Chapter 0
"Hey," a Raichu said and sat by the pond's edge beside a Ninetales.
The Ninetales turned her head to the newcomer, smiling. "Hey, yourself," she purred, and leaned down to the rodent's level to nuzzle his neck.
The Raichu shivered slightly, sighed, and pulled the confused vixen's head away from him. "We...er... I ah..."
The Ninetales frowned. "What's wrong?"
"No-nothing," the Raichu blurted out, too quickly, and then looked away with a sigh. "I-it's just that...um..."
The Ninetales waited patiently, although deep inside, she wished that he'd just tell her what was on his mind already.
After another sigh, the Raichu sadly turned and stared at the gentle pond, reflecting the afternoon sky up above. "We... Um... Vixie, I-I'm sorry..."
Vixie blinked, and slightly tilted her head to the side, confused. "I don't think I get you," she frowned. "Have you done something wrong?"
Another sigh. "I'm about to..."
She was running out of patience. "Shock, what is it?"
Slowly, he turned and faced her, even though he doesn't want to. "I'm s-sorry... But... B-but I don't...think..." he couldn't stare at her any longer. He gritted his teeth and tore his gaze off of her, settling on gazing at the pond again. "I d-don't want to be your mate anymore."
Finally, he had said it. But the heavy weight he felt still lingered. Why was that? He took a glance, and saw Vixie's expression was mixed with confusion, anger, surprise, and mostly anger. Explanation. That is it. He needed to explain before he'll experience hell again.
Gulping, he held his paws up to forestall her. "I-I thought that I liked you, er, well, I still do, but not like you like you w-where I w-wanted to settle w-with you, b-but—!"
"But what?!" she snarled, fire escaping her mouth.
Shock flinched.
From the distance, two figures were watching the whole thing. An Ivysaur sighed, slightly shaking his head as he rubbed his forehead with a vine.
Beside him, a Raticate giggled before turning to him. "I'm betting two minutes from now."
The Ivysaur rolled his eyes. "...three."
"You're on!"
It was a lost cause, the Ivysaur thought. The Raticate has never lost a bet as far as he remembered. Though it was fun to play along with whatever fun she was having anyway. He just hoped that his other two friends won't destroy each other soon.
---
"Don't worry," a dark four-legged creature said. It had a sleek body, two pointed ears and a bushy tail. Its ears and tail had gold-colored rings on them. He nuzzled the other four-legged creature. "After this, we'll deal with that problem of yours."
The other four-legged creature was covered in fine, lilac fur. It had slender legs and dainty paws. Its ears were large, it has tufts of fur near its eyes, and had a small, red gem on its forehead. She shivered from the Umbreon's nuzzles, but she tried to nuzzle him back. After their little show of affection, she nodded at him. "Okay," she breathed out, smiling a bit. "For our last adventure."
The Umbreon arched an eyebrow at the Espeon, and chuckled. "Last? Hey," he nuzzled her again. "Every single day with you is an adventure."
Soon, the Umbreon stepped aside and turned his attention at the towering and glowing gemstone a few paces in front of them.
"Okay," he said, both creatures stood at the ready, and concentrated their energies, making their bodies glow slightly.
The melodic hum of the entire cavern was disrupted when the two creatures fired a beam towards the gem, and upon impact, instead of explosion, it instead looked as though the beam attached itself on the gem, its colors mixing with the ever-changing colors of the gemstone itself.
"I-it worked!" the Umbreon grinned, and took a sharp breath. "Okay now, let's extract its power...o-only a bit though..."
"O-okay," the Espeon nodded, and concentrated.
---
'This isn't right,' thought a young man as he bit his lower lip, his glaring eyes focused on his monitor screen as his mind furiously went overdrive. 'Why can't the page load my changes?!'
He was inside a well-lit office, wearing a thick jacket more fitting for the winter season. 'Damn, I hate this cold!' His thin build was not made for cold areas. He was raised in the countryside, after all, so he was used to warm temperatures. His request to make the office's temperature a little bearable were always rejected, with him receiving the same reason that the coldness was for the computers, and not for the employees. If only he wouldn't be fired, he would have already punched his boss to the moon months ago. The again, he doesn't have the strength to do so anyway.
"Tsk," he tsk'ed as he kept on glaring at his codes. 'The i.d.'s name is "container", right? That's what the page has, but why won't it load the CSS styles I've set?! This doesn't make any sen—oh...' He blinked at the tiny dot before the word 'container' on his screen. He quickly took a sharp breath as he leaned back, and gave himself a mighty slap in the face. 'Gah! Of course! Of all the stupid mistakes I'd make, I accidentally wrote it as a "class" instead of an "i.d!" God-freaking-damnit!' He sighed and looked at the time on the lower-right of his screen. 'And I've wasted twenty-seven minutes trying to figure out that stupid problem! Gah, I suck...'
He took another breath to calm himself down, and then looked around, glancing at his busy co-workers. Some were busy staring at their screens, whiles others were talking with one another, and a few were busy with the malfunctioning coffee machine by the corner.
'She's absent,' he thought as he went back to his screen. 'I wonder what's wrong. It's rare for her to...' he didn't realized it at first, but as soon as he did, he caught himself, and took a sharp breath. He found himself about to let his face fall to his keyboard. '...w-what just...? Was I about to faint?' He sat straight again and closed his eyes, breathing in and out.
---
"Krysie!" a female high school student called, waving a hand at another student who was by her locker. "Hurry up!"
"I know, I know!" Krystal replied with a small glare. Finally, she pulled out a book and closed her locker. With a huff, she ran towards her friend in the hall, and the two hurried towards somewhere. "G-geez! Why does our lockers had to be too freaking far away!"
"I told you to bring your books with you so you don't have to go all the way back!"
Krystal looked at her friend as though she was out of her mind. "What? You want me to carry three books for the entire afternoon?! No way!"
Her friend frowned as they took the stairs. "You're too lazy sometimes, you know that?"
"I'm a gamer! I'm saving my energy for later, so there's a diffe—oof!"
The two girls bumped into two other girls who were leisurely walking down the stairs, their cheerful conversation interrupted, and they were not about to ignore that.
"Watch it, nerd!" said the bumped one, glaring at the two offenders. She blinked, her furious face gone, but another blink, her furious face was back. "You two again?! You just can't stop yourselves from annoying us, huh?!"
"W-we're sorry!" Krystal's friend apologized, taking a step back. "We...we didn't see you..."
"Didn't see us?!" the other asked, feigning a surprised look.
Krystal glared daggers at them the whole time. "Have you two birdbrains ever heard of the 'keep right' rule?"
"Birdbrains?" the one who feigned surprised wasn't feigning now. "Why, you littl—"
"Ladies!" a teacher called, walking down the stairs. "Quiet or detention for all of y—oi!"
"K-Krysie?!" she dropped her books to catch her fainting friend. "H-hey!"
"Huh?" Krystal blinked, and blinked again, and just realized a teacher was walking down towards them. Her heart raced. Was she in trouble again?
"W-we didn't do anything!" the other two girls turned to the approaching teacher. "We swear!"
"Just go back to class," the teacher said firmly.
"Y-yes, sir," and the two girls turned to glare at them one more time before they stepped aside and walked down the stairs.
"Are you alright?" the teacher asked, placing a palm at Krystal's forehead.
"Ye-yes, I'm fine," Krystal replied. 'I fainted?'
"Hm..." the teacher pulled his hand back. "You seem to be fine." He turned to her friend. "Keep an eye on her, will you?"
"Ye-yes, sir!" she replied with a nod, and the teacher continued walking down the stairs. When he was out of earshot, she sighed and picked up her books. "Krysie, don't you ever dare faint while on the stairway ever again, please!"
"...that's the problem," Krystal whispered as they continued up the stairs. "...I don't know why I fainted..."
"Y-you're not..." she said, looked around, leaned closer, and whispered, "y-you're not pregnant, right?"
A healthy slap echoed through the hallways.
---
Red eyes glowed in the darkness of the cosmos, illuminating small parts of a white face of a creature that was once deep in slumber.
"Something's wrong..." a voice whispered in the nothingness as the face lit up, the glow slowly crept towards the creature's other body parts, revealing itself as a white equine-shaped being, with a golden cross-like wheel that was attached to its body, which started to glow brighter and brighter.
Its head turned, eyeing many, many, many twinkling dots in the darkness. Finally, it stopped, its red eyes focused on a certain star from far, far away.
"...hm..."
---
"I'm sorry!" Shock shouted, shielding his face with both paws as he was pinned on the ground by a mighty Ninetales.
"Sorry?!" Vixie snarled at him, "Sorry for leading me on?!"
Shock flinched.
The Ivysaur and the Raticate finally reached the two. "You owe me three berries," the latter whispered to the former.
The Ivysaur chose to ignore her. There was a more pressing matter they needed to focus on. "Alright. Settle down, you two."
"I was hoping we'd settle down!" Vixie snarled at the Raichu's face.
The Ivysaur rolled his eyes. "You know what I mean, Vixie. Calm down and—"
"Calm down?!" she asked, glaring at the grass-type. "He just broke my heart and you want me to calm down?!"
"She has a point, Saury," the Raticate whispered to the grass-type's ear.
He pushed her away with a vine. "You're not helping, Fay."
The Raticate giggled, and looked at the horizon. "Well, can I ask something that is totally unrelated to whatever is happening right now?"
"Yes, Fay," Shock whimpered, weakly glaring at her. "Buy me more time to wait for the inevitable..."
The rat pointed at where she was staring. "What's that black and scary-looking cloud coming towards us?"
"Buh?" Saur looked, and blinked. "Buh?"
With twitching eyes, Vixie humored them by looking as well. She wished she didn't. "Kyogre's tailfeathers..." she breathed out, ears and tails drooping.
"What?" Shock asked, squirming to set himself free as he grew rather curious to what everyone was looking at. Thankfully, Vixie didn't care about him at that point, so he managed to get up. He looked around, and noticed that a growing number of Pokémon in the area were all looking at where his friends were looking as well. Finally, he turned to look, and paled. "Celebi's womb..." He blinked. "...er..."
None of them knew what it was, but their instinct told them that it was something not good.
"Bet it's gonna devolve us," Fay said, still looking at the approaching...thing.
Saur's ear twitched. Now that was just silly. He might win for once. "I bet something else will happen."
"Apricorn?"
Saur blinked. Now why would Fay need apricorns? Anyway, "deal," he smiled. No way he'd lose this one. Now, to frown at whatever was approaching them.
---
"It... I-it hurts..." the Espeon hissed through gritted teeth, shivering, and barely standing on four paws.
A glowing Umbreon beside her was barely standing up, shaking, and heavily panting for breath. "J-just...let it fade... L-let it fa—"
"Ahh—!" the Espeon screamed in pain, but was cut off when a magical surge of energy light 'exploded' on her, blinding the Umbreon for a short moment. The light explosion didn't even last two seconds, and the Espeon was already lying on the ground, unconscious, and no longer an Espeon.
"Levie!"
---
"Krystal!"
"Huh?" the young high school girl blinked, and found her world tilted to the side, and shaking. She then felt a hand on her back, shaking her.
Then, strong hands grabbed her shoulders and pushed her to sit straight on her chair. Her teacher's face came into focus. "Hey, hey!" he lightly slapped her.
"Ouch!" Krystal spat, then glared at her teacher. "W-what was that for?!"
Her teacher and a few of the students near her sighed in relief. "You fainted," her teacher said, as he pulled her up to stand.
Krystal blinked, shaking a bit. She suddenly found herself to weak to stand up.
A hand touched her forehead. "Hm," her teacher hm'ed as he led her out the room. "Read pages seventy to seventy-eight," he announced as they were about to leave the room. "I'll give a short quiz when I return."
A chorus of low groans echoed in the room.
Krystal bit her bottom lip. She's gonna be blamed for that quiz, she was sure...
---
"Arceus, help us!"
"Oh my Arceus, what just happened?!"
"What in Arceus' anus happened to us?!"
"What in the name of Arceus is going on?!"
Arceus blinked as he hovered far above the earth. Ever since he arrived to this familiar world, he was bombarded with the thoughts of the living that were all calling his name. And he doesn't even know why.
---
A massive, leonine quadruped Pokémon stood on the edge of a cliff, staring at the tall mountains beyond the sea of leaves. The large Pokémon is covered in brown fur and a long, light gray mane along its entire back, its gray wing-like plates reflected the golden beams of the setting sun.
"Hm..." the massive beast growled lowly through its faceplate of red and grey, its red eyes focused on the spot of the massive forest where it saw a noticable glow of energy. It had a feeling, it wasn't sure what, but it told him to investigate.
With a powerful jump, the massive beast fell down towards the forest below, running on the steep face of the mountain.
---
"W-what's going on here?!" Celebi asked, surprised, as she hovered in the middle of the pond. She arrived after she heard shouts and shrieks that echoed all throughout the forest. She looked around, and not recognizing anyone who was crying and shouting and running around and calling her.
She was confused about that strange wave of darkness earlier, and she was now even more confused as to what was going on to the Pokémon in her forest.
A few Pokémon were calling her, but she doesn't recognize them.
...no. Her eyes grew wide. She does recognize them, from a long time ago! "S-saur?! Fay?!" she immediately flew towards the two Pokémon by the pond. "Y-you're—!"
The Rattata smiled, nodding. "Yup! So, any ideas where we can get Pink Apricorns, Bi? Saury owes me a few!"
The Bulbasaur beside her sighed. "Fay..."
Bi blinked. Yep, they were her friends, alright. "C-can I ask for your help?"
"Sure!" Fay chirped, then turned to glare at Saur. "Don't hope that I'll forget those apricorns, Saury! Or you'll be sorry!"
Saur rolled his eyes with a frown, ignoring her chuckles.
"Help me calm everyone down," Bi said, turning. But before she could start, however, she looked back at Saur. "And don't use sleep powder, please."
Saur frowned even further.
---
'This is bad,' a glowing Umbreon thought, weakly growling at the many Pokémon that surrounded him in the forest they were in.
The devolved Pokémon that surrounded him were glaring at him and demanding answers about why he hadn't devolved and if he had something to do with the devolution.
His eye twitched as the unconscious Eevee on his back shivered. Even though Levie was already unconscious, she was still in pain from the power of the evolution that they 'stole.' They never meant to steal the power. All they wanted was to get a little of its power to evolve into anything they wanted. They also had no idea how to return it. Of all their adventures, they only figured out how to absorb energy, courtesy of their Moonlight and Morning Sun abilities...
An angry Ponyta finally lost her patience, snarled, and dashed—
"P-Pyra! Wait!"
—towards the Umbreon, head at the ready to headbutt the dark-type.
The Umbreon faced the approaching fire-type, and his eye twitched after a few more Pokémon followed the Ponyta's idea.
---
"Going to visit your brother again?" a young man asked as he placed his thumb on a biomatrix system, scanning his fingerprint.
"Yeah," Jay replied, checking his sidebag's contents if he didn't forget anything, vision dimming. "Same as usua—"
"Whoa there!" the young man caught his collapsing friend in time, and steadied him. "Wow Jay," he frowned, "you really need to go and see a doctor!"
"I-I'll be fine," Jay stammered, pressing his thumb on the biomatrix. "I will be... So don't worry," he smiled weakly at him.
"It's been weeks since you started blacking out, Jay," his frowning friend reminded him.
Jay sighed as the two went to the elevator. "I know, Mike, I know..."
"And I don't think it's healthy," Mike continued, he and Jay stepping inside the elevator. Once inside, he pressed on the ground floor button, and the two quietly watched the doors close. He sighed. "I'm worried, Jay."
Jay sighed as well. "I know..." He scratched his nape. "I...I'm just don't have time to see a doctor..."
Mike deadpanned. "Jay, you're visiting your brother in a hospital, where—oh, I don't know—there might be a slim chance that a doctor or two might be there?"
"Har har," Jay glared at him.
Mike rolled his eyes. "Fine. Change of topic." He grinned, and placed an arm behind his friend's neck. "So, how's progress with Claire?"
"Let's talk about my fainting spells again..." Jay groaned.
"That bad, huh?"
"I didn't say anything."
---
"I don't understand it either," Krystal said as she lied down on her bed, waving a pen on one hand and a cellphone on her ear with the other. She suddenly glared at her notebook. "And would you please stop with that pregnant nonsense! I already showed you the doctor's result, and no, I am not pregnant!"
She turned, her back on the bed as she stared at the shirtless Sephiroth poster on her room's ceiling. She lifted her free hand up, staring at her open hand.
She sighed. "No. Still nothing. I don't think the doctors even know what's wrong with me..." She frowned, letting her hand fall back to the bed with a soft thud. She blinked. "Well, about that. Well, I think I only heard that name while I was out..."
She furrowed her brow in thought. Who was that voice she heard in the darkness of unconsciousness? And why was it calling a name?
"...Levie..." she breathed out. She blinked, and laughed. "Soul mate?! Ha! As if that were to happen! ... Oh, shut up..." she glared at her ceiling, though she wished she was glaring at her friend on the other line.
---
Panting for breath, Shadow looked around. He couldn't see anyone. He couldn't sense anyone. That was good. He needed to rest, and badly. Gritting his teeth, he pressed on, muttering words of comfort to the unconscious Eevee on his back.
Hidden in the shadows of the forest, meters behind the dark-type, a massive figure stood, staring at the Umbreon's retreating form.
---
Arceus stood before the towering and faintly-glowing gemstone, its red eyes clearly staring at the said gem, yet its focus was not there.
After a few seconds of silence, a small and pink creature floated out from the tunnel-like entryway of the large dome-like cavern.
"Unky Arcie," Mew said with a tired frown, floating beside the large creature's head. "I still can't find whoever was responsible for this... S-sorry..."
After a few quiet seconds, Arceus only moved his eyes to look at her. "You've abandoned your post, Mew."
Mew groaned, scratching her head. "I know, I know... You've said that for, like, countless times already! A-and I'm sorry!" She turned and glared at...everything. "This place is just too boring for me to live! All I ever do here is sit and talk at rocks...literally!"
Arceus sighed quietly. Why must Mew be so childish? They are of the same age, being born at the same time eons ago, yet their personalities differ greatly.
Pushing the thought to the side, Arceus looked back at the tower. "...search again."
Mew groaned, but floated back to the tunnel anyway. At least she'll be out in the open, limited as it was.
---
Shadow sat by the edge of a small stream. Gently, he lied down on his stomach, and tilted himself to the side, where he gently slid the unconscious Eevee to the ground. With that done, he ignored his thirst and turned, and growled.
Entei stepped out from the trees' shadows.
"W-what do you want?"
The legendary beast did not answer and continued approaching them. He simply stared at the two Pokémon before him.
With a twitching eye, the Umbreon created a ball of shadow and launched it at the approaching legendary.
Entei simply lifted a massive paw and slapped the fast-approaching orb, deflecting it elsewhere.
Shadow gasped, and took a step back. His hind paw landed on the cool water, and he immediately pulled it back on dry land with a shiver. He then returned his attention at the legendary. "I...I'm warning you!"
Finally, Entei stopped, inches in front of the growling Umbreon.
The massive height difference was making Shadow's neck hurt, but he stood his ground.
After staring at the Umbreon for a while, Entei moved his gaze towards the unconscious Eevee. After a few more seconds of silence, "...that Eevee," he said, voice mighty and deep, "is glowing."
"I can see that," came Umbreon's snark reply. "Now go away!"
He eyed the Umbreon again. "...something happened. Pokémon devolved. You didn't."
Shadow's eye twitched. A hoard of Pokémon was one thing. A legendary was another!
"Do you know why?" the legendary asked.
"Do I l-look like someone who knows?"
After a few seconds of intense silence, Entei nodded. "Indeed, you do."
---
"Hey, bro," Jay whispered a greeting as he sat beside the bed where his brother lay in sleep. He opened his bag and pulled out a brown paper bag. "Brought you your favorite: donuts." He placed it on the small bedside table behind him, and sighed, frowning.
Just how much longer does his brother have to be like this? Jay was trying so hard not to think about it too much, but each time he leaves work, he gets reminded by it, and it really anchors him down from continuing his day...
Still, he was here now, so he might as well tell him a few things on his mind. Doctors said that his brother can still hear. "Hm...where to sta—"
He gasped for breath, suddenly feeling a very painful headache, almost to the point of him blacking out. He gritted his teeth as he clutched his head with both arms.
"Are you alright, sir?"
Jay blinked, and turned to look. The pain made his vision blurry, but he recognized that it was a nurse who stood by the door. "I-I'll be fine. Just a minor headache."
The nurse shook her head with a frown. "It doesn't look like it. Let me help you."
"N-no need," he said, faking a smile. "It's gone now—krrrt!" He gritted his teeth as a very painful feeling shot through his head.
"S-sir?!"
---
"Augh!" a Jolteon gasped after his back was slammed against a tree. He fell down on the ground, teetered, and jumped out of the way before a wave of fire could swallow him. As painful as it was, he needed to let the evolution aura inside of him to change him into something again. 'Into a Vaporeon, Arceus damnit!'
---
Arceus blinked, and slowly turned his head towards the tunnel. After a few quiet seconds, he sighed, ignored a few more voices that kept calling his name, and turned back to the gem again.
---
Shadow jumped away from the burning spot where he was scorched for a few seconds. It was a good thing that he was a Flareon now, else that would have hurt a lot more, he knew.
He gritted his teeth, and glowed.
Entei wasted no time and blasted him another wave of hot flames.
A powerful torrent of water struck the beam of fire, and it quickly worked itself towards the startled legendary. It struck him, and it pushed him back for a feet or two. When he thought that it was over, another cool torrent of water struck him. He gritted his teeth, and finally managed to jump to the side.
A Vaporeon was panting for breath, glaring at the soaked legendary.
"...impressive," Entei said, and took a step forward. "But that was too weak of an attack if you wish to stop me."
Shadow growled, and slammed both front paws on the ground, summoning a whirlpool of water that sprouted from the ground, lifting him up.
Entei furrowed his brow as he stared at the Vaporeon on top of the water tornado.
"Let's see how weak this is!" Shadow shouted, and immediately, he slammed both front paws again, making the water tornado to quickly dissolve, and as soon as he landed back on the wet ground, a mighty wave of water sprouted in front of him, surging towards Entei with a loud roar.
Entei glared at the tidal wave, and breathed out a powerful wave of fire. But it did little to no changes at all, and soon, Entei cried in pain as he was swallowed by the crashing waves and carried him away.
Shadow grinned a painful grin, yet he felt victorious. His grin didn't last however, as he realized that more will probably go after him. He needed someplace to hide. They needed someplace to hide.
Shadow ignored his painful body, and turned to Lev—his lungs lost all air. Levie was gone!
---
"Are you calm now?" Bi asked, frowning.
Vixie was shivering, but nodded anyway.
Bi nodded as well, and then turned to her other friends. "Watch over her, okay?"
Saur and Fay nodded.
Bi turned to Shock. "How are you holding up?"
Shock's ears drooped as he sighed. He then looked at her with a tired smile. "I'm just glad that I'm still alive. I swear, Vixie would have killed me if this didn't happen."
Bi frowned even further.
---
"Levie!" Shadow shouted in the darkness of the night, running on the edge of the stream. "L-Levie!"
He was an Eevee now, and for him, it was a perfect disguise for him not to get any more attention that what he was doing now. Then again, the Pokémon he passes by were too busy crying over what happened to them to give him any attention anyway.
But that gave him little to no comfort all the same, for it would mean that the Pokémon were too busy to notice the one he was looking for. "L-Levie! Where are you?!" he shouted, forcing himself to run and search, despite his body's protest.
---
Far away, as the waking sun's golden rays graced the forest, a Chikorita frowned at her reflection, ignoring the crashing noise of the waterfall meters away from where she sat. She sighed, rubbing her paw with the other.
A Surskit came to her side, and placed a skinny leg on the Chikorita's back. "It's not so bad, beloved. We at least still have each other, right?"
The Chikorita slowly nodded as a small smile slowly formed on her lips. She turned to him and tried to smile brightly. "R-right..." she leaned forward and nuzzled his cheek. "As long as we have each other, then whatever happened shouldn't be a hindrance to happiness."
The Surskit could never agree more as he nuzzled her back. Opening his eyes after a contented sigh, he blinked, and unceremoniously broke their little show of affection, making his mate frown.
"What's wrong?" the Chikorita asked, frowning.
The Surskit pointed a leg behind her. "Is...is that what I think it is?"
Blinking, the Chikorita turned, and gasped. How she had missed that, she'll never know, but there was no time to think about it. She and the Surskit dashed towards the brown and unconscious Pokémon by the river meters away from them.
---
Jay scratched his head as he stared at his monitor screen. He did not understand the instructions that his boss has given him. Plus, he was afraid to ask for clarification. His boss had been very annoyed of him and his dizzy spells as of late.
His friends even gave him a newspaper article of a high school girl who was now in a coma after suffering from dizzy spells for a month, but he shrugged it off.
It has been two months now since his fainting and dizzy spells started, but Jay kept on working anyway, despite his friends' and his parents' protests. He needed to work, for he knew that his parents couldn't afford to pay another day's worth of his brother being in the hospital.
He rubbed his head. There goes the dizzy spells again. He was just thankful for the nurse that had given him prescription. But, it meant another additional expense. But he thought of a way to save money, by only taking a pill if he really needed to, like that awfully painful headache he had the other day.
Now, to concentrate on wor—
---
How many days has it passed? Or perhaps weeks? Or moons? Shadow couldn't tell. But he was exhausted that he swore that he'll faint at any given moment.
He gritted his teeth. No. It's not the time for weakness. Levie was still out there, and he needed to go and find her!
He took a deep breath, and glared at the path ahead. He can do this. He had to. He took another step—
—and tripped on an overgrown root of a tree, making him slip. Lying down on the forest ground, he forced his paws to get himself up, but none of them were listening to his mind anymore. He was just too weak to move now.
'...maybe, maybe a little rest wouldn't hurt...' he thought as he slowly closed his eyes. '...L-Levie... Sorry... But please... Wait just a little longer...'
