"No, never!" they cried in unison, raising their paws. Reyes blinked at them, realizing that although he had felt them, they were tied down with thick gloves.

"We really just want to talk!" Leroy continued. "But we thought that if we showed up, you'd run!"

"So you took me…" They exchanged an anxious look.

"Trust me, it was easier," Kim said. "Reyes, we know about Azalea."

"Azalea…" He swallowed, feeling the constriction grow even more painful. "And what are you going to do about that?" he asked hesitantly, sitting up.

"I told you we're not gonna fight," Leroy muttered. "We really just want to talk. Maybe it's because we weren't here to see your D-day or whatever, but we just don't understand why you would turn against the revolutionaries! And even though we're probably totally in the dark about it all, we believed that Azalea was in the wrong for doing what she did—crying to Alakazam and taking his dirty power, in case you didn't know. We knew it'd be dangerous for her—she knew it'd be dangerous—but she still went out against you, and…" He lowered his eyes to the ground. "The price was high, but honestly we can't blame you. We missed a lot, not being in Hoenn, but when we came back to Ever Grande a few weeks ago, everything had changed."

"What do you mean?"

"There was a natural beauty there from the harmony and the innocence, but it's gone now," Kim explained. "Humans kind of shrink away when we walk by and Pokémon are all training and learning how to fight. We went to Alakazam, asked him what's wrong, and he told us, 'We're preparing for a war.' We thought it was on the rebels, but we were wrong. 'On Reyes and the King.'"

"It was ridiculous!" Leroy continued. "A war for just two Pokémon, and you of all people! And more than that—"

"—the bigger number of revolutionaries in the streets meant bigger numbers of fights with rebels, like a catalyst," Kim said, waving her gloved claws for emphasis. "So Alakazam, while going after you two, was causing all of these extra fights, damage, and casualties—"

"—and we couldn't stand for that—"

"—no way no how!" Reyes looked between them.

"This, I already know," he said solemnly. "So why tell me?"

"We want to help you," Kim and Leroy said.

"Help…me? I'm… We're fighting against Alakazam directly. There's a huge chance that we'll die trying. Besides, why would you turn against him with all that he's done for you?"

"We could ask you the same thing," Leroy pointed out. "And if you left him because of your beliefs, then we trust your judgement."

"You put a lot of trust in me for what I've done." He dragged his claws down the hard-packed dirt of the "wall," pulling chunks of it free and baring a few scraggly roots in the process. "I can't believe it."

"Why not?" Their reply startled him a little and he raised his head. "You've never done bad before, so why now?"

"…Hehe," he chuckled bitterly. "I'm not the same guy as some months ago—far from it. I'm not even totally sure what I'm doing is right, to be honest. After Azalea… It's hard not to doubt everything that I've been doing," he admitted miserably. "I'd rather that you two get out of Hoenn again, go somewhere safer."

"No! We'll fight with you!" they protested, just as he expected. He sighed, dragging his hands down his face.

"You two are the last that's left of the old team. If you get hurt or killed because of me, I won't be able to recover. Please, just go with that in mind." They looked at each other and shrugged.

"We'll leave—" Kim started.

"—but we won't take our eyes off of you, and believe it!" Leroy poked Reyes in the forehead. "Alright? You can't make us leave, not ever. You're our best friend, Reyes, and nothing will change that."

"Not even Azalea?" He hated to kick a dead Rapidash, but he had to.

"It hurts," Kim admitted.

"But not as much as it would hurt to see you go too," Leroy added. "So don't die no matter what!" Leroy ascended the burrow using the roots in the wall, climbing into the sunlight and putting his arm down. Kim grabbed his claws and took Reyes' hand, then Leroy pulled both of them up. He had to cover his eyes for a moment to let them adjust, and when he opened them Kim and Leroy were gone. Dominic was waiting with his arms crossed as he went back into the town, Reyes' backpack on his shoulders.

"What were you doing, wasting so much time? And why do you smell like Zangoose?"

"Nothing important, Dominic," he said, feeling somewhat lighter. "At least, to you."

——————

Going to Lavaridge meant travelling back through the Rusturf Tunnel and then through a small cavern outside of it leading to western Hoenn. They did have to camp the first night in a small meadow, but this time there were no excess conversations, maybe because they realized that their leisure time was coming up short. Dominic and Reyes sat back to back while the others slept, Dominic being his usual night Noctowl self and Reyes just suffering from insomnia, and the night stretched alongside their silence.

"A is for apples," Dominic said all of a sudden.

"What are you talking about?"

"I can tell you can't sleep, so why don't we play the Alphabet Game? I have nothing better to do."

"…B is for Briney."

"C is for castles."

"D is for danger." He didn't know why he said it but he couldn't take it back.

"Then E is for expecting to live," Dominic said in the same tone.

"F is for feeling like the world is against you."

"G is for getting through despite that."

"H is for having a friend to help you through." Dominic snickered.

"I is for I really don't think I count as any sort of friend to help you through."

"J is for just believe in yourself and what you do."

"K is for killing—that's all I'm good for, by the way."

"L is for loving, which you're also capable of."

"M is for making too many arceusdamn mistakes." It was followed by a loud swear.

"N is for never giving up."

"O is for options."

"P is for punching you in the face because what the hell kind of options are you talking about?"

"Q is for q…q… Q-maybe there are some, is what I'm saying."

"S is for shut up because you obviously don't know how to spell."

"T is for think about it, alright? We can still turn back."

"U is for you can't be serious."

"V is for very good job cheating the game there. I mean, it's different to just be putting myself in danger—to be putting ourselves in danger, but there's Sinclair and Jay and Asterisk and AB and some other sixth guy now too."

"Y is for your concern for others is very touching, and I mean that, but as much as you don't like it, they decided to help of their own accord, and you can't change their minds. The one thing left for you to do is accept that some Pokémon do have the same beliefs as you and are willing to fight with their lives for them just as you are." He reached back and tugged Dominic's ear lightly enough to be endearing. "So it's just something you've to learn to deal with, although you're doing a poor job of that."

"Aha," he muttered bitterly, swatting Reyes' hand away as his ears drooped listlessly. "Alas, I only have my eyes to look through, and my vision's pretty narrow."

"Z?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah. Z is for…for goodnight…" It sounded like he snorted, then Reyes realized he had just fallen asleep. It was a pretty rare sight to see a Dark-type sleeping at night, but he figured that Dominic deserved it and went to find another place to sleep before AB put his hand in a mud pit again.

——————

He wasn't sure if he was dreaming or not. He was in that odd state where his eyes worked but his mind was too tired to really process anything. He felt Sinclair shake his shoulders and tried to open his eyes but they wouldn't go all the way, and it was hard to see already since he wasn't made to see in the dark. There were tears streaming down Sinclair's face and Reyes struggled to wake himself up.

"When it comes down to that last moment, anything goes to spare the world's safety," he whispered, his voice sounding far away. "That's a lesson I learned a long time ago."

"Sin…what're ya…"

"Remember it." Sinclair's ears twitched uneasily as a moan sounded a few feet away. Reyes thought of the disjointed dreams he had been having, little snippets of Azalea and Brendan and the revolution. He remembered that usually, Dominic was the cause of them. "Okay? Remember it."

"O…kay…" He closed his eyes and forgot all about it by morning.

The hot, dry air around Mt. Chimney was irritating Reyes' lungs and he just wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. Dominic, Sinclair, and Jay were in similarly bad moods with "the ash in the air ruining fur," Dominic explained. Asterisk was unaffected, being a Fire-type and all, and maybe AB was unaffected as well, but he was currently propagating as a gas to startle nesting Pokémon from the wild grass.

"I'm going to take a bath in the hot springs," Dominic told them.

"I'll join you," Jay grumbled from inside of his mane. While they skulked off to do that, Reyes looked at Sinclair.

"Myron is with an older lady I believe, who, ah, works at the hot springs," he said, looking towards the Pokémon Center. There was, in fact, an elderly woman kneeling on the ground to play with a small Glaceon, who was freezing the ash in the air to make a shower of miniature ice crystals like diamond dust. He sniffed the air as they approached and met eyes with Sinclair, and as soon as it happened, he took off.

"Wait, Myron!" the lady called as he ran across the dry dirt. Asterisk was moving before any of them could, her powerful legs causing her to shoot forward with speed rivaling Dominic's as she easily circled into Myron's path and caught him with her talons. He inhaled a great breath before his skin exploded in a shower of ice crystals, and although Asterisk's body heat immediately burned the majority of them a few landed in her eyes, causing her to drop him. He attempted to go past Sinclair as he intercepted him, electricity shooting off of him in waves as he rammed right into Myron. He recovered quickly despite the shock and used Sinclair's head as a trampoline to launch over him and back onto the dirt where the electricity dissipated.

"Reyes! Stop him!" Sinclair said as Myron crossed paths with him. Reyes went with the only thing he could think of in such short notice, that being a huge grey mushroom, and as Myron collided into it Reyes covered his nose as a shield from the defensive spores it admitted. Myron, however, wasn't as fast, and he stumbled for a few seconds before falling on his side, too tired to move.

"Does he hate you that much?"

"I guess so," Sinclair huffed, shaking the dust from his fur before going to Myron's side. He regarded Sinclair warily as he smiled. "Is that enough exercise for you, little boy?" Myron didn't respond, making a large effort to overcome the Sleep Powder. "Yes, I guess it is." Sinclair placed his paw on Myron's forehead and gave him a small shock. His paws jerked and he went still for a moment before his eyes opened. He rolled onto his stomach before getting to his feet, looking at their little group in confusion. "We're on a mission to launch an attack on Alakazam. It will not be pretty, nor is your life guaranteed. Will you come?" Myron's response was to run past Sinclair and back to his owner.

"I think that's a no."

"He's just stubborn. Children are like that." He looked bitter for a moment as an unpleasant memory struck him. "He'll come around though."

"You know a lot of Pokémon," Reyes noted. "How so?"

"Some of them I helped as survivors from the revolution," he explained. "Others I know from my time in Professor Oak's lab."

"You were a lab Pokémon?" Sinclair nodded.

"Asterisk was too, obviously—that's how I know her." Asterisk was currently staring resolutely at the ground, apparently disgruntled at having "lost" to a child.

"Were you bred in a lab too?" Sinclair shook his head.

"I was a caught Pokémon. If I remember correctly, Oak wanted to replicate the success of a Trainer from Pallet Town with his own wild-caught Pikachu, but he seemed disappointed to only find me." He shrugged helplessly. "I wanted to tell him that the feeling was mutual, but not all humans can understand us. He tried to train me for battle but I was more interested in spending time with the Trainer-bred Pokémon, and unbeknownst to him I studied his notes on them. It was interesting to see a scientific take on what I knew as basic nature, and from them I learned a lot that saved me a good few times after…"

"After…?" Sinclair looked off into the distance at some worn memory. "Was it bad?"

"Not so much bad as regretful," he admitted. "There were choices I made at the time that I'm in good enough mind now to know that I shouldn't have. But the past is in the past after all," he sighed. "I left Oak and took to wandering before I finally chose Petalburg—it's really quite a beautiful town and has a bustling community of wild Pokémon in houses designed by the people. I'd say that it's second only to Ever Grande in people-Pokémon relations." He laughed a little at the thought before looking back at Myron. "I don't think it'll be very hard to persuade that boy, however I doubt I can do it if I've already failed… Maybe Jay can do it—he still has the mind of a child."

Reyes opened his mouth to respond when a loud howl caught their attention. Dominic was running towards them from the hot springs with Jay clinging to his ears for dear life as he tore across the dirt, a trail of electricity following him as his mane burst into a ball of fuzz. It was slightly amusing for a moment before Reyes recognized that frizzy appearance. "Dear Arceus," he exhaled as Tex followed behind him. Alakazam had to know what they were doing and meant to stop them at any means, as he wouldn't send the powerful-but-glitchy Tex otherwise. Also, if pathos was a lost cause on Azalea, it was even more so with Tex, who had artificially-programmed comprehension of things like "love" and "friendship." Yet as Reyes looked into his blank eyes, he couldn't see even that much. It wouldn't have been hard to reprogram him in theory, but he was horrified to think of any revolutionaries that would reprogram a friend.

"Move move move!" Dominic howled again as three balls of red, blue, and gold appeared around Tex's head.

"Cover your ears!" Jay shouted as he released Dominic's ears, hovering in the air for a moment before the wind caught up to him. He opened his mouth and released a wave of pinkish vibrations in the air, but the auditory response was more like a war cry. It warped Tex's Tri Attack beyond use, but the attack simply slipped off of him like water. Reyes grabbed Jay by the tail as he went.

"Disarming Voice won't work, genius—he has no real emotions!"

"Well damn, you could've told me that!" he retorted angrily, paws flailing.

"And we can't fight him here anyway or risk hurting the inhabitants," he snapped. "We have to get to Mt. Chimney—much less life to endanger." They ran across the dry dirt of the town as Tex followed behind, not nearly fast enough to catch up but surely planning something. "Dominic, how did it find us?"

"We weren't exactly hidden!" He closed his eyes against the rising dust as he ran on all fours. Asterisk's eyes widened slightly as she spun on her spot, skidding to a stop with her talons digging deep gouges in the earth, then she ran back towards Tex. Tex prepared another Tri Attack, but before it could launch it Asterisk came to another stop, her powerful legs kicking wildly at the ground to throw a virtual sandstorm in its face, also obscuring the rest of Lavaridge from their view. They ran out until the scraggly weeds poking out of the hard dirt swelled into thick wild grass and small grazers scattered at the sounds of their footsteps.

"This is far enough!" Dominic came to a stop so suddenly that his bad leg collided with a sharp rock jutting out of the ground. His eyes popped wide open and filled with tears, yet he refused to cry out in pain. Sinclair and Jay paired up as Tex returned much faster than before, its body zapping like a T.V. screen with bad signal as it began glitching again.

"D-DON'T TRY TO beep R-RUN, R-REYES," it warned. "O-OR ANY OF YOUUUUU—" Its voice crackled before fading into a wild computerized screech, causing all of them to cover their ears as it surrounded its body with crackling electricity. Sinclair sniffed the air before leaping ahead of them and releasing a wild Thunderbolt concurrently with Tex. The electricity collided equidistant with the both of them before dissipating into the air. "COMMAND EXECUTE:CONVERSION 2." Tex's body convulsed for a couple of seconds before going still, and very slowly its pink skin colored brown.

Sinclair smirked. "Smart."

"Not smart enough for me," Dominic growled, bracing himself before leaping onto Tex and knocking it to the ground, jaws firmly clamped on its midsection. It was an odd sight as Tex had no real body, and so it simply dissolved around Dominic's teeth as it easily floated back into the air, changing to a dark grey shade. Dominic clenched his jaw before opening wide and releasing a stream of fire, which Tex deflected with a bolt of electricity—"COMMAND EXECUTE:THUNDERBOLT"—before creating a jagged beam of pink, purple, and gold energy that hit Dominic head on—"COMMAND EXECUTE:SIGNAL BEAM." At first, it didn't seem to have an effect, then Dominic lurched backwards so fast that he tripped over his bad leg, flopping onto his back. There wasn't much of a reprieve as Tex turned its attention back on them, ice and snow swirling around its body before it released an Ice Beam in their direction. Asterisk threw her arms out and released a wave of heat that melted it on contact, then she tensed her legs before lighting them aflame and sending a kick at Tex. Tex took the hit head-on and hit the ground, going completely still.

"Is it done with?" Jay asked. Reyes shrugged a shoulder, his eyes focused on Tex's prone body. Surely that wasn't all for a Pokémon designed to combat any force in battle? Reyes lost his focus for a moment as Dominic let out a growl, rolling around fervently in the grass with his claws clenching his head as if it would split open. He growled again as he got to his knees, head down and shaking, then he looked right at them. He opened his mouth and all of them had to jump out of the way of his impending Flamethrower.

"If anybody can turn a ten percent chance into one hundred, it's Dominic for sure," Sinclair lamented as he rushed at them. He looked just like the wild Pokémon from the revolution, feral and uncontrollable and deadly, and that caused Reyes to freeze in his tracks. Instead of barreling into Reyes, however, Dominic was pushed completely out of the way as Asterisk rammed into him, sending him rolling through the grass before he hit a wall of red rock at the base of Mt. Chimney. He was up again almost immediately, shaking his head and going into a stalk. He started towards them at first, then he abruptly changed paths and started circling some invisible entity, growling and snapping at his hallucination. Well, it'll keep him distracted at least, Reyes thought dryly, turning his attention back to Tex.

"COMMAND EXECUTE:TRICK ding ROOM," Tex screeched, back in the air as it formed a gently-twirling cube of purple energy. It tossed the cube forward and it instantaneously shot up to consume a total of one mile around them. Reyes took a step forward and found that gravity, instead of just pushing down, was also pushing him left and right and even diagonally, making it much harder to move. Asterisk bounced from talon to talon, seemingly adjusting, while Sinclair and Jay were forced to the ground with the increased pressure. Sinclair's electricity was going out of control as well and Reyes had to wonder if it was related. "COMMAND EXECUTE:ICE BEAM." Reyes' instinct was to jump back, however the new gravity slowed his dodge considerably until the Ice Beam pierced him in his stomach. He doubled over, feeling the gross sensation of his inner organs freezing over, and opened his seed pods up to get as much heat as possible. He was getting more ash than sun however, causing his skin to turn grey.

"C'mon—cough—Tex," Reyes said hoarsely, "have a heart."

"I WAS NOT 2952 PROGRAMMED WITH A HEART," it elucidated. "ONLY COMPREHENSION OF IT."

"Then comprehend that I can't fight you—I can't fight any of my friends."

"THEN YOU W-WILL BE KILLED," it said plainly. "COMMAND EXECUTE:PSY—" Tex was cut off as a Shadow Ball came from behind it and knocked it into the ground. Reyes raised his eyes and saw Dominic squirming on the ground as he rapidly created them and fired in all directions, his claws digging into his nearly-healed wounds. Jay narrowly dodged one as it crashed into the dirt ahead of him and, exasperated, released a high-voltage blast of electricity that filled the air. Reyes rooted himself so that the electricity passed by him, however it literally went through Tex and hit Dominic, causing him to flip onto his stomach. Tex's body started buzzing as jagged rows of codes filled its eyes. It made to move forward, and it did so with such speed that Reyes actually couldn't see it until it stopped inches from his face, and even then only because something was literally holding it back. Reyes saw that some of Jay's electricity clung to it by the tail and stretched out to Dominic's prone form. Reyes looked back at Jay angrily and he shrugged.

"I needed something immobile."

"Yes, but did you consider that maybe Tex can—" With another buzz, Tex emitted a strong magnetic field that, instead of harming them, lifted their feet a few inches off of the ground, nullifying gravity in their space. Dominic's body ended up in the air as well, effectively un-grounding Tex. "—make him mobile?"

"COMMAND EXECUTE:MAGNET RISE."

"I didn't think that far ahead, no," he said dryly. On the other hand, the Trick Room slowly began fading, the excess gravity loosening its grip on their bodies.

"COMMAND EXECUTE:AERIAL 23Q\\—ACE." Tex vanished before reappearing about a dozen feet higher, then it disappeared again. Reyes could just barely track Dominic's body swinging behind it as it ran into Asterisk with enough force to send her sprawling on her back. She braced her talons in the dirt before kicking out with flaming feet, catching Tex in its center and causing part of its body to break away. Dominic's body slammed to the ground as gravity finally caught up to them, his blank eyes going wide and looking in all directions.

"Dominic, pull it down!" Sinclair told him, gesturing to the electricity holding them together. He grinned goofily in response.

"COMMAND EXECUTE:hyper BEAM." Tex charged a ball of white energy above its head. Asterisk lit her fists and braced herself before leaping at it, but her body simply passed through its as it became little more than strings of data codes. Sinclair and Jay tried as well, however their electricity only slightly muddled Tex's form. Sinclair looked back at Reyes.

"You have to fight too."

"I'm sorry, I…I can't."

"You know, you're too nice a guy for your own good." The ball of energy vanished. Reyes grew a set of vines as thick as possible around them, cocooning them just as Tex fired. Although it was completely dark in their little bubble the light from its Hyper Beam shone brightly through the cracks, nearly blinding them, and slowly the vines began to wither against the energy. The attack did end up hitting them, and although it wasn't on as great a scale and didn't do nearly as much damage as it would have, Tex had been pushing its programming for every bit of power it could get. The smaller ones, Sinclair and Jay, were sent rolling into the grass before going still, and Asterisk managed to stand up while favoring her right leg. Reyes had lost both of his arms trying to protect his face, and although the sun was bright he was so low on energy that it would take a long time to regrow them. Too long.

"COMMAND EXECUTE:TRI ATTACK." Tex's body was completely transparent and its color palette switched to codes at times as it fought to stay corporeal. Reyes' heart felt like it was being constricted; first he had to watch Azalea kill herself over him, then Tex? It was getting to be too much. He grasped his head, feeling his mind about to shut down again, and forced himself to stay awake. He knew that the time he spent at Sinclair's was wasted, that he should've known the consequences of his actions and accepted them long ago, but he was only human—or rather, only Pokémon.

"NO!" Reyes' vines reacted before he could, forcing their way from the ruined ground to wrap around whatever remained of Tex's body. Instead of passing through however, they bound it like ropes and pulled it to the dirt, more and more coming out until it was completely covered. Reyes didn't have time to worry about it, and he didn't want to either. He was just glad that things were over and done with. "…Dominic. Are you alright, Dominic?"

"Ugugu…" He rolled to his feet, wiping his eyes before opening them. His pupils were hugely dilated but it was a step up from before. "Yeah, in the loosest sense." Reyes sighed before going over to Sinclair and Jay. Asterisk was already there, but as soon as she saw him coming she went over to Dominic, who let out a loud wail of protest. Sinclair and Jay were fine, just unconscious, yet Reyes didn't want to shake them for fear of getting himself electrocuted. He sat down to rest his mind for a moment, staring at the grass Tex had not so elegantly sheared from the ground and the side of Mt. Chimney. The indigenous wild Pokémon were crawling hesitantly from their burrows to see the aftermath. As he watched them, however, he started getting a cold feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. It didn't make sense though; Tex was down and surely no other revolutionary was in the area, otherwise they would've been dead already. The feeling persisted as he stared at the wild Pokémon trying to make sense of their burned homes. A horrible realization hit him at that moment and he went completely still.

Alakazam wouldn't… Yet even as he thought it, he knew that the same Pokémon that would willingly endanger hundreds of lives over Reyes' would, for certain.

A Spoink sniffing around a shriveled Berry bush suddenly gave a loud squeal before falling silent, staring at Reyes with wide and blank eyes. The Numel next to him followed suit, then the Skarmory to his right turned towards them, then Pokémon started crawling from the higher ledges of the mountain with the same vacant expression. Reyes got to his feet, but even he knew it was a pointless gesture. They were now outnumbered ten to one.

"Wha's going on?" Dominic asked behind him.

"Alakazam," he said through gritted teeth. "As it seems, he's through playing with us."

"Wha'?"

"He's been playing Dominic, playing with my feelings or others' lives or I don't effing know, but he's been messing around and not showing the full extent of his power. There's a reason why he's one of the most powerful Pokémon on Earth: nobody that has stood up to him has ever lived as long as we have. Apparently he was too shocked to properly retaliate for a long while." But that wasn't true and he knew it. Alakazam was also on top because he was a certified genius, and so if he left them alone for as long as he did, he did it strategically. "…We have to make it."

"I hate to fight a losing battle, but I'd hate to lie down even more." They were getting stared down on by at least five dozen Pokémon in the area ranging from little Zigzagoon to massive Camerupt with boiling lava running down their humps to bulky Magmortar with cannons charging.

"We can't fight them," Asterisk said, the only one to admit the truth. She wasn't in a battle stance for once, her body rigid and straight. "We'll die."

"Against Alakazam, I won't die lying on my back." Dominic attempted a Flamethrower but it shot wide of Mt. Chimney, nearly burning away Reyes' legs.

"Dominic you're still not in enough of your right mind to aim, let alone fight back."

"Neither are you," he retorted. "You can't aim with no arms."

"We're out of the question, Sinclair and Jay are out of this world… What can we do?"

"Like I said, we go down fighting!" Reyes looked back at Dominic before at the Pokémon again and he gasped. They weren't attacking yet—but why? Alakazam couldn't have had a change of heart. He was biding his time yet again, but for what?

"—I smell a Glaceon," Dominic said suddenly. Reyes turned around and saw Myron running up to them.

"Thank Arceus that you came. Maybe you can help us with a distraction so we can escape." Myron nodded before looking at the wall of Pokémon. Reyes turned to them and felt a chill skitter down his back as the air cooled one small degree. He looked down and saw sheer ice covering the hard-packed dirt below them, however it stopped just short of the base of Mt. Chimney. He looked to Myron to question it when the little one suddenly gave a macabre smile.

Surprise, said Alakazam's voice in his head as the ice consumed his entire body.

"Sinclair, Sinclair! Let's play catch, c'mon let's play catch!" Dominic was bouncing from side to side next to Sinclair's couch as he was flipping channels on T.V. He finally let it sit on some cartoon about a Machamp versus an Infernape for AB and turned to Dominic.

"Did you eat sugar from the jar or something?"

"Maybe!" Sinclair sighed, sliding to the ground.

"How about we take a nap instead? …A long one," he added as Dominic started gnawing on the armrest. He spat out a wad of stuffing, wagging his tail excitedly.

"Nooo! Play time!" He dropped into a crouch and growled playfully. AB and his Poochyena friend, who were used to sleeping during the day, groaned in complaint.

"Alright, let's go outside, if for nothing else than the sanity of everyone in the house." Sinclair didn't even have to look behind him as he went out onto the dirt pathway leading through Petalburg. In the last few weeks Dominic had become very much like a house pet, but it made sense considering that even though he was a Zoroark, three and a half feet tall standing erect, he was just ten years old. He was a child, and children loved two things: being loved and playing. Dominic was pretty sixty-forty. He bounced around a little less energetically as they came into direct sunlight. "Let's go for a walk."

"How about a run? A run?"

"A walk." He couldn't collar Dominic to make sure that he didn't get distracted by anything, but he could do him one better: "If you'll walk with me for fifteen minutes, I'll make you Buneary stew tonight."

"Really!?" He was energized again, eyes wide. "Let's go already!"

Sinclair walked down the coastline with him, as Dominic didn't get many opportunities to go to the ocean. There were a few children out playing in the shallow end and the Pokémon nesting there; Dominic went up to join them and, to his surprise, they petted him and scratched his back and pulled his tail just like the others, as if he wasn't a killer. He had never thought of himself as somebody that could make kids happy, but there it was: they were giggling and laughing and one even tried to ride him even though he was too tall.

"Dominic, come on," Sinclair called. The youngest boy there holding a melting ice cream cone pointed at him.

"A no'ched-ear Pichu! You guys, look! Big brother, check it out!" he cried, blowing a snot bubble as he spoke. His older brother looked up and brought the rest of his friends over, where they proceeded to grab Sinclair and tug his ears and tail and pinch his cheeks. Sinclair did look amused for the better part of five seconds and even shot them a cute wide-eyed expression right before his electricity went out of control again. The kids were majorly unharmed but were crying as they went back home.

They went through the forest next, watching the Bug-types scatter at the sight of them. At one point however, a flock of Butterfree appeared, and Dominic almost broke his neck rearing back to watch them pass. He had to run to catch up with Sinclair as they reached a smaller cove within the woods where Illumise and Volbeat nested. The trees were too dense to let in very much light, and so the Pokémon created their own, colors of the rainbow dotting the blackness around them as they floated around Dominic and Sinclair. Dominic almost snapped his teeth at one before Sinclair stopped him. The offended Illumise kicked him between the eyes before flying away.

"One more minute," Sinclair told him as they walked up a steep incline. Dominic let his tongue hang out, wondering what else they could see. He hadn't seen that much nature since the trip to Petalburg, which he really didn't want to touch upon as they were worse times, and he didn't know life could be so beautiful.

"Thank you."

"For what?" he replied with a small smile.

"You know what—don't be a jerk and make me say it again. You know I'm bad with gratitude."

"You're bad with a lot of things," he amended.

"Okay, yeah, but gratitude specifically. I just wanna go home and nap."

"Although I would enjoy the few hours' worth of silence, are you sure you don't want to see what's out there?" He stopped and pointed at a wall of thick palm leaves blocking a great source of light. He had to admit, he was curious.

"For one second."

"Sure, one second," he repeated with a grin as he went and slipped through one of the cracks in the leaves. Dominic pushed them away with his claws, blinking to let his eyes adjust, and when he could finally see, he lost all his breath. Before them, past the little grassy knoll they were standing on, was the rest of Petalburg Woods, greener than Dominic could have imagined, and beyond that was all of Hoenn, a glorious mix of reds and browns and greys and oranges that made his eyes cry with joy. He didn't know what to say or even if he should've said anything, just sat there silently with tears streaming down his face and wondering how the world could be so damaged and so freaking beautiful at the same time.

"One second?" Sinclair asked, startling him a little. He gave a low huff as he laid down on the soft grass, enjoying the gentle breeze whistling past his ears, trying to soak up as much of the world as possible.

"Just one…"

-—————

Dominic felt so groggy and his head full of stuffing that he could barely open his eyes. He pushed his claws forward along the hard ground, trying to get a decent grip, but the smooth material didn't work with his fur—marble, it felt like. He forced his body to move even as it felt like he had to sit through a day's worth of Sinclair's electricity, his muscles rigid like stone as he forced his knees to bend. He winced as he cracked his eyes open, seeing a bright, bright light everywhere around him, and shook his head gently to focus his mind.

"Y-You're awake…" He vaguely recognized the voice but couldn't think past the serious sunburn he was getting.

"Seems so." He wanted to laugh in his usual manic way but his throat felt full of sawdust. He flopped onto his stomach pitifully as his limbs gave out, releasing his breath in a huff. "Is that… That's against your plans or something?"

"No. I mean, uh…" There was a crunching sound like hard Berries, making Dominic wince harder.

"What now? Aren't I supposed to be dead?" He tried to think back to what happened before he woke up but damn it, that light was scattering his brain. The sun couldn't possibly be that strong, so obviously someone was doing it on purpose. The other guy? He couldn't be sure until he could open his eyes, and he couldn't do it in those conditions unless he wanted to be permanently blinded.

"Not…yet," he said hesitantly.

"Can you tell me what's going on?" He wanted to believe that he was making progress with standing up, but honestly he couldn't tell. The crunching sound came back again.

"Uh…erm…" The other guy muttered to himself for a little while, apparently debating it. Meanwhile Dominic swiveled his ears as far as they could go, tapping his claws against the hard ground to get the resulting soundwaves. He was no architect but the room sounded pretty small and cubical, and as far as he could tell they were alone inside. "You're… Alakazam took you guys back to Ever Grande. You're in the revolutionaries' city now." Well, that sucked.

"Right…Alaka…" He trailed off, already exhausted from that much speaking as he let his head hit the ground. Alakazam caught them at Lavaridge with a huge unprecedented psychic attack. It made Dominic wonder why he ever bided his time in the first place if he could've done that any time—or maybe it was a distance thing? Even though he couldn't really picture Alakazam having any sort of power limitation, if he was anything like Blaziken. "Hah…" he panted. "Where…hah…are my…hoo…friends?"

"They're separated…for now." He sounded a lot more nervous and that crunching sound was coming more often. "And alive. Alakazam wants to make some kind of…example out of you guys, I think."

"He can…bite me…" He started sweating on top of everything else, which made his fur feel unimaginably gross. "Jeez… Turn down the heat… 'm dying…" And to his surprise the temperature did drop. It wasn't a huge amount but it was enough to get him moving easier, getting his first deep breath in a long time, and he could finally open his eyes. His vision was a little blurry from the sweat running into his eyes but he made out his captor and smirked. Louis was cracking several thick and indistinguishable Berries in all four hands, apparently a nervous habit as he looked away from Dominic. The flare was coming from his tail, which was burning very brightly and hotly, and from his red and sweating face (can Fire-types even sweat?) it was affecting him too. "Heya. Been a while."

"Erm," he muttered, obviously uncomfortable.

"Not so talky anymore? What, are you nervous having me around? Because I'm a killer, or because I can be good too?" he continued, bracing his claws on the smooth marble before pushing himself up on his knees and elbows. "C'mon, talk to me." Louis refused to respond. "I SAID TALK!" he snapped, causing Louis to jump and his flame to roar back to life. He laughed even as it hurt and smoke burst from his mouth. "You brat!"

"I, ah," he started before shutting his mouth and sitting down, crushing the last of the Berries before tossing them into a corner. Dominic noticed that it was a rather large pile of Berries and their shells, which looked kind of like elliptical tree bark. Louis wound his fingers together tensely as his tail swayed from side to side, burning equal holes in both of Dominic's corneas. "I didn't really wanna do this…" he admitted. "You're a criminal, yeah, but the way Alakazam was talking about you guys…he sounded like one too. I don't know what to think anymore."

"You could think that maybe he's one crazy bastard," Dominic told him. "You know Reyes is a good guy, don't you? Why would he ever in a million years turn against all of his friends at the drop of a coin? Alakazam was wrong, as hard as that is to hear. He blamed me for something I didn't do and sent his whole damn force against me for that? Even if I did do whatever, it's not worth hundreds of Pokémon. And because of those hundreds of Pokémon, the revolution's flaring up all over Hoenn!" He had to stop to cough but it didn't matter; Louis was frozen, eyes wide and tail dimming. "The ends don't justify the means, Louis! Think about it."

"I…you're trying to trick me…" he whispered, his tail just a match light. It gave Dominic the strength to get to his knees, his body rocking back and forth.

"You're tricking yourself. I'm not trying to get out of here—hell, I deserve everything that's coming to me. But I'd rather that Alakazam gets his own too, because that bastard deserves it more than I do."

"Al…" Louis fell silent and turned, facing the only exit from the room. Dominic sat back on his heels with a sigh, exhausted. His skin still prickled from the heat and he'd probably be in a hell of a lot of pain later. "…Alakazam told us that Reyes killed Azalea. We couldn't believe it. I couldn't believe it. I'd never seen two Pokémon closer than them. It didn't make any sense. You had to have tricked him."

"Arceus, is this really what people think of me…?" he thought aloud, tipping his head back with a wry smile. "You know, I'm actually capable of good. I isolated myself for years so that I wouldn't have to kill anybody—that's about as good as a guy can get. So as you can see, I still have a sense of moral right versus wrong. Standing up against a psychotic dictator? Right. Turning a guy's B.F.F./maternal figure against him? Totally wrong." He flexed his claws to Louis, who flinched in response. "Don't ever accuse me of wanting to hurt Reyes like that again. He's a very good guy and he risked it all for me, and so I'd never betray him like that. Do that again and I really may hurt you, even in this condition." He sighed and smiled a little, showing the teeth that he had lost to Salamence and Sharpedo. "Well, that's pathetic. Do you know how long it's been since I've eaten meat? It's a damn shame. It's hard to remember what it tastes like."

"I…ah… I eat Berries, so I wouldn't know," he mumbled, his tail curling around himself protectively. His flame was still pretty big but Dominic regained enough energy for it to be less of a problem. He pushed off from the ground with his claws, swaying before he steadied on his feet. Louis' head snapped towards him worriedly. "You can't go, or else Alakazam will be mad."

"He's already pissed at me—what's it matter at this point?" He checked to make sure that nothing was too damaged. Of course, his bad leg was still going to be a problem, so he had to make sure to watch that.

"Okay, but—" He cut himself off, standing and putting his arms out. "You can't!"

"Watch me," he challenged. "I won't kill you, but I can just put you to sleep for now. That's way too easy for me." He took two steps forward before Louis' tail flared again, pushing him back a little with the heat. He pressed forward again as soon as it passed, his claws out. Louis gasped before jumping towards the wall. He bounced off from there and pushed from the ceiling with his hands to drop into a spin, the flame on his tail blending with his whole body to cover him in fire. Dominic stumbled out of the way, his muscles still rigid, and Louis hit the ground, spun around, and came back. Dominic reached out as Louis collided with him, burning through his fur and into the soft skin below, and grabbed his tail, throwing him above his head before slamming him down into the ground. Louis recovered quickly and lashed out with his feet, kicking Dominic in his sore abdomen, and while he was stunned Louis delivered a flaming punch to his face.

"Ouch!" Dominic hissed, grabbing his cheek as it swelled, feeling a little blood dribble from the corner of his mouth. It was a good thing he didn't have much more teeth to lose. Louis stumbled a little, his flame shrinking and cooling down. "You're not in much of a fighting condition are you?"

Louis puffed his cheeks out, shaking his head defiantly as he took out a Tamato Berry from…hammer space? He ate it in two bites with his cheeks turning bright red from the spiciness. He swallowed and his flame flared up, surrounding him with little tongues of fire that forced Dominic to the other side of the small room. He had to fight to breathe now, the air was so hot. Coughing, he took a step forward, then another, ready to rip Louis apart, but his muscles finally seized up from the temperature and he hit the floor, curling into a tight ball.

"I win," Louis said, sitting down in front of the door again. Dominic clamped his mouth shut as to not scorch his lungs any further.

——————

It was like he was watching a movie. He woke up and stood up from the floor, except he wasn't controlling his body. He crept through Sinclair's house as the other Pokémon slept, going past the Delcatty, the Whismur, the Piplup, AB, and Jay, who had come for a "two-second visit." Sinclair had fallen asleep against the wall, looking more cute and innocent than usual. Usually he wasn't so defenseless, but he had done a lot that day. The King stood over him with his claws outstretched.

NONONONONO DON'T KILL HIM

He gritted his teeth as he grasped his head with his other hand, backing away to reduce the noise. Dominic was screaming and shrieking, making his skull feel as if it would burst from the agony, the closer he moved to Sinclair, almost like he was some sort of radar. The King growled in response. Sinclair was nothing but a distraction, making them weaker, making them soft—

But knowing kindness, being kind wasn't a weakness and didn't make others weak—

But the King wouldn't hear a word of it, didn't want to open his mind to the possibility. Dominic realized that that wasn't going to be the last time he would endanger Sinclair and backed away slowly, eyes wide. His body was his again but it was bittersweet feeling.

-—————

Dominic rested for maybe two-hour intervals for the remainder of the day, and each time he woke up he tried breaking past Louis and failed again and again. Honestly, Dominic didn't think that the guy could fight, but he had a decent amount of stamina and held his ground well.

Twelve hours passed and he wondered where the hell Alakazam was. If Alakazam wanted him dead, he would've been beyond dead at that point, but Louis said he "wanted to make an example"? The first thing Dominic thought of was a public execution, but then Alakazam wouldn't have needed to hold him—that was something that could've been done on the spot. He fell silent instead of attacking Louis right off the bat, rapping his claws against the burn-scarred ground as he wondered. Alakazam had wanted to kill him months ago, but he had also gone quite during that time—maybe things had changed? He probably just wanted to keep Dominic as a pet or something.

"You're awake, aren't you?" Louis asked warily, his tail swishing from side to side. "You're not gonna fight me?" His fur was scuffed and there were dark bruises on his side and around his eye.

"You're not at one hundred percent, so why so eager?" he muttered in response. He let his ears droop, shading his eyes from Louis' view as he frowned. "I'm tired of fighting already… I just want to get out and find my friends."

"Well you can't do that either."

"I know that already." He sighed and rolled onto his side. "Can you answer me this? Are the others in the same situation as me?"

"…Yes," he answered after thinking, probably wondering if the information was worth telling. "Alakazam wanted to make sure that none of you could get out of here."

"And where is here?"

"Um, I don't know if I should…" Dominic didn't even have the strength to threaten him into it.

"Look, I'm not getting out of here anytime soon." He tried to shrug but didn't have the strength. "Just talk to me, please. It'll keep me from going crazy." Well, crazier.

"We're, uh, in the Pokémon League," he mumbled. "These are some side rooms…" That was all Dominic got from him, but that was all he wanted to hear.

"Pokémon League…" He went there just once when he was five with Steven, when he had to battle that guy Brendan. Dominic didn't remember much of the place except that it was very state-of-the-art. He suddenly had a gruesome idea what Alakazam wanted to do with them and hoped that he was just blowing things out of proportion. "So hey, do I get to eat too or does Alakazam want me to starve here?" he asked, his stomach preceding his words.

"I got, uh, some Berries left," Louis said, looking towards the bark-covered Berries in the corner. Dominic sighed.

"I'm actually in the mood for baked monkey right now, but I guess beggars can't be choosers." He snorted a laugh as Louis jumped. "You're pretty nervous considering that you've been kicking me all around this room. Do I really scare you that much, Louis?"

"It's… It's not as much you as the stories," he explained. "I've heard about some people being good enough to catch you and then getting a gruesome end… I told Alakazam I didn't want to do this but he made me anyway, I don't know why. There are a lot of Pokémon stronger than me."

"Alakazam is a sly bastard and even I know that much," Dominic muttered, pushing himself up to sit back on his haunches. "If he put you in here, he did it for a good damn reason. Maybe it's because I can't talk you into anything?" He hesitated before grinning. "Or maybe it's because I can. Maybe he's just testing me to see how far I'll go. Probably wants to make me out as even bigger a criminal to nullify that sympathy Reyes got me. With this guy, I just have to expect the worst and then expect even worse than that." Louis had gone silent as soon as Dominic had mentioned the lines he would cross. His grin turned into a smirk as he stood up, his stance unsteady and making him look unhinged. "Yes, there are a lot of bridges that the King would heedlessly cross," he continued in a low hiss. Louis' tail surged before shrinking, his eyes so wide they looked like they would fall out. Dominic gave a short laugh before hitting the ground hard, his claws turned inwards. "Too bad he's dead."

——————

Dreams. The disjointed medicine-induced fever dreams Dominic hated. He had been getting them ever since he started their impromptu stay at Sinclair's house. He didn't know if they were caused by the stress, the pain, the medicine itself, or all three, but they blurred in his mind until he couldn't take it.

There was a ghost one time, a blobby dark figure in even darker darkness sort of shaped like a Zoroark but continuously shifting and changing. Dominic had the impression that he should've been moving away from it but he followed instead, even as the distance between them grew and grew with each step. He tried to pick up the pace but his leg and the anesthesia and the pain and he just couldn't focus enough to run.

'You're chasing a ghost.' It was just a whisper in the blank space around them, so faint Dominic could barely hear.

"Yeah, I—huu—I see that," he huffed, clenching his chest as his heart pounded within his ribcage. "S-Slow down and it won't—hah—be a chase 'nymore."

'This is pointless… Just let me go."

"I should—ugh—but I won't." The figure became hazier and started looking vaguely like a Sceptile.

'You don't need me.'

"Maybe I don't…" He slowed to a stop. "But that won't stop me from running anyway."

It looked like an Alakazam now. 'Wasting your energy and time. There are more important things out there, real things.'

"This feels real enough for me. This conversation is real enough."

'Dominic,' it admonished.

"I'm not a child. I'm perfectly aware of what I do and the consequences thereof," he retorted. "I'll chase after the sun if I want and damn anyone that tries to stop me." It sighed and started looking like a Zoroark again.

'That's what I was afraid of.' It moved slowly like a real ghost before it managed to fully turn around, facing Dominic. Blue eyes took shape in its face.

"Who are you?" he asked warily. It examined its blurry claws with disappointment.

"Half of a soul, I guess." Its voice became a little clearer and more like Dominic's. He reached out tentatively but his claws just passed through it. "You can't touch me… I'm just barely corporeal now, in your dreams."

"Right, this is a dream… Then aren't you fake?"

"An illusion maybe," he amended.

"Did I…make you?" It hesitated before shaking its head. It looked kind of like a Pichu but still with those blue eyes.

"Partly, but I've always existed."

"Are you bad?" Dominic whispered. It whispered a hoarse laugh.

"Worse than that." It said that, but Dominic felt no ill will coming from it.

"I don't think you're bad. I think you're…" He trailed off, unsure of what he could say to something that barely existed and only even in his dream. It laughed again, more distinctly, as it started to take a more solid shape.

"I'm what, Dominic?" He blinked up at the other face. His face. The King's face. "I'm darkness and that's all I am and that's all I can be, so stop freaking chasing me. I think you know by now how poisonous I am." He turned and ran, really ran, but this time Dominic could keep pace.

"You helped Reyes, so you're not all bad!"

"Just shut up and leave me behind, Dominic!"

"That's not what you want to happen, is it?" Dominic skidded to a stop and the King did too. "We shared a mind for a while back there. I know what you want, King. You want to be solid, corporeal, like me, but you're just darkness. Remember, all that us Dark-types need is someone to lead them into the light." The King went still, then he laughed bitterly.

"All the light will do is burn me, Dom. It's too late for me—that's why you should give up."

"I already gave up on myself long time ago," he argued. "Not again."

"I'm not you."

"I am you." The King started looking indistinct and blurry again and Dominic knew that he was running out of time. "And we've been arguing and going at it our whole lives but who's to say we can't just be Rex now?"

"My Rex days are over," he whispered, bowing his head. "It's just you now, Dominic. But you'll be fine—that much I know."

——————

Dominic woke up again to a faint rumbling coming from outside of the room. Louis noticed it too, staring at the door with something like worry. Suddenly Louis doubled over, hands on his head and his face twisted in pain. Dominic didn't understand until he felt it too: the gross sensation of an unwanted presence in his brain. He flopped on his back, eyes squeezed shut, and heard the noise increase into a crowd of Pokémon, although he wasn't hearing it through his own ears—it was more like he was hearing through someone else's ears. Random images flashed behind his eyelids, bursts of color and sound and feeling that he could barely focus on, then they slowed down until he could understand.

Reyes was fighting a losing battle. There were hundreds of Pokémon crammed into the Champion's room all doped-up a la psychic style and they were all looking to tear him leaf from leaf. He was in no good condition, his blades ripped away and his pods gone and big chunks of his skin gone altogether so that his every step was marked by chlorophyll. He looked like he had been fighting for a long time… Twelve hours? It was impossible by any stretch of the imagination…unless the Pokémon were playing with him.

"Ah. You're still as stubborn as ever, that hasn't changed." Dominic felt his throat move but it wasn't his voice nor was he speaking. He was feeling it vicariously again, and he hated to think that that freak was hijacking his body like that. "It would be smart of you to give up now, Reyes, before you're torn to pieces." Reyes just smirked in return despite part of his mouth being torn away.

"I guess Dominic's stupidity rubbed off on me then, because I'm hanging in there."

"It has been twelve hours already. You're at your limit and you know it."

"I don't know it, in fact." Reyes stumbled across the glass floor of the expansive room. Below it was a pool, extra support for Water-types, and a field of rocks, but most of the floor was taken up by large gears and the generators that powered the room. He dodged a few bites from a group of Zubat before scaling over a rushing Bouffalant. "I'm the only one that decides my limit, and I haven't reached it yet—not until I get over there and personally kick your ass to the seventh circle of Hell."

"You're not the first to try," Alakazam said. "But you are, by far, one of the most interesting to do so. Still, I see that it will take more than just traditional methods to kill you."

"Yes, I've finally opened your eyes," he said dryly. Dominic couldn't see what Alakazam did next, but there was a strange tingling sensation all over his body that made his fur stand on end. Whatever he did shocked Reyes to the core, because he completely froze. "Impossible," he whispered, backing away.

"Amazing, isn't it?" Alakazam said, although his voice sounded sort of strange. "I hope that this fear will stay with you unto death." He raised his hand and—

The vision cut off there for both of them. Dominic was on his feet in a second, all of his exhaustion forgotten as he ran towards the door. Louis stood up, fists flaming, and Dominic grabbed him by the neck, slamming him against the wall so hard his eyes rolled back in his head. "I don't have time to play anymore," he growled before shoving Louis out of the way. If he had had more time, the terrified expression that he made would've saddened him. Instead, he slashed the hinges on the door before breaking through.

There were two long halls and lots of rooms on either sides of him, but he knew Reyes' scent like his own at that point. He looked up and down and caught another scent—Sinclair's. He followed it out to another crossroad at the end of the hall, and for some odd reason the scent cut off there. He growled in frustration and turned left; he ended up in what looked like an observation room with plenty of seats in front of a glass wall. Outside was the room of Elite Four's Sidney. Sinclair was sitting on the headrest of one of the chairs with his back to the door.

"Sinclair, you bastard! What the hell are you doing here? Alakazam has Reyes!" Sinclair scratched his eye furiously before turning around. Dominic stopped to look at the blood matting his face fur, some of it coming from his right ear.

"I know," he said dryly, jumping to the ground. "My intent was to help him, but Alakazam got to me first. He threw me into this room and I lost consciousness."

"What about Jay and the others?"

"Probably in similar broken states," he answered. "How did you avoid his ire?"

"He put me in a room with a little monkey…like a child or something."

"Hm," he hummed thoughtfully, scratching his eye again. "Curious. He did have us imprisoned for a while, although we weren't watched and it took a short time to break free. Still, he was quick to respond and picked us off until only Reyes was left. You two, he especially wants to take care of himself." Dominic groaned.

"We don't have time for this—we have to get Jay and Asterisk and AB." He stuck his claws out and Sinclair ran up his arm and onto his shoulder. "What happened after that crap in Lavaridge?"

"We were taken from there to the Pokémon League, most likely to give the revolutionaries a good view of what was to happen next. It seemed that we were frozen by Myron."

"Myron? You mean your friend." He went outside but saw that the layout had changed. What was previously an empty hall was suddenly blocked by a wall and branched to the right instead. He didn't remember that little feature from his last visit, but he ignored it to continue on. "He turned on us."

"He wouldn't have willingly done so—it was Alakazam," he said bitterly. "I remember waking up to see you and Reyes gone and myself, Asterisk, Jay, and AB were in one of the Elite Four's rooms with some guards for good measure. Suffice it to say, they couldn't restrain the four of us, but when we tried to escape, Alakazam did. That's all I remember. "Dominic turned around and went to head the other direction down the hall but all of a sudden it was obscured by a brick wall. The spare bricks and bucket of adhesive was even left on the floor.

"This guy—!" Dominic hissed under his breath as he instead headed up through the original hallway.

"It seems this whole thing is like a game of chess to him," Sinclair commented. "Fun, but still challenging."

"It's great to know that my suffering's a game to him, and since when are you a mind reader?" He skidded to a stop as he reached an intersection with three halls branching off. He could smell Asterisk down one end and AB down the other; no Jay. "Asterisk first, right? Ghosts can't die."

"They can't die," he replied gravely. "But there are a number of other states they can end up in."

"Aaargh you're not making this easier for me!" he groaned, pulling his ears so hard it amplified the feeling of his head splitting in half.

"I'll go to Asterisk," he suggested, jumping to the ground. "You go to AB."

"But—"

"It's not smart to split up in the center of our enemy, yes," he finished. "But we don't have a choice, do we? Alakazam is the one in charge here and we just have to follow."

"Sinclair—" He was already going though, heading down the hall, and when Dominic tried to follow he slammed into something invisible but corporeally hard. He felt along the barrier and found it suitably solid with no way past. Apparently Alakazam was too lazy to even make a brick wall this time. He pounded on it a few times before he gave up and headed the other way.

"Stop," Reyes groaned, one hand over his eye as the other pulled him across the ground. His legs were still attached to his body but they wouldn't move and he was leaving a trail of tail bits as he went. "I don't… I can't…"

"Giving up now, are you? I could've used that months ago," Alakazam said, a smile clear in his voice as he stood some feet away from Reyes. "Too late now though. Now, I'll have fun watching you squirm until you die."

Dominic clenched his head as the nasty sensation of Alakazam's probing claws raked through his brain. He tried to push through but the feel of it stayed with him this time as he went, and it seemed to really be melting into his facilities because the hall seemed to twist and turn like some abstract painting. He lost his balance more than once and he felt like throwing up even though there wasn't anything in his stomach. Alakazam was playing a game with him, that was for sure, but Dominic had no damn clue what game it was.

"If your Lilly was here, what would you say to her as last words?" he asked Reyes. Reyes couldn't respond; his throat was slashed open and he couldn't regrow it fast enough, but Dominic could hear Reyes' voice in his—Alakazam's—mind. It didn't matter and wouldn't matter to someone as heartless as you, he was saying. Alakazam found that funny. "I can understand compassion, so don't you think otherwise. This is the greatest form of love. I'd rather my child dies than goes down the wrong path in life."

He had to stop as the feeling became unbearable and leaned against the wall. He realized that the pain and sickness got stronger with each step forward he took. Conversely, he felt a little better if he went backwards. "Well damn you if you think that this is gonna stop me," he said aloud, pressing onwards. It only took ten steps for him to end up in complete gut-wrenching agony.

Is this too much for you, Dominic? Alakazam's voice bounced around his skull as he spewed his guts all over the ground. Just lay down and go to sleep—it'll be over quickly.

"What's this, eh?" he smirked, clenching his chest. "Reyes gets a fighting chance…I don't?"

Reyes afflicted me more.

"Well that sucks… I thought I…gave you…apt headaches…" he whispered hoarsely, pushing himself up. Alakazam didn't respond to him and he was actually grateful. He needed all of his focus to just take one step forward. Each tentative little inch forward was like Hell on his brain, in his psyche. He started going crazy again—he could feel it.

He didn't get to a fork in the hall but Alakazam did him one better. The hall just…cut off. There was a regular old wall and that was it. He pushed it, punched it, kicked it, but in that state he couldn't do much damage. Alakazam's suggestion sounded so good to him at the moment that he was halfway there. He curled up and grabbed his ears and closed his eyes to the world. He wanted to give up, wanted to just stay there and die…

A clawed hand suddenly reached out from beyond the wall and firmly latched onto his neck, cutting off his already bad breathing as he was lifted into the air. He stared at the wall as he was suddenly pulled forward and felt his skeleton throb as he collided into the solid plaster. He was still reeling from the attack as he was slowly pulled upwards, then backwards, then he was thrown forward again muzzle first, giving him one hell of a nosebleed. He was pushed backwards and he closed his eyes, bracing himself for the inevitable concussion when an odd tingling sensation filled his body. He cracked his eyes open to see the wall rushing at him again, but this time he passed through it like the hand. It itched horribly for just a second before he went entirely through and hit the ground again, fully solid. His stomach heaved but the rest of the pain had thankfully vanished.

"It's a miracle I got your thick skull through!" AB said with something like amusement. Dominic gave him a squinty look as he hovered a few feet above the ground. He seemed pretty fine—"alive" in its weirdest form—but his body was frayed at the edges like a smudged painting.

"Are you…cough cough…are you okay?" he asked hoarsely, pinching his nose and tilting his head back.

"You're one to talk," AB commented, "but yeah, pretty much. It took a little fight to get past Alakazam's Pokémon but I managed, of course! Oh, and this guy too." He reached behind himself and held out his oddly enlarged fist. When he opened it Jay was sitting on his palm, ruffled but looking pretty unharmed.

"So much hate…in one place," Dominic muttered pitifully as his fur started frizzing. He shook his head as he dragged himself to his feet. "We've gotta get to the Champion's room… Reyes needs our help."

"Where's Sinclair and Asterisk?" Jay asked. Dominic just shook his head.

"We don't have time to worry! They're strong, they'll make it!" They looked unconvinced but it didn't matter. Dominic turned on his heel towards the long stretch of hall ahead of them. He couldn't lie and say that he wasn't scared of what Alakazam would do next, but his concern kept his feet moving. Maybe that was why Sinclair called him unselfish. It was still hard to believe because of the negative self-image he had kept for years, but it finally clicked in his brain.

They were there in what felt like too short a time. In front of them were the large double doors leading into the Champion's room. On either side of them were a dozen paintings, six on each side, of each Champion of Hoenn. The newest one was of Brendan, looking younger than he did when Dominic saw him, and the second newest was Steven, still with that easy and calm expression. Dominic swallowed and grabbed the door handles. It took a little extra force but he pulled them open. The first thing that happened was a gust of what felt like a miniature hurricane burst from the room, throwing him and Jay backwards and dispelling AB into the air. Dominic slammed into something tall and hard, and he looked up to see Asterisk's severe face.

"Thanks for the, err, catch," he said, pulling from her grip uncomfortably. She nodded as Sinclair, set on her shoulder, looked into the room. Dominic followed his eyes.

Bodies. Bodies that took the full brunt of the psychic energy and were blown apart. Sure, it wasn't all of the revolutionaries, but it was enough to create a shallow pool of blood on the ground. More of them were knocked unconscious or at least not-blown-apart dead, and the dozens that were still conscious almost trampled them to death as they ran through the door shouting and screaming. Dominic had wanted to expose Alakazam's true nature for a long time, but now that it was out there he somewhat regretted bursting so many innocents' bubbles. He slowly walked towards the door and looked in carefully, unwilling to get his head blown from his shoulders two seconds in.

Well, it wasn't literal, but his mind sure as hell was blown by what he saw.

Author's Drabble - I'm gonna write at least one story where Legendaries are heroes...someday


Dominic was crazy, that was it. He was crazy or he was hallucinating or he had died and gone to Hell?that had to be the answer, because what he was looking at made no damn sense.

Mewtwo. Mewtwo and Alakazam?s prone body, Mewtwo with blood on its hand/paw/claws as it looked on to them with bright red eyes. It shifted its gaze and Dominic followed to see Reyes lying completely still with his body flayed and just barely held together by fraying vines. He reluctantly dragged his eyes back to it, who was hovering in place and looking at all of them with an oddly detached look.

Well, I didn?t expect all of you to make it, it said after a while, all humor gone from its voice as it narrowed its eyes a little. You though? You?re annoyingly obstinate. It directed the statement at Dominic.

?Is he?you know??? Dominic pointed at Alakazam, who had a big bloody gash on his forehead. Mewtwo stared at him for a long time.

Possibly. He?s exhausted his use anyhow.

?Am I the only one that has no damn idea what?s going on?? Jay asked.

?Nope,? AB said. He went over to see to Reyes, which Dominic was grateful for.

?Do we get an explanation of some sort?? Sinclair asked with no inflection.

Why? I?ll just kill you. It would be wasting my breath. It twisted its hand as it spoke, the blood slowly pulling from its skin to form a spinning red ball just next to its shoulder. But you?ve managed to live this long, so I guess I do owe you for giving me this much of a challenge. Rarely do I get to exercise my mind so much. It looked at Dominic and its expression became dark. This part of the story starts with you.

?M-Me?? he asked dumbly. Mewtwo looked at the blood as it was flattened into a rectangle, then it changed into the shape of a Zorua.

Yes, you. I saw you all those years ago and I took you for someone that would die within the first three minutes of the revolution, and instead you?re here threatening everything that I?ve worked up to. Dominic remembered Mewtwo saying those words to Reyes. It clenched its fist and the blood turned into a midair splatter. Although I?m not free of blame. I expected all to be perfect, and Rayquaza was the first to oppose me. The first of many, I would soon see.

?Yeah, I?m still lost,? Jay said. Mewtwo sighed as it slowly descended to the ground. It moved past them with zero resistance and went towards Reyes.

?Stop!? Dominic tried to block its path but he was waved away easily, his shoulder colliding hard with the ground and most definitely dislocating. AB?s form swelled in size until he was like a wall of poisonous gas, but again Mewtwo just passed through like it was nothing. He reformed a few feet away, stunned. Mewtwo looked down at Reyes and raised its index finger, drawing a short line down the air. Mimicking the action, Reyes? chest started resealing itself, the vines growing in like lots of little stitches. Then it unceremoniously spilled the unknown blood all over Reyes? chest and partly open mouth, turning his skin a little pink. He opened his still remaining eye, which was dull and unfocused, and looked up at the ceiling dazedly.

I?d like it if all of my audience can listen, Mewtwo told him. Reyes opened his mouth to reply but his voice didn?t come. Mewtwo had fixed his outsides but not all of his internal damage. He still could?would?die. All right. This may come as a surprise to you all, but I was the catalyst for the revolution eight years ago. It let it sink in for a moment as the unawares exchanged dubious and shocked glances. Sinclair?s expression turned blank when Dominic looked at him. Of course, it was something that would?ve happened eventually, I just sped up the process. Why? I felt that humans needed their comeuppance and pok?mon needed their grievances aired. Still, some Pok?mon disagreed with my methods, like Rayquaza. There?s a reason you haven?t heard about that one in quite some time.

?So is causing an eight-year war just a pastime for you, or??? Jay said. Mewtwo glared at him, causing him to retreat into Dominic?s mane, but this time he was too preoccupied to be bothered.

I expected this to be a short-time thing until humans realized the error of their ways, but they?re astonishingly inflexible? And so, the revolution continued. It sighed with an amazing amount of pity. Pok?mon lives were lost, which is regrettable in any situation, but what?s done is done. And don?t get me wrong, I?ve tried to shorten this whole thing, but things like this are best resolved by the instigators.

?That is a very twisted sentiment,? Asterisk growled. Mewtwo smirked, unabashed. ?And you are a twisted Pok?mon.?

You?re not the first to say so, and surely you won?t be the last. So, I decided to let the revolution run its course, but there were a few Pok?mon who threatened to derail my progress?eight Pok?mon, to be exact. Eight Pok?mon whom I?ve been chasing for eight years. It matched Sinclair?s levelled look as its eyes flashed. I was not nearly dumb enough to jump into this without considering the consequences. There were plenty, of course, but namely eight Pok?mon with certain traits, be they individual strength or leadership or plain stubbornness that, with the right circumstances, threatened the revolution. I had a choice: ensure that these random future events didn?t happen, or pull the facilitators from the equation altogether. The second option was less volatile, and so you have it.

?So you spent the whole revolution hunting down and killing Pok?mon that just had a chance of causing less death all around?? Dominic accused, pointing at him. ?Eight lives on top of the other hundreds you just totally blew off like nothing??

Now you?re being annoying. With a swipe of its arm, Dominic felt three of his ribs smash into bits. He fell to his knees with blood swelling from his throat, feeling one of his lungs rip from the fragments. it sighed. I spent eight years tracking down each Pok?mon, who proved to be decent at evading my efforts, but eventually they all fell. Mick the Golurk, Nine the Banette, Kyou the Weavile, Neon the Raichu, Oliver the Pidgeot, Ella the Vaporeon, and Bonnie the Exeggutor have already met their demises?you were left. But you were a little hard to get to past Blaziken, so I had to pull you away from your defenses somehow.

?And so you controlled Alakazam so he could give Reyes that order?? Sinclair asked. Mewtwo smiled?not smirked, full-on smiled.

You?re wrong there. I didn?t just latch onto Alakazam for this little task of mine?he had been my figurehead for years. It was, after all, less conspicuous than making myself known as a Legendary Pok?mon. But it had already lost them. That was probably the hardest one to swallow. Alakazam was just the puppet all that time? It didn?t make sense to Dominic and he hoped it made even less sense to the others. Then again, it was hard to make sense of a lot of things when he was drowning in his blood. Oh, Alakazam still was conscious, it continued, gesturing vaguely to his body. It was him that chose to begin the revolutionaries, and it was there that I started my influence on him.

At this point in time, I had a bigger task to handle. I had been outrun by an afflicted Zoroark and betrayed by one of my best soldiers, it continued vehemently, eyes glowing brightly as it clenched its fists. Never had I been so undermined, as a Legendary Pok?mon, by those under me. And you two continued to undermine me, somehow slipping from under my grasp each and every time for weeks! I couldn?t come after you no matter how much I wished it, because unlike my predecessor I cannot turn invisible to pass easily through the masses, and I couldn?t use Alakazam?even my abilities have limits, and I would?ve been unable to properly control him if he strayed too far?and so I had to rely on these insipid, brainless drones to do something that should have been easy in their hordes, yet they could never catch you?! It let out a cynical laugh before raising a hand. The ground between them suddenly fissured, forcing Asterisk and Sinclair, Dominic and Jay apart as Mewtwo rose into the air, a glow surrounding its body.

?Looks like break time?s up,? Jay commented, getting to his feet with electricity streaming off of him in all directions. Asterisk leapt up with her wrists and ankles aflame, bouncing anxiously as he tensed for a fight. Sinclair chuckled softly as he grounded himself and raised his tail. Dominic continued lying prone on the ground, rubbing his chest as if that could fix his lung. He couldn?t get up, couldn?t fight, and hell, he could barely breathe. He clenched his throat as blood started filling it, feeling his life slowly drain as his organs shut down from lack of oxygen. He raised his eyes to Alakazam, who still wasn?t moving and just barely breathing, and mentally laughed at everything.

?Hear me??? he whispered with his last few breaths, smirking slightly at Alakazam. ?Can ya?hear? Yer?we?re?pitiful?all of us?? It was stupid. It was ridiculous. It was?insane.

Mewtwo held them off with just one hand, its psychic powers beyond comprehension. They had come there ready for Alakazam, who was already a legend in his own right, but that was a Legendary, something in a completely different class. Asterisk was the only one able to hold her ground?well, she was a Champion?s Pok?mon?but on her own she wasn?t going to last too long. He tried to brace his claws against the ground but his blood made it too slippery to get a grip and he fell on his face. He stared down through the glass floor and into the gears beneath. He remembered that they were the power generators for the room, giving electricity to things like the health screen and the lights and the?

The alarm! I forgot!

The alarm was synched to the health screen: if the challenger?s Pok?mon had zero HP left, but was still getting attacked (yeah, even Champions could get a little sadistic) then there would be a silent alarm for the room to restrain the Champion?s Pok?mon. That could help, but the problem was that it had to be preset; it wouldn?t just activate and grab Mewtwo. He just had to stand up; if he could actually stand on his feet, then he could figure out the rest. He coughed out a glob of blood that splattered inches from his face. Getting up would be harder than he anticipated.

Sinclair and Jay made a combined Thunderbolt large enough to split an average-sized house in two. Mewtwo waved its arms and created a faint barrier that split the bolt in two and sent it right back at them. AB blocked with his own Psychic, dispelling the electricity, then he rushed Mewtwo with his tongue out. Mewtwo?s eyes glowed a second before AB exploded into a cloud of violet dust, then he propagated some ways away to form into an eyed blob. It was a good thing he was already dead, otherwise that would?ve hurt. Well, maybe ?hurt? was an understatement.

Asterisk took a particularly powerful hit in the stomach, sending her skidding so quickly that her talons cut deep gouges in the thick glass. She gritted her beak as sweat formed on her forehead from the pain. Her flames flickered for a moment before puffing out altogether. ?Asterisk,? Sinclair said worriedly, breaking his focus to look at her. Mewtwo slashed its finger in the air, creating a literal blade of psychic energy that slammed into the ground centimeters from him. Dominic couldn?t see Sinclair well from his angle but he did see a spray of blood surge as he hit his back. Jay?s ears raised as he started running towards him, unaware of Mewtwo?s eyes following his path.

?J?Jay?don?t?? Dominic tried to warn, but all that came out was more blood and a bad wheeze that even AB, who was closest, couldn?t understand. Mewtwo used both hands this time, made an Aura Sphere the size of a golf ball, and fired. Dominic stupidly assumed it wouldn?t do much damage, then it hit Jay in the side and exploded in size. Dominic?s ears were still intact past the blood rushing through them, and with them he could hear each and every one of Jay?s bones crack on impact. He hit the ground inches from Sinclair and became just as still.

No? No no no no no?

AB?s form trembled as he solidified back into a Haunter, his eyes turning scarlet beneath his pupils as his fists clenched. Dark energy radiated from him that he concentrated into something vaguely resembling a Pichu, then he released it into wild pulses that looked like sickles. Mewtwo raised an arm with intent to block, but its barrier shattered before their eyes, and it gasped in surprise as AB?s Dark Pulse cut through its skin and created thin streams of red blood all over its body. It bared its teeth at AB, fists clenched.

Mewtwo is a Psychic-type? As strong as it is, it?s still weak to Dark-type moves?

AB exploded into gas again as it rushed at Mewtwo, looking like a mini tornado as he drilled through the air, and Dominic believed that he had a chance. Mewtwo closed his eyes, exhaled, then opened them. They still glowed, but with an iridescent light. AB froze with his claws just short of touching Mewtwo?s nose as the rainbow light encased his body. The gas started bubbling, changing color to a lighter purple, and AB groaned in pain. Then his eyes widened as he turned solid again, apparently not of his own accord. Mewtwo smirked as it pressed its index finger to the space between AB?s eyes, watching him tremble with his mouth agape.

You?re the first Pok?mon to have injured me in years, it mused. Let that thought comfort you on your way down. A white force field formed from their point of contact, rapidly expanding to envelop AB?s entire body. Tears streamed down his face and Dominic suddenly remembered something terrifying:

We?re the same age. He?s a child too.

AB?s gaseous body swelled and exploded within the bubble, but this time there was no reform. There was blood as if he was alive, and when Mewtwo released the bubble it all splattered on the ground to join the rest. Asterisk gasped before directing her gaze back at Mewtwo, her flames popping. Dominic was glad he could barely see; it meant he could die faster and just escape that place. Ali, Steven, Reyes, Sinclair, Jay, AB? He knew it, he always knew that those who got involved with him died, but he thought he had a chance, that he could put on a good person?s mask and maybe trick Fate, but that was how his life would always be: his personal Hell. He squeezed his eyes shut, willing himself to die a little quicker, but he knew it was the coward?s way out. Had the King been there, Dominic would?ve had some common sense bashed into him.

The King isn?t here. I?m fighting with my own strength?and I?ll win with my own strength.

He forced his eyes open even though his body told him otherwise, even if all he wanted to do was lie there and die, and focused his scattered brain. He believed, with all of his might, that his body wasn?t as broken as it was, and so he took his first deep breath in what felt like years. He brought his feet up and rose, not a bit of unsteadiness left in his body as he turned towards Mewtwo. It had Asterisk by the neck, her legs kicking wildly at its torso as it kept its grip. Its eyes narrowed in concentration as she began twisting from its psychic grip, her legs bursting into flames and raking across his cheek. Its head snapped to the side from the impact, and when it turned back part of its mouth had been gashed open, showing its bloodied teeth. Its eyes glowed and slowly, the fight left Asterisk?s body. At first, Dominic thought that it had killed her, then he saw that she was still moving, albeit weakly. On the other hand, Mewtwo grabbed her arm and clenched its fist, instantly breaking her radius and ulna without even using Psychic.

You don?t know how much I hate getting injured, Mewtwo said, grabbing Asterisk?s beak with its other hand. She bit down on its fingers hard, hard enough that blood ran down its arm, but it didn?t even flinch. It held a tight grip on her jaw and pulled down, forcing her beak open, and pulled even harder until her muscles were stretched to the limit.

?Augh!? Asterisk cried out as her skin started tearing. Dominic didn?t give Mewtwo the chance.

You should be dead, it said, releasing its grip on Asterisk and letting her hit the ground. Dominic didn?t respond, sinking his claws even deeper into the space between Mewtwo?s shoulder blades as his arm erupted in hellfire. Mewtwo waved its hand, probably to crumple Dominic into flesh paper, but it had no effect. He didn?t give it time to think and pulled free before dealing Power-Up Punch right in the wound. Mewtwo ungracefully fell on its stomach, tail in the air, and Dominic honestly found it a little funny. It floated to its feet with a wry smile on its face. But obviously, you?re not.

?I?ve survived this long, haven?t I?? he taunted, giving Mewtwo two middle claws. Even so, he could feel his broken ribs jangling in his chest and his lung crying out in pain. ?I?ll die, and soon too,? he admitted, ?but before that, you?re going to suffer the pain of everybody you killed in this pointless war, and when that?s done with, I?ll drag you to Hell with me.? Mewtwo?s eyes widened as it became aware of the hellfire slowly burning a hole in its back.

Wha? What is this? It tried to dispel the fire but it was ineffective. Arceus! it exclaimed pitifully, falling to its knees. Dominic gave it a thumbs-down.

?Doesn?t feel very nice now, does it??

No, it doesn?t, it said in a different tone, and without warning it shoved its arm into the growing flame. It instantly extinguished with a puff. Did you forget that the blood of a Legendary Pok?mon can put it out? That?s poor even for you. It raised its hand in the air and before Dominic?s eyes its wounds began to heal. It will take a lot more than that to kill me, it warned.

?Let?s just see.? He put his claws in his mouth to stretch it out and let his tongue loll out. Mewtwo stared, initially too stunned to react. Dominic then opened his eyes wide and pulled his ears out to full length, like a Buneary. Mewtwo growled, irritated, but still didn?t move.

I don?t like being patronized.

?I?m not patronizing you.? He blew a raspberry, then he turned around and gave Mewtwo a perfect view of his behind. ?I?m having fun. See?? He looked over and saw Mewtwo gain a faint black aura.

You Rattata. It threw its hands out but had no effect again.

?Yeah, I guess your Miracle Eye wore off,? he said, slashing his claws together. ?And now you can?t touch me.? Dominic ran forward as Mewtwo took a stance, holding a fist out to block him. He dodged under its fist and instead got a knee to his stomach, knocking his breath out, then Dominic grabbed Mewtwo?s wild tail and slashed it almost deeply enough to sever it. Mewtwo gripped Dominic?s muzzle like a vise and tossed him back with Asterisk?s strength, sending him skidding across the ground and creating cracks from the force of impact. Mewtwo raised its hand, but aside from a few paltry sparks nothing happened. It gritted its teeth and shot a murderous glare at Dominic. ?Taunt,? he smiled, trying to fix his dislocated shoulder. Dominic saw Mewtwo ready itself for another attack and rushed to his feet, stumbling towards Reyes. He could hear it still, a faint heartbeat?

Give Rayquaza my best when you join it, Mewtwo said coldly, creating another tiny Aura Sphere that rushed towards Dominic like a bullet. He only grazed Reyes? arm before it hit his leg, instantly breaking his bones from the bottom-up in a way even his illusions couldn?t fix, and he hit the ground to join the others.

3.7. Toe in Magma

Reyes had thought he died already when Alakazam toppled and Dominic's mystical mythical Mewtwo had shown up, but he quickly realized that that wasn't even close to what dying was like. He had never, ever gotten so close to that line before—actually, he was very sure that he had died for at least two minutes. He remembered seeing Brendan and Azalea and Sunny one more time amidst a bright light, and he remembered his body feeling oddly ethereal as he walked towards it, but just as he drew close to them, a clawed hand reached out and roughly yanked him back into blotchy darkness.

His first thought, of course, was "Augh, Dominic!"

He laid in that darkness for a while to regain his senses. The first to return was his hearing, and he became aware of the odd tense silence in the area, similar to the calm after a lost war. His smell was next, and all he could smell was blood, and then his taste returned and all he could taste was his chlorophyll. His other senses slowly returned to him and, lastly, he could feel. His hand was on something rough and bumpy but covered in soft fur—it also felt damp to the touch. He cracked his eyes open a bit and let the blurriness fade as he looked around. The carnage around him…Mewtwo hovering slightly above the ground with that deathly blank expression…it all came rushing back to him.

His hand went to his abdomen and he felt whole instead of flayed as he was before. He looked down and saw that his body was intact, which was severely strange. Then, if he looked hard enough and crossed his eyes a little, he saw double: one image was intact, the other was ruined and bloodied, which was how he remembered it. He felt fine too, but if he looked past that he could feel the brokenness of his body as well. It took him two seconds to realize the only possible explanation, and when he looked to his side he saw the cause…or his remains, at least.

And now you're awake too, Mewtwo sighed, its tail turning itself into a knot. He realized why: there were several deep claw marks almost tearing it apart. He looked at Dominic again, who wasn't moving or breathing, and worried. He looked beyond Mewtwo and saw the others, Sinclair and Jay and Asterisk, and they were in similar states. He couldn't see AB at all, and that was the most nerve-wracking. Mewtwo worked its jaw for a moment as the glow from its eyes faded. "You all have really pissed me off," it said, physically working its mouth and throat to speak. Mewtwo slashed its hand down, creating a thin blade of energy that spun towards him. He stared at it, knowing he didn't have the time to move and especially with Dominic holding onto his wrist, but as soon as the attack touched his skin, it vanished. Mewtwo's gaze went to Dominic and its expression darkened.

"It seems you can't touch me," Reyes said, getting to his feet. Mewtwo exhaled and raised its hand, palm forward, releasing an Ice Beam that almost certainly could have frozen a lake. Reyes tested his legs for just a moment before grabbing Dominic with both arms and jumping into the air as high as he could. The glass floor was frozen beneath him, and as soon as he hit it he slipped and flopped onto his back. He sent his vines out as soon as he was oriented and they latched onto Mewtwo's damaged tail. It gasped in pain as Reyes dragged it into the air before throwing it off towards the viewing stands. Mewtwo crashed into the stone with a loud boom and a surge of dust and debris. Reyes used the time to shake Dominic.

"Dominic, Dominic wake up already. I know you're alive—your illusion is still here. Wake up! Don't just die now!" Even as he said it he could feel how broken Dominic was. There was a lot of blood and Reyes was having a better time finding pieces of bone than whole ones. He was breathing, albeit so badly that he was going to die in five minutes at the most. He was most likely putting all of his energy into his illusion. "Arceus," he groaned, feeling his heart pulse weakly in his chest. Reyes could only even last as long as Dominic's illusion did—as soon as Dominic went, he was dead meat too.

Mewtwo rose from the dust with several large boulders floating by its sides. In one calculated movement the rocks broke apart into two dozen stakes, and with a flick of its wrist they were flying towards them. Reyes raised his claws and grabbed the first one, then he turned his leaf blades to cut through the rest. He smashed the last remaining one against the ice at his feet, shattering it to reveal the glass. Mewtwo, already walking towards them, raised its hand, releasing several sparks of energy that amassed into a massive bolt of white energy. It was hard, but Reyes focused his energy and used Protect. He still felt the burn of the Hyper Beam all over his skin but the energy deflected in all directions, smashing walls, the ceiling, and burning the floor until only a thin, bubbling pool of glass remained. Plaster and concrete rained down on them as the sunrise appeared through the numerous new skylights in the ceiling. Mewtwo gritted its teeth and dragged its index finger in the air, creating five small orange points that burst into a full-blown conflagration in the shape of the character 大.

"Dodge this," it whispered before the flames erupted and sped towards him. Reyes punched the weakened glass, causing it to shatter, and slid down into the hole still clinging to Dominic. He sunk down in between the large bronze gears as the flames burned through the remainder of the glass, expanding the hole into a cavity. Mewtwo stood at the edge, eyes scanning the mass of contraptions, but they were decently hidden by it. Reyes' breathing sounded too loud in his ears as he waited for a break, some opportunity to catch it by surprise, but it seemed stubborn to give up the search. It raised a hand and a gear some feet away from them clicked, then it began a slow turn. Consequently, the nearby gears also started revolving, all of them until it reached Dominic and Reyes. He had to pull away to avoid being crushed, and it was then that Mewtwo saw them.

"Whoa!" Reyes exclaimed as the gears suddenly lurched to a stop beneath him. He felt them buzzing faintly against his skin and looked down; thankfully, neither him nor Dominic were in a position to get crushed. He looked up at Mewtwo, who had been and still was being restrained by thick black bands stretching from the recesses of the apparatus. They seemed to react to its destruction. He laughed out of pure relief, shaking Dominic a bit to catch his attention.

"Humph," Mewtwo grunted, its eyes glowing as it tried futilely to tear the bands apart.

"Those were made to hold Pokémon on a Champion's level. I believe that's enough to hold you." He looked up at the disappearing sunlight and forced his body to do photosynthesis in overdrive. It would exhaust him, but he would live. He felt his seed pods growing back, but not fast enough as the gears creaked and groaned trying to restrain Mewtwo. He felt some of the life return to him and shook Dominic gently. "Dominic, it's okay. It's okay, just release your illusion. Dominic?" He pulled back Dominic's eyelid and saw only the white of his eye. "…Hey, hey I got some meat for you."

"Meat?" he croaked, his eye rolling down. "Wha—who—ugugu…" he groaned. "Can't…move…barely…brea…" His illusion fell in a second and Reyes sucked in a breath at the reemergence of his devastating pain.

"It's okay, it's okay…"

"Sin…Aster…J-Jay…AB…" he continued, tears forming in his eyes. "They're…"

"They're going to be alright, Dominic." Reyes hadn't felt guilty about lying in a long time, but he felt Dominic needed to hear at least one good thing. He started coughing, blood splattering on Reyes' chest that his body gratefully absorbed. He wanted to do something, but Dominic already had two feet in the grave. He had seen it enough times to know that there was very little he could do, if anything. He took a rattling breath and continued in a low voice, "It's… It'll be alright, okay? Just close your eyes and everything will be all right."

"You mean die," he said quietly, his eyes already partly closed. The gear beneath them suddenly lurched, causing them to slip and fall deeper into the inner workings. Reyes could smell smoke as the power source became overwhelmed when Mewtwo started snapping the bands one by one. He watched Mewtwo break the last of his restraints and suddenly the gears were overflowing with energy. Reyes hit the very bottom of the room and shoved Dominic in the space between two of them, then he guarded himself with his leaf blades as they exploded with movement. The gears were moving so quickly that they were like blades, and the steel rods holding them together shook as they were overcome by the stress Mewtwo was putting on them. He felt the blunt teeth hit him left and right, bruising the skin he managed to regrow, then the dangerous part came: they broke away from their braces and started falling at high speed. Reyes threw himself out of the way as several small gears jabbed into the ground where he was just standing.

"Almost died," he sighed, glancing at Dominic. Well, he wasn't any deader than he already was. Mewtwo looked down into the underbelly and locked eyes with Reyes. It waved its hand and the gears at the top exploded one by one into metal chips, and it made its descent as the way quickly cleared. Reyes growled as he plucked away a half-formed seed pod and took Dominic's arm, trying to press it into his mouth. He only groaned in response, and Reyes gave up, letting it hit the ground. He probably would've choked on it in that condition.

Mewtwo halted some feet above them and held out both hands. The remainder of gears exploded, some being inches away from him, and when he attempted to block the shrapnel he felt one of the steel rods pierce his leg, causing him to fall on his side. Mewtwo snapped its fingers and flames swelled from the ground up, barely giving him any warning before they were shriveling his skin and burning his organs away. He was used to pain in some sick way ad so he didn't scream, just laid there until Mewtwo let the flames wear out, feeling his vines automatically extend and fall limply on the ground. Mewtwo's feet hit the ground lightly a bit away, then it moved closer to kick Reyes hard in his abdomen. He rolled across the ground before crashing into half of a broken gear and came to a stop. He felt himself get lifted, then he was slammed down into the ground. He was lifted again and slammed again, then again, then again.

You know, I respected you, Mewtwo told him in his mind even as he slammed him repeatedly until he could barely think. I favored your dedication and passion, empathy and bravery… You were one of my best, Reyes. And look at you now, giving it up for who? Him? Reyes tried to snort but he could only spit chlorophyll through his teeth.

You're maybe the twelfth person to tell me that, and it's arceusdamn tiring, he thought, knowing that Mewtwo would hear it. Its face twisted into a sneer as it held Reyes in the air instead of immediately slamming him again.

The truth is tiring to you? it scoffed. That's fresh. You firmly believed in creating a better future—what can he do for it? I'm the one in the right here.

None of us are… In a freaking war, the two options are winning or dying, not right or wrong.

Mewtwo took a step back, its face blank again, then it sent Reyes over to Dominic's prone body. His fur had been burnt by the flames but it still didn't put him in a worse condition than he already was in, then again Reyes couldn't tell if he was breathing as he laid on his face. Then it floated into the air and the both of them ascended from the bowels of the room to ground level, staring at the bloodshed Mewtwo had left, including Sinclair and Jay and Asterisk. "This is what you're fighting for," it said aloud, eyes dark. "Lives already lost. What's the point? They're gone and they won't come back, and even more Pokémon will die in the future. Even if you win against me, Reyes, who's to say that the revolution won't return in full force in another eight years? Eight months? Eight seconds?" It sighed and closed its eyes tiredly. "You said that in a war, you can win or die. Obviously, these Pokémon chose to die. Why would you want to join them so fervently?"

"They…didn't…choose…" he hissed through his damaged throat. "You…kill…'em…" Mewtwo flexed its fingers and Reyes felt the psychic grip grow stronger, compressing his half-grown skeleton.

"It doesn't—" Mewtwo's eyes flashed as it turned towards the back wall, going completely still. …It took them a while, it murmured as an afterthought, returning its gaze to Reyes. I no longer have the time to mess around. Soon, they will come to this room and find your remains. Reyes felt the pressure increase exponentially, making him feel like he was about to be reduced to protons and electrons. The pain increased and increased until he couldn't take it anymore. Goodbye.

When it comes down to that last moment, anything goes to spare the world's safety. That's a lesson I learned a long time ago.

"To you," he whispered. It took a lot of effort and garnered a lot of pain, but he forced his leaves to grow. His body was surrounded by a green aura as his leaves grew and grew, forcing his muscles to go rigid as he basically turned into the branch at the center of a bush. Mewtwo looked slightly confused as it plucked Reyes' leaves rapidly, but not any faster than they could grow. It made a mistake in releasing Reyes to the ground, as then his vines could dig through the marble and take root.

You're not going to take me with you, Mewtwo sneered, going up in the air with the intent to fly off in the impending dawn. Reyes' vines snapped out and latched onto its ankle before it could, coiling up its leg to tug it back down as the rest of his body propagated into wild grass. It blew his vine apart with Psychic but three more took their places. It tried burning them, cutting them, and frying them, but each time they responded faster and faster. Mewtwo saw Reyes' leaves and grass grow over the remains it had left, completely covering them as if they were body-shaped hills. In the growing sunlight, the leaves grew small flower buds, which it got a better and better view of as it was wrenched down towards the blooming meadow. The glass was shattered as his roots pervaded it and with the addition of the aqua and rocky terrains the growth accelerated. It still couldn't break the vines, and as it grew closer thicker ones wrapped its body like ropes, binding its arms and legs, then a vine went in its mouth like a gag. Somehow, that restricted its telepathy as well. It was pulled to the ground and left to squirm like a Wurmple next to a collection of large seeds.

——————

Louis was one of the first people in the room and he was shocked by what he saw. The entire room—which was a lot of square feet—was covered in grass and flower buds, every surface in there. The other revolutionaries ventured inside hesitantly, but nothing happened to them as they touched the plants, so he assumed that it was alright. He stepped inside and felt a weird kind of buzz on his skin like familiarity but he just shook it off.

It looked like there were bodies under the grass but it was hard to tell since they looked so natural. He went to the nearest little bump and poked it warily. It didn't move at all, not even in his imagination. He was just about to uproot the grass when a muffled shout broke through the silence. He lurched to his feet with his tail blazing and saw three other revolutionaries jump back from something that wasn't grass at all. It was a…Pokémon, it looked like, bound with vines until it would only wiggle and squirm, and its eyes were filled with hate. Its words were muffled but it sounded like it was cursing all of them.

"It was this…monster," Ymir whispered, her talons nervously digging up the dirt beneath before she flew a safe distance from it. "It… It killed Alakazam, and…and more…"

"What?" Louis' blood froze as several other Pokémon confirmed her words.

"It was even stronger than Alakazam," Brahms continued nervously, curling into a ball within that weird green gel covering his body. "It just blew 'em all apart like it was nothing, and it didn't even look sorry."

"Can we kill it?" Rayner asked, electricity sparking between his antennae. Ymir shook her head.

"You'd need more than an army to beat this thing," Ty sighed.

"But it was beaten," Brahms retorted.

"But…by who?" That was the only question nobody could answer. Louis turned back to the little shape beneath the grass and noticed that it looked suspiciously like a Pichu…

"Look, there's a Pokémon under here!" someone else cried out. A few of them ran over to the site, which was down a hole into the inner mechanisms and generator of the Champion's room. Under something that looked like a brass gear covered in moss and flowers there was another body mound, but Emelia had parted the grass to reveal the face. Louis gasped and backed away. "It's, uh, a what?"

"The K-King," Louis stammered, staring at his face. It was burnt and a little swollen but he knew he could recognize him. Together, they pulled away the rest of the grass to free up his body. Louis was still a little shaky but he realized that there was nothing for him to be scared of. The King was out cold; his fur was charred and they moved him like every bone in his body was broken. He backed away and started ascending the gears, using the grass as handholds, and he became aware of sunlight streaming through holes in the ceiling. He didn't pay much attention to it until he started smelling pollen in the air, and when he reached ground level again he realized why.

The flower buds they saw were opening up, revealing beautiful flowers like the ones from Ever Grande itself. They were all colors, all shapes, all sizes, and they made a smell like…home. That was the only way he could describe it—home. He spun in a circle as the flowers detached and floated away by themselves, then the bodies they were on started to awaken. The one he saw first, the one he thought looked like a Pichu, turned out to be one, and a shiny one at that. He sat up quickly with sparks flying from his cheeks and leapt forward in the same movement, crashing into Louis' chest. The electricity made his fur stand on end but it wasn't too harmful.

"What? What's going on?" His eyes were wide and unfocused as his head snapped around. "Where is it? What's going on?"

"Hey, calm down." Louis carefully pulled him from his chest and held him out. Slowly, he calmed down.

"Why is there so much damn grass?" he muttered. Then his muscles tensed. "Where is it? Where's Mewtwo?"

"Mew…two? Do you mean that thing?" Louis pointed at it in the distance where several Pokémon were still trying to figure out how to safely move it away. The Pichu sparked in surprise and his eyes popped open.

"It was…it was beaten? How?"

"I have no idea. Some revolutionaries came running, screaming about a monster here, and when we came we saw…this."

"This is… Wait! Where are they?" he demanded, gripping Louis' hands hard with his little paws. Louis noticed some blood trickling from the corner of his mouth and swallowed.

"I don't think that's your biggest problem—"

"Tell me," he said more forcefully, his electricity increasing. "Where are the others?"

"The, uh, others?" He looked around at the other revolutionaries and saw them salvaging a bunch of bodies hidden under the blooming flowers. "They might be…um…they're here, that's for sure." Jay squirmed and Louis released him. As soon as he hit the ground he took off running, checking each and every body. At least twenty percent of them woke up when they were unearthed, but the rest...

"Louis, come see this," Brahms called. Louis passed the crowds of Pokémon to find him floating next to a very familiar body.

"Alakazam… I don't wanna see his dead body, Brahms."

"That's not it. Look at this." A piece of the gel extended like a tentacle and touched Alakazam's forehead. When that happened, faint wisps of smoke rose up like steam. They made very quick images before they dissipated and he only caught a few: Alakazam attacking Reyes, that "Mewtwo" thing appearing, that Pichu and a few others falling in their blood, the King Dominic hitting the ground… "They were the ones that beat it, somehow. And you can see them dying, but out here, they're still alive."

"But they died, so…what brought them back?"

"I think it's the flowers, but Brahms is such a moron he can't realize it," his other brain said. They called him "Brahms-2" as a joke. "The flowers worked on those that weren't dead and used photosynthesis to give them enough nutrients to survive. It's really simple for those with more than three brain cells."

He chose to ignore the ruder parts of his explanation. "But where did the flowers come from?"

"Give it your best guess."

"Give it my— That's not possible," he said immediately, catching on. "I mean, even if he used Frenzy Plant, for him to have done all this at once, he would've died, and…" He froze.

"I'll bet you fifty Poffins that you don't find his body here," Brahms-2 told him. Louis went around the entire room, checked every body that they found (which included that Pichu's friends: another Pichu and a Blaziken and Dominic) but he didn't see Reyes. The closest he came was a handful of seeds the size of Berries.

"Hey." He felt something tugging on his tail and turned around. The other Pichu, the one with a notched ear, was looking up at him. There was a thin trail of blood following him that came from the place that should've had a tail. "Where is he?"

Honestly, Louis was getting a little sick of pronouns. "He who?"

"Dominic," he amended. "Where is Dominic?"

"He's down there, but he's in…bad shape… Who are you guys anyway?"

"Nameless heroes," he shrugged with a wry smile. "You know, I thought Dominic was crazy for wanting to stand up against Alakazam, and you all probably thought the same. Now look: had we not come, Mewtwo would've caused a lot more carnage. Life is a little ironic at times."

"Yeah," he mumbled, still chagrinned by the thought. "What happened to Alakazam anyway?"

"He was being manipulated by Mewtwo," the Pichu answered. "It said that it wasn't fully controlling him, but who knows how much of what it said is truth. It was the reason that Alakazam was chasing after Dominic in the first place."

"W…What?"

"And more, but this isn't the right place, and I think all of us need a Pokémon Center," he muttered, his ears falling tiredly. Then he noticed Louis' fist. "What's in your hand?"

"I, uh, couldn't find Reyes, but I found these." He showed him the seeds. He sniffed them for a moment before staring, perplexed.

"You should bring those to the Pokémon Center too. And…" He trailed off as his eyes went behind Louis. Louis followed his gaze and saw Mewtwo being lifted out by two Fighting-types and with a Honchcrow perched on its forehead for good measure. The Pichu just hit the ground without warning, his eyes dazed and unfocused as he sighed in exhaustion. "And we could all use a day to forget all of this."

3.8. The Future is For Sure​

He saw a lot of what they were doing in the next four months. They didn't seem to have a problem with him watching, so he stayed and looked over them. It was easiest for him to do anyway.

The Pokémon Center was large but it was still crowded with how many injured ones were inside. The Nurses and Chansey were always hurrying from Point A to Point B, but as long as he stayed out of their path they never once complained. There were many used bandages tossed away, plenty of emptied IV bags recycled, and more than a few Pokémon that didn't make the long nights and were buried in the Outside. The doctors and nurses weren't disheartened, however, and pressed on with those that remained just as furiously, tirelessly, even as lives were lost each day. In two months, out of the one-oh-six Pokémon brought in to the Pokémon Center, two dozen survived, excluding the ones that survived on the boundary of life and death.

He visited some of them frequently, and although he didn't know them by name he knew them by certain details. He didn't have a good grip on speech yet so his conversations were weak, but Tongue-less Politoed didn't mind. She mostly just laid around in a room specially built for Water-types, that being a small pool instead of a bed that they could sit in to stay hydrated. She always looked at him with a tortured expression and with tears streaming down her face, and he didn't know what to do except say some of the few words he knew, which weren't very helpful or comforting but broke the awkward silence. After a while, she started looking amused by his presence and gave a little smile when he showed up. Her vitals bombed three weeks in and he stopped being able to see her.

There was another one that did have a tongue, and he/she almost never stopped talking. He/she was a Houndoom with no horns and a voice so indistinct he couldn't tell if the Houndoom was male or female, and that was the one thing he/she never talked about. He/she was his main source of information from Outside, giving him random details about things like television, strawberry cake, gaming systems, and CG movies. A lot of it felt pointless to him, but the Houndoom was the most optimistic Pokémon he had seen over there, and so he chose to bear with it.

Two Zangoose he didn't know were always rushing around to help. The staff, although expansive, was understandably shorthanded, and so anybody able-bodied pitched in any way possible. He knew them because they were twins—the obnoxious type that finished each other's sentences. They always made time to speak with him though, but they used words and terms he had no idea of, and so most of what they said flew over his head. He did understand, however, that they became upset when seeing him more often than not. Once, the boy mentioned that they "should've helped sooner" and the girl saying that "it shouldn't have happened." He didn't see them a lot after that, although he was unsure why.

There was also the shiny Pichu, which he knew because that one was in psychiatric. He was injured physically, if the bandages covering his ears were anything to go by, but his main problem were his spontaneous angry outbursts. He apparently had no patience with medicine of any kind and reacted violently when presented with pills, intravenous medicine, or otherwise. He had never seen the Pichu face-to-face, but he had often seen Nurse Joys and Chansey running from his room with charred marks on them and he heard a good amount of horror stories about that Pichu. There was a Blaziken a floor down from him that he barely saw, as she was frequently visited by a Trainer that shut him out. From what he knew, she became unable to produce fire. A few rooms down from her, an OR had been working on some Pokémon for a long time, one that gave ghastly screams day and night.

Then there was his favorite: the Pichu "Sinclair."

His only injury was his tail—or rather, lack thereof. The afflicted area was bandaged to be hidden from view, which also caused him to always be lying on his stomach or side on his comically tiny bed. He couldn't articulate his questions well, yet Sinclair always gave him the right answer he was looking for. Their conversations only really consisted of a couple of questions each time because Sinclair didn't have much energy due to the painkillers, but he enjoyed when they spoke. It brought his mind away from what happened when he wasn't speaking to anybody.

He wasn't allowed in the morgue at all, but to him it was just another room to look around, and so he waited until it was empty to sneak in often times. Unlike the others, it was freezing cold and deathly silent. There were rows and rows of shelves that doctors sometimes pulled out to rest bodies in, and when they were shut he knew that they would never see the light of day again. The latest one was an Alakazam, although his body was marred with stitches and incisions where they tried to find out what was wrong. Apparently, they found nothing, and they stored him where the others waited. He was just about to leave when the door opened, and all of a sudden the temperature rose uncomfortably within the room.

"I missed the procession," the Blaziken said dryly, stepping into the room. He wasn't the one from before, as he was distinctly male, and a Frosslass carrying a pretty bracelet hovered just next to his shoulder as he walked, stopping inches from him as if he wasn't even in the room. Then, "Oi, Treecko, tell me where they put his body."

"Ahm…" He pointed up at a drawer in the second row. Blaziken's Frosslass watched as he pulled the drawer out, revealing Alakazam's body.

"Ah, Alakazam," he said as if Alakazam could really hear him. "I wanted to see ya like this for so long in the revolution… But now that's it's happened, I'm not the one that did it." Blaziken backed away, and without warning he brought his flaming foot down on a metal examination table, smashing it in half. He jumped at the clatter of noise and looked towards the door, expecting security to rush in, but Frosslass sealed the doorway with ice, blocking all entry. "Why, ya old fool?" he shouted, stalking up to Alakazam with record speed and, grabbing onto one of his arms, bringing him out of the drawer and into the air.

"Blaziken, please," Frosslass said. Blaziken ignored her, gritting his beak, and he clenched his free fist before slamming it into Alakazam's cheek. Expectedly, Alakazam had all the reaction of a dead man, and his blood was so cooled that he didn't even bruise. Regardless, Blaziken kneed him in his stomach, then he brought his head down to butt Alakazam in the forehead. "Blaziken," Frosslass warned again as fists pounded on her ice barrier. Blaziken satisfied himself with another minute of thrashing before letting Alakazam hit the floor, scratched-up and still.

"This is how ya shoulda died!" he shouted. "And ya told me as much! Ya said that if ya had to go in any way, it'd be by my talons! What happened to that, ya old fart? Ya forgot and let yourself get killed by a coupl'a fools? The King sure as hell couldn't have killed ya at yer best—hell, he can barely touch me after a nap! Ya shouldn't have died. This is all—it's all bull!" He screeched as his ankles exploded in flames and his fists clenched in anger. The Frosslass' bracelet started glowing with iridescent light and so did a small gem buried in Blaziken's head feathers. His entire body burst into flames, instantly warming the room and creating the faint scent of burning skin, and his body began to subtly change as the flames formed a strange symbol in the air. With one kick, he reduced the metal shelves to twisted remains, the drawers popping out and depositing the bodies on the floor as flames streaked off of his body and swirled towards the ceiling. The ice barrier melted from the heat and large Pokémon streamed in, grabbing Blaziken by the arms and dragging him backwards.

"Somebody take this bastard outta the city!" somebody in the crowd shouted. Blaziken screeched again, his body still flaming as he glared daggers at Alakazam.

"When I see you in Hell, I'll give you a better thrashin' than anybody else! And I expect a helluva apology for this, Alakazam!"

——————

At the end of those four months, he thought that he had seen everybody in the Pokémon Center. He could speak a lot better and he could sustain coherent thoughts—finally. He thought that he had seen all the residents in the Pokémon Center in those four months, but at night he went down to the very end of the first floor and discovered that what he had assumed to be a supply closet was another room—or rather, it was a supply closet that had been converted into a room. Maybe the Pokémon Center was too crowded or maybe it was for another reason entirely, but whatever the case he reached up and opened the door.

The room was dark, almost painfully so, but a bit of blue light was shining on the floor. He could make out a bed with an IV stand, and there was the faint beeping of a heart monitor too. A dark Pokémon was sitting on the bed staring at the wall. "What now…? Ya wanna cut out mah heart too?" he muttered disdainfully before giving a rattling exhale.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

His shoulders tensed. "Hah?" He looked over his shoulders and his ears fell. "Oh. Just a Treecko."

"Just a Treecko? That's insulting, Dominic." Dominic's ears jumped up and he spun around so quickly that the breathing and IV tubes caught around his waist, causing him to fall ungracefully from the bed to the ground. "Awesome reflexes," he laughed.

"Yer—I mean, you are—this is—"

"I'll save you the breath." He went over to Dominic and patted his head. Dominic looked up, his eyes wide and full of tears as he grinned breathlessly, probably because the breathing tube had been forcefully yanked from his throat.

"Rey…Rey-hes," he panted, trying to catch his breath. "T-Thought you we-her…dead."

"I'll explain that, but first let's get Nurse Joy here before you suffocate."

——————

It turned out that Dominic wasn't in that room due to lack of space, but that he had actually gotten somebody to drag a bed in there so he could sleep without being disturbed. It had worked despite the stupidity, as it took Reyes a long time to find him, but as Dominic revealed he was still what he called "pestered" by the medical staff who only had intentions of giving his sorry ass a chance at life.

"Sorry babe," Dominic muttered with a halfhearted smirk as the Chansey refitted his breathing tube. She gave an irritated huff and an obligatory slap before waddling off. "She's my favorite," he told Reyes.

"And obviously you're her favorite too." Dominic laughed bitterly before lowering his eyes to the ground. Reyes sighed. "How much do you remember?"

"I remember getting my butt handed to me on a platter," he grumbled. "By that freak Mewtwo. Then I remembered trying to save you, and I was blasted…" He inhaled sharply and grabbed his chest, his heart monitor going wild. The Chansey returned a second later to see what was going on. "It's okay, it's okay, just had a bad memory," he told her. She huffed and warned him about the fine line his body was treading, then she warned Reyes too for good measure before leaving. "…That's all I remember."

"You used an illusion to revive me," Reyes supplied. Dominic shrugged. "Honestly, I don't blame you for forgetting. You took some nasty hits during that fight."

"Mewtwo was a beast," he said in a low voice. "How did you even—?"

"Frenzy Plant," he explained. "Turned the entirety of my body into common plants."

"But…that's not true. You're here now."

"Because of a bit of forethought." Dominic waited as Reyes sat there in silence.

"…Are you gonna explain?"

"I can't, really."

"Why not?"

"I wasn't there." He could feel Dominic's eyes on him as he sighed, saying the words he had practiced for a long while. "Look, I'm not the same Reyes that you know. That guy's consciousness was forever gone as he did turn into a plant, like I said. I was 'born' from seeds that…that the old Reyes made as a last thought. So I am him in every way—except the way that counts, I guess. I've heard stories from Sinclair and a few others, but I don't have any memories of my own." He risked looking at Dominic and saw him covering his eyes. "…Dominic? Are you upset?"

"No," he said, but his voice broke. "I mean… Okay, yes, why wouldn't I be? I was just as useless, useless, useless as ever and because of that you had to—"

"Dominic. Just shut up," he interrupted, holding Dominic's muzzle closed. Startled, he just nodded. "I don't like hearing you beat yourself up. Mewtwo was horrible and you couldn't have beaten it by yourself, and anyway I have no regrets about what happened. It was not your fault, okay? Get that through your thick skull." He was as startled as Dominic at the end of his invective. He pulled away, blinking in surprise. "That…came out."

"Berating me is your second nature at this point," he muttered. "You couldn't forget how to do that, no way no how."

"Then it should have sunken in already."

"Habits are hard to break." They lapsed into silence that was only broken by Dominic's short breaths. Reyes was scared that his heart might just give up—he already seemed to have a foot in the grave anyway. "You don't remember anything," he said.

"No…sorry."

"Don't be," he whispered before raising his voice. "Don't be, okay? because you were out there trying and I was just here sulking and feeling sorry for myself. I'm just—" He cut himself off and turned to Reyes with tears in his eyes. "I'm just glad this is over."

"Not exactly," he muttered, hesitant to bring it up. "There was something else I had seen here. They brought in Alakazam's body for examination—you know, since he spontaneously died—and while they were wheeling him to the morgue, I saw…" He gave the best recollection he could of what happened in the morgue.

"He's just as levelheaded and cuddly as I remember," Dominic said sardonically. "But hey, who knew he cared that much about that old creep?"

"Even the worst guy can have best friends. Sound familiar, Dominic?"

"I'm not the worst, as we've seen. You know, if you remembered." They both became silent at that. "…How are Sinclair and Jay and Asterisk?"

"You don't know?" he asked curiously.

"I'm kind of bedridden," he admitted. Reyes looked at the IV and breathing tube. "Not…because of that," he said, his shoulders slumping as he sighed. "Remember when I said I was blasted by Mewtwo? It wasn't just the general kind of superficial crap—I was hit by an Aura Sphere that would make a Sharpedo end up with dentures. I barely had bones not blown to bits. Ha-ha, say that five times fast."

"Dominic."

"There were practically a collection of Blissey and Audino working on me for eighteen hours straight trying to fix what it had broken. Even after that, it was another week for them to repair extensive muscle damage. Trust me, there were Pokémon worse off still than me," he said in response to Reyes' expression. "But I'm kind of selfish so I just spent the rest of those long weeks wallowing in my own pain. I can't control my muscles very well which was why I, ah, flopped when I saw you. I was actually trying to jump off of the bed." He held out his arms for emphasis, which shook like he was an old man. He let them fall to his lap with a tired sigh.

"I feel sorry for you."

"Don't pity me."

"It's sympathy, not pity." Dominic's ears raised in surprise. He was probably unaware of the difference, what with his life story as told by Sinclair. "And what was that you said when I walked in? That I'd be cutting you up or something?" He laughed pitiably.

"Some things couldn't be salvaged. A lung, for instance, and a kidney, and some of my ear organs, and uh let's just say that it'll be a miracle if there's any kind of Dominic Jr. in the future."

"It could be worse. I saw a lot of Pokémon die. You lived," he said flatly. Dominic didn't respond. "Sinclair is fine, although Asterisk can't produce any flames, and Jay is steadily working his way towards eviction."

"That's mah Jay," he chuckled, finally looking a little happy. His expression fell just as quickly. "AB…?"

"AB wasn't even found, Dominic."

"I hoped…I imagined that…" he whispered. "Mewtwo blew him up…just exploded him, and there was blood like he was solid, and I…I miss him…"

"My friends are gone too," he said, "but only from what I've been told. I don't remember their faces or how they made me feel. So, for once, you're the one that hurts and I'm the one that can only sit here and try to make it better." He was a lot smaller than Dominic now, but he put his arm around his waist in an attempt to comfort him. Dominic started to complain, then he moaned and started crying, making a horrible wheezing sound past the breathing tube and with his claws digging in Reyes' side hard enough to break skin. He knew his friend was hurting, and he ignored it all to let Dominic get his feelings out.

"They can still die, Dom," Reyes added, wanting to cover all bases. "Sinclair, Jay, Asterisk… They can still die, and not necessarily from this. From anything, really."

"I…I know, but…" he sniffled.

"Blaziken is still out there too, still hates us and probably even more so because of what happened to Alakazam—at least until it's discovered that Mewtwo is the cause, then it might be Arceus hating us."

"Jeez," he mumbled.

"Lilly is still missing too, and you'll still have a horrible rep for having killed the ex-Elite Four.

"The hell are you doing to me, Reyes?"

"I'm listing all of our problems just to put things in perspective," he said. "Things have never, ever been perfect for us in this almost year that we've known each other. That's not even something I needed to be told; it was just this sense of dread that I woke up with and stuck to me like glue. The stakes are higher, sure, but they've always been that way, and as long as there's even a 0.0001% chance of survival, we'll make that pass. Do you hear me?"

"Y…Yes," he said in a clear voice.

"So I suggest you stop moping and start working to get up and out of here, because I'm a Treecko and I can kick your ass. Do you hear me?" he said in a sharper tone.

"Yes sir Mr. General sir," he said, the corners of his mouth turning up. "And we'll go back home with Sinclair and sit around his table and sing songs around dessert."

"I'm not joking."

"Neither am I," he said, his eyes sparkling. "That's my big American Dream, you know? And I'll remind you about every fun moment we've had that you've forgotten."

"I doubt that we had many fun moments."

"It's subjective," he conceded with a grin. Reyes found it contagious.

"Well," he sighed, smiling to himself. "Guess that's my dream, too."

"But why my house?" Sinclair complained. Reyes saw him push the door open to scamper up onto Dominic's lap. He seemed disgruntled at first, then he grinned.

"Because you have one," Dominic said as if it was the most obvious fact in the world.

"And don't forget me!" Jay joined their little gathering, this time with a trail of noise behind him. His ears were bandaged tightly to his head and he moved with an odd limp, but he was still sparking with excitement as he settled on Reyes' shoulder.

"What's that commotion following you?" Reyes asked.

"Oh, uh, I might've shocked some people on the way here," he said offhandedly. Of course.

"This is where you were?" Kim and Leroy said, cramming themselves in along with their other company.

"I thought I smelled you here! But why a supply closet?" Louis said, also interested in playing body Tetris.

"What, no Asterisk?" Jay snorted.

"Yo," Dominic complained, pushing Sinclair's ear from his mouth, "if you guys make this a regular thing, I'll need a real room."

"This is what I forgot?" Reyes asked, kicking Louis' flaming tail from his face.

"Um—"

"I'm glad," he laughed, "that I'm still here, still alive, even if I did. I can relive these kinds of experiences with a new outlook and I'm glad we made it as far as we did."

——————

In the beautiful city of Ever Grande, amidst the bright flowers and white buildings, laid the bodies of the Pokémon of the revolution. Their families trampled the surrounding plants with their comings and goings, but they were always restored at the end of the day, because he believed that the Pokémon laid to rest deserved a beautiful place to do so.

"HERE LIES AZALEA. A LOVELY GARDEVOIR, A CARING FRIEND."

What the ones who etched into her stone didn't know was the stories of before the revolution, when she would bring Brendan hot milk and honey because he couldn't sleep, too worried about a test coming up the next day; when she taught Deidrick to fetch instead of constantly burying the knick-knacks around the house; when she always danced for Reyes and only him, because she was horrible at it (even for a Gardevoir) and was so, so embarrassed but never did say no to him. "Caring friend" did not even scratch the surface of it.

But that was something he had let go of. It was almost made better, after all, by her being buried with Brendan and Deidrick. It made it easier when Reyes visited every few days to tell them of interesting things. For the first few weeks, it was just him feeling sorry about himself for not being able to save them, then it turned into him feeling sorry for himself for not remembering what had to be the most interesting year of his life. It was during one of those sorry for himself moments that Dominic came and sat with him on the soft grass, and they talked just like they used to.

"You shouldn't be here," Reyes said. "You should be in the Pokémon Center resting."

"Thanks for the concern, Mom," he replied, leaning back on his claws.

"Dominic," he reprimanded.

"Great, now you're my Dad too. Do you want to be my sister on top of that?"

"I was… I'm having a moment."

"I didn't know feeling sorry for yourself is a private moment now," he said sarcastically. "It's really weird how we can't be on like footing."

"What are you talking about?"

"Well, either you're pitying yourself and I'm babying you or vice versa. I don't think we've ever had a conversation on equal terms—well, if you even remember."

"I don't quite remember but it's occurred to me, yes. I think it's just the weird relationship we have."

"Weird is far from a good word to describe how we relate. I don't think that there exists a word to describe how we relate, but I don't have a problem with that." He grinned, a stark contrast to the grave expression he'd been wearing for the last few months as he had to relearn basic movements with much frustration, not that he was patient to begin with. "I think I have something better to tell your family."

He told Brendan and Azalea and Deidrick of the first time they met in Mauville City, and from there him and Reyes kept going, correcting each other and occasionally breaking into stupid back-and-forths over minor details. The thing was, though, that they laughed about it, even the sad parts, because they both acknowledged that without their problems, they wouldn't have met, wouldn't have made their friends along the way, and Alakazam/Mewtwo would've continued his tyranny. They finished their story, and for the first time Reyes didn't apologize for what had happened to his family, just thanked them for loving him. They left, and they did the same with Steven Stone's grave.

"I have to wonder what happens next."

"What happens next? We keep fighting, we keep moving forward."

"Yes, but, Reyes, after that?"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

Time passed and Reyes never did become the same as before, but it was okay; he made new memories, and those filled the emptiness inside of him. They still had their moments though, like telling their story of Mewtwo, and when AB's brother came to them, and there were days that they both woke up from nightmares and days that Dominic and Jay had muscle spasms and days that Sinclair had ghost pains and days Pokémon Champion Brendan had to call them up because Asterisk was catatonic from the fresh pain of grief and days that Reyes wondered what the point of living was.

"Come on Rey lez go to the, uh…to the place."

"Dominic, stop, you're sick and in no fighting condition."

"'Course I 'm, I'm in tip-top ship shape."

"Stop. I'm going to go with Asterisk, and you'll stay here and rest. Sinclair, will you keep an eye on him?"

"Of course. This isn't the first time I had to deal with this stubborn child."

"Ugugu…"

They still had to fight too, not as often as before, but at least twice a week Dominic and Reyes went out to some city on the other side of Hoenn or, rarely, Sinnoh, because Pokémon were idiots and humans were idiots and couldn't just come to a resolution, not even after such a tragedy, but they were used to it. Did they like it? No, but the world did not stop because they didn't like something. It didn't help that Sinclair was a pacifist, Jay was a lazy bastard, Louis quit, and Brendan ran solo. There weren't as many revolutionaries as before once the news of Mewtwo got out, and though most trainers did join to make up for the difference, their weakened force brought the revolution back to an impasse. Who the hell knew when it would ever be over.

"You know, I've never met a Pokémon as crazy as you, and no Pokémon has ever given me headaches like you, but you're still my best friend."

"Aww… Quit getting sappy, Reyes, you're gonna make me cry."

"So," Dominic yawned, turning his head towards the ocean surrounding Dewford as he laid with his back to the boat's side, "what's this next fight going to be like?" He was older, although it didn't show as much physically as in his personality, which mellowed out. Reyes appreciated the change, but he preferred Dominic's occasional childish fits more.

"Who knows?" Reyes replied, gunning the motor. "And who cares?"

"Not me," he admitted. "I'd be shocked to death if I woke up one day not kicking ass."

"Same here."

"Doesn't that make us crazy?"

"More like sensitized. We've been fighting all of our lives, and these days it's no different, except we have new trauma to keep us up at night."

"I didn't think," he said with a dry laugh, "that I'd live to be twenty, first of all, and that I'd still be waking up screaming like I did when I was a cub."

"You're never too old to be scarred. Keep that in mind."

"I do." He yawned again and closed his eyes. "It's been fifteen years now since the revolution started. D'ya think our American Dream has come any closer?"

He tilted his head back to look at the sky and really thought about it for a long while. "I honestly don't know." But when he looked back at Dominic, he was asleep. "Hah… Ha-ha…" he chuckled, slapping his forehead. "Just what the hell did I expect from him? Idiot…"