Of Ralts and Gallade

A/N: O'RAG is actually a completed fic. It took me too long to finish, but it's done and sitting in my hard drive in all its glory. To make a long story shorter, I'll be uploading chapters Monday morning, so we can all start the week off well and you'll never have to worry about this fic being left incomplete.

Chapter 1: The End

(***)

The world materialized in front of me as I plummeted towards the grey floor. The sudden overload of all my senses hit me like a freight train, sending sparks shooting across my vision as I collided with the concrete.

"It's just a ralts!" an irritated voice said behind me. I tried to comprehend the chaotic surroundings, my brows crashing together in confusion. The smell of chemicals and burning flesh clung to the back of my throat, suffocating me. I gagged, rolling out of the way of stomping feet. Shouting trainers ran down the hallway, pokémon launching attacks every which way. A spray of boiling water crashed into the wall above, raining down on me. I shouted as the burning liquid singed my white legs, pulling myself away with my arms and pressing as deeply into the concrete wall as I could. My head pounded, drowning out my thoughts, and my joints ached.

Nothing made sens—memories flooded back, knocking the wind out of my chest with their intensity. I didn't know where I was, but I knew why I was there. Shaking, I looked across the hall to see who'd released me from my poké ball.

Two men stood across from me in the doorway of another room, holding a sack of poké balls between them and releasing the pokémon inside as quickly as they could.

I froze and my heart stopped; my breath caught in my throat. I recognized those retina-burning orange hoodies and the black logos on the back. The Reliance grunt uniform. My frame quivered as I began to comprehend the situation, I looked up and down the busy hallway and up at the trainers running past. My trainer wasn't one of them.

The first man—taller and brawnier than the second-cursed as he reached the bottom of the bag, hundreds of empty poké balls strewn behind him. "I was kinda hoping they'd have slipped up and put something strong in here," he grumbled, tossing it behind him with a scowl.

"What are you talking about?" asked the second, younger man.

The older man rolled his eyes, running a hand through his greased brown hair. "Well, I thought I might be able to get something good out of this, but I suppose I'll have to settle for something weak," he grumbled, looking up. His eyes locked with mine. "I suppose a ralts could do," he said with a shrug, picking himself off the ground and stepping towards me.

The younger man looked horrified, grabbing his companion by the arm and holding him back. "You're seriously going to steal someone's pokémon? After all this?" he asked with wide eyes.

The man jerked away from him. "Don't get all high and mighty on me, kid. Your hands are as dirty as mine. No harm in grabbing myself a little parting gift," he said, pushing past the trainers and pokémon racing down the hallway to get close to me.

My heart raced, increasing in speed until it felt more like a constant thrum. I sat frozen in place, screaming for my body to move, but it wouldn't.

"I can't let you do that," the younger man, called.

The first man raised his hand without looking back, giving the teen the middle finger as he stepped closer to me. Behind him, the black-haired boy reached for one of the poké balls strapped to his thigh. The flow of trainers and pokémon rushing down the hall between us began to lessen.

"Go, Yanma!" the Reliance boy shouted, and the sound of his voice over the chaos caused the man to pause. The large bug type flitted around the boy's shoulder, watching the older man with its horrifying compound eyes.

The man rounded on the boy, snarling. "You really want to play it this way, kid?" he growled, reaching for his own pokémon. Just as the tips of his fingers brushed the nearest poké ball, the teen pointed at the man, shouting, "Yanma, use Super Sonic!"

All at once, the spell on my body broke. Yanma began to pump his wings until they blurred. I tore down the now empty hallway, panic flooding my body and electrifying every cell. My heart throbbed in my ears, and my lungs couldn't expand far enough. Something exploded behind me, sending me flying forward. My knees ground against the concrete, sending tears to my eyes, but I didn't care. Without looking back I scrambled back to my feet, hurtling down the hall as fast as my stubby legs could carry me.

Sirens blared, causing me to jump. They roared and I could feel every whine in my chest. Scarlet lights by the ceiling flicked on, metallic pieces inside circling and filling the grey hall with constantly changing crimson light. I ran down the rest of the hallway, fingers jammed in my ear slots trying to block the deafening wail.

I rounded the corner, spilling into an expansive room, filled with humans and pokémon shouting and fighting each other. The electrical lights had blown, showering sparks on the people below and covering the room in darkness. Every three or so seconds the room filled with stark crimson light, exposing the chaos, and then sirens blared before plunging the room back into darkness. Large metal cages lay in shambles against the wall, and futuristic pieces of large science equipment lay broken all over the battlefield. Lightning rained from the sky, filling the room with flashes of light. Thick vines curled and crushed anything in their path while boulders shot across the room, burying themselves in the opposite wall with loud crashes.

Adults wearing orange hoodies and lab coats tried to coral the trainers, pushing them away from the large, garage-style door that consumed the opposite end of the room.

The sight paralyzed me, rooting me to the ground. My chest heaved faster, trying desperately to absorb enough air. The room spun, and my throat closed, choking me.

Sweaty hands yanked me off the ground, pressing me to an equally damp chest.

"Hold on little Claire's Ralts!" shouted a horribly familiar voice. Shivers wracked my body as I dared to look up. In the flashing light I could see that distinct flabby neck and nonexistent jaw line. The greasy, oily, stringy green hair that haunted my nightmares. His hot breath condensed on my head, making me want to vomit. He smelled like Lysol, body order, and delusions. Of all people, it had to be Hilton.

I jerked in his arms as he ran with heavy, plodding steps through the battlefield. I shouted angrily, struggling against his thick arms. A volley of glowing stars shot over his head, missing the teenager by less than an inch. He was going to get us killed!

"I've got you, Claire's Ralts!" he called over the bedlam, pressing me even tighter against his sweat-soaked body.

"How did they escape‽" shouted one of the Reliance grunts as she passed.

"Someone call the admins!" shouted another over the roar of attacks. The entire room began to shake, causing Hilton to stumble forward. He rammed into the wall, squashing my arm between the concrete and his heavy body. I screamed in pain, jerking the throbbing limb out from under his arm. The sirens flashed, making seeing difficult and my head pound.

"Over there!" Hilton shouted, hobbling over to a staircase that shot downwards into darkness.

"No you idiot! The exit is over there!" I shouted, knowing he wouldn't be able to understand me. Still, I twisted around, pointing towards the big door all the other escaping trainers tried to reach.

Hilton, eternally oblivious, jogged down the narrow staircase anyways. He let go of me with one hand, securing his grip on the rail and limped down the stairs. A stream of flames jetted past. It crashed into the wall, and boiling gases washed over us.

Hilton screamed, jumping back. He slammed into the wall, launching me into empty space.

My stomach leapt into my mouth, but before I could yell obscenities at Hilton, my head smashed into the lip of a concrete stair. Blue and white sparks filled my vision, and pain like I'd never felt before consumed my body like fire, eating away at my mind, and burning and biting its way down my spinal cord. I may have bounced my way down the rest of the stairs, but awareness of anything else besides anything but my own exploding head was beyond comprehension.

It felt like someone stabbed the back of my head with a hot knife and continually twisted the blade, tangling my brain into knots. Vaguely I registered that I'd finally landed on flat ground, but the agony was too great for me to care. I couldn't even tell if I was screaming or not. Burning sparks shot down my spine like lightning and reverberated around my skull, attacking the base of my eyes and sending me into convulsions.

A voice echoed in the distance, vainly trying to contact me. Tingling numbness spread across my body, blocking my sensation of touch like a fog. My vision flashed white consuming me, and my pain vanished. I blinked in surprise, but the whiteness faded to black. With a sharp inhale of breath, I realized this blackness was reality. I sent a hand back to feel the back of my green skull plate where the pain originated from. It couldn't feel anything; my head and fingers were too numb. My breath caught in my throat. Was I dying? Would the rescue team find my body months later in this dark hallway?

I looked back up the stairs. The battle still raged on; sirens filled the staircase with crimson every five seconds.

A hooded grunt stepped into the stairwell with a houndour following behind, fire trailing from her mouth and filling the staircase with ghastly vermillion light.

My eyes widened as my heart began to accelerate. I couldn't let them find me! I scrambled to my knees, arms almost collapsing under me. Stumbling to my feet, I staggered down the hallway as fast as I could manage with numbed limbs. I clung to the wall, hoping they would miss me as they passed.

The houndour jumped down from the last stair, letting out a growl that reverberated around the dark hallway. The light of her flames bathed me in red. She glanced back at her trainer. As soon as she looked forward, she'd spot me.

Barely keeping a scream from passing through my clenched lips, I stumbled forward, running a hand along the wall to support myself. The wall disappeared and I fell to the side, losing my balance. I tumbled inside of a dark room, and the door began to hiss shut behind me. Yelping, I jumped back as the door snapped closed. Loud shouting echoed from the hallway, and I heard something loud hit the door. I scrambled backwards, jumping to my feet and watching the door with wide eyes. A soft green light from behind me lit the room, giving me enough light to try to pry the door open by shoving my clumsy fingers in the crack. Why had the door closed on me? Was it automatic? Arceus I sure hoped not, or those grunts would be able to find me with ease. Quickly I realized my arm strength couldn't hope to move the metal door, so I redirected my attention to surveying the room.

A large tank stretched the entire length of the back wall, filled with glowing green gel. Hundreds of wires snaked inside of it, attached to a thin, pale body.

I gasped. It was a human child! He couldn't have been any older than twelve, but I'd always been so bad at judging the ages of humans. His hair hung around him, suspended in the goo. The green light bathed his narrow limbs, making him look more alien than human. They stripped him down to shorts, letting the ghoulish light catch in the hollows of his body. Wires fed down his throat and plunged into the veins of his arms. The gel immobilized him, but so did the metal chains shackling him to the ground. Just who was this kid that he required chains too?

He slowly opened his eyes, locking gazes with me. I screamed in surprise, jumping backwards. The muffled sounds of the battle above intensified, shaking the room as something else barreled into the door. All at once, the battle went silent. I froze, listening. Was it safe? Had the victor moved on?

I looked between the door and the human in the tank, hesitating. He watched me, unblinking, staring straight in to my soul. I froze in place, looking between him and the door. I didn't know how to free him and now could be my only chance to escape. Could I really just leave him for Reliance though?

Before I could decide the door slid open and two humans stumbled inside. I recognized the first as the grunt who'd freed me. The Reliance boy!

"Claire's ralts!" cried Hilton happily, rushing past the Reliance grunt and picked me off the floor, cradling me in his drenched arms. I snarled at him. Last time he held me, he dropped me down a flight of stairs! I squirmed out of his grip. Even the grunt was preferable to his clumsy hands.

"Arceus," the Reliance boy breathed, stepping up to the tank and placing his hand on the glass. "So this is what they were hiding…" he mumbled. "Alright, hang on kid!" he shouted, stepping back from the glass and looking around the room.

"What are you doing?" Hilton asked, stumbling forward, almost dropping me a second time.

"We've got to get him out," the Reliance grunt called, picking up a stool from the corner. The trapped boy watched him from behind the glass, following the grunt's movement with narrowed eyes.

Behind us trainers and pokémon rushed past the door, shouting above the sound of the sirens and their own pounding feet.

Without so much as even a glance backward, the grunt slammed the chair into the glass with all his might. Spider web cracks sliced across the glass, but it didn't give. He held the stool over his head, taking a deep breath in preparation for another strike.

Before the grunt could bring the stool down, the glass exploded, sending the three of us flying backwards. The shards of glass sped past my face, reflecting the green light as they spun before embedding themselves in the wall behind us. The gel flooded out of the tank, filling the room with a chemical smell so strong I felt the room spin beneath me. It clung to the inside of my mouth and throat, burning my nose and stinging my eyes. Hilton shifted under me, and I heard glass clatter to the floor. I rolled off his plush stomach and on the ground, trying to regain my sense of balance. The child stood in the ocean of knee-height gel, still chained to the floor. His eyes glowed blue, and the chains' metal links writhed, warping out of their original shape until they fell off, plunging into the goo.

Even though the pervasive numbness plaguing me put a damper on my psychic powers, I didn't need them to feel the cold fury radiated from his psyche, filling the room as completely and suffocatingly as the acrid smell. He yanked the cords out of his arms and off his back before clutching the bundle that snaked into his mouth.

I cringed, unable to look away as his tugged what seemed like yards of tubing out of his lithe body. The more cords he removed, the more his psychic power spiked. It filled the room with a hum, vibrating the horn on my head with its intensity. He was out for blood. Gallons of it.

What kind of monstrous human had we unleashed on the world‽

After clearing himself from the wires, he swept his gaze across on us, landing on the grunt. His upper lip curled into a snarl, eyes blazing. His form began to glow white, the brightness forcing me to avert my eyes. As the light faded and I looked back, to see not a human boy, but a pokémon floating in its place.

"Latios," the grunt breathed, awe and terror written on his face as stared at the legendary.

Latios shot forward, blurring. He rammed the teen into a wall and held him there with psychic energy.

I gasped, breath catching in my throat.

The boy writhed and squirmed, clawing at the invisible noose strangling him.

"Hey, what are you doing‽" Hilton shouted, but without even a glance in his direction, Latios sent Hilton flying to the other corner of the room, colliding with the wall.

I froze, scared motionless by the sight.

'Tell me,' came an echoing, telepathic voice. The voice of a child. 'Why shouldn't I kill you?' he hissed, and Latios tightened his hold on the grunt. The boy's face went pale as he gasped for breath.

'You're argument isn't very compelling,' Latios spat.

I wanted to speak up. I wanted to mention how he'd saved me, and stopped the man who tried to steal me, but the words hung in my burning throat, stopped by an invisible wall. My hand trembled violently, and my breathing came in shallow gasps.

"Fine, K-kill me," the grunt managed to wheeze "J-just help them escape," he finished, using his remaining energy to glance in Hilton's and my direction.

The latios paused, examining the Reliance boy with narrowed eyes.

"S-stop!" called Hilton, pushing himself up from across the room. "He's the one who freed everyone! He knows the way out!" Hilton shouted, stumbling over to us through the darkness. "He saved you too!" he added, panting as he reached us.

The grunt stopped squirming, and his body went limp.

Snarling, Latios withdrew, and the black-haired boy collapsed in a pale heap.

"Hey, did you kill him‽" Hilton shouted, pushing past Latios to sink to the grunt's side.

'Mostly,' the Latios said, still glaring at Reliance boy. 'Do not make me regret not finishing the job,' he hissed.

The grunt broke into a coughing fit, and I sighed in relief. Thank Arceus our only ticket out of here hadn't been killed off by a homicidal legendary.

"We have to hurry," he managed through his coughs. "The grunts aren't going to be far behind. I had my yanma lead the others to the compound's back exit," he explained, slowly helping himself up. "It's less fortified than the main entrance," he finished, voice raw. He rubbed his throat, and I could already see purple bruises beginning to bloom across the pale skin.

'If you mislead us, I will kill you without hesitation,' Latios said, eyes flint and words arctic. 'And if you don't mislead us, I still might kill you,' he added, and I could sense the terrifying truth in his words. The combination of his rage and the chemical smell began to make me feel woozy, and the dampening numbness on my brain refused to part.

The Reliance boy nodded grimly, massaging his throat one last time before moving towards the door. He stepped past me before pausing. With tender hands, he bent down and picked me up, holding me loosely in his arms.

"I'm sorry about before," he mumbled to me, obviously not expecting an answer, before turning back to Latios and Hilton.

"It's this way," he called, stepping out into the hallway.

The grunt jogged down the poorly lit corridor with ease that only comes from familiarity. It unnerved me. I almost forgot why Latios attacked him in the first place. That hoodie didn't look so orange in the dark.

I heard Hilton's heavy pants from behind, and Latios's loud stomping filled the hall. We passed through the empty hallway, muffled sirens wailing from the floor above. Only the stray emergency light lit our path and exposed the deep gouge marks and scorched walls, some still smoking. My stomach fluttered with uneasiness as our steps echoed through the silent hall. Where was everyone? Could he really be leading us into a trap?

The chemical stench still hung in my nose and twisted my stomach. I swallowed the need to vomit and breathed through my nose instead to clear the rancid odor.

We rounded a corner to an identical hallway.

'How much farther?' Latios growled.

"Not long," the Reliance boy breathed, his voice hoarse. "We're almost th—"

Shouts broke out from behind us, and the walls shook.

The grunt cursed. "They unlocked the door. Run!" he shouted, barreling forward. In the distance I could see the faint outline of a door.

"Wait! I can't keep up!" Hilton shouted through labored breaths. The grunt skidded to a stop, twisting around while Latios zoomed past us. Hilton heaved, doubled over in the middle of the hallway, rolls of fat rippling with every inhale.

I wanted to tear his hair out. We were going to get recaptured because he was so out of shape! I wanted to scream at the Reliance boy. Tell him to leave Hilton behind and run for the door that'd been so close a moment ago. The grunt jumped to Hilton's side, shifting me to one arm like a human infant and dragging Hilton forward with his other.

The hallway flashed red as the hoard of shouting grunts rounded the corner, pokémon taking the lead and sprinting towards us with gaping jaws.

The Reliance boy shoved me into Hilton's arms and pushed him forward.

"Go!" he bellowed, reaching for his last poké ball. "I'll hold them off!" he said.

'No,' growled a voice, and Latios flew back past us with a snarl. 'I will.'

He situated himself between the black-haired boy and the oncoming trainers.

"But-!" the grunt began to protest.

'Leave! I'll deal with you later,' Latios shouted. The psychic pressure in the air spiked as his opened his mouth, and a fuchsia ball began to form.

"Let's go!" shouted Reliance boy, coming up behind Hilton and me and yanking us out the open backdoor.

We burst into the evening air, and I inhaled deeply. Letting the rich smell of the forest invade my lungs and flush out the toxic chemicals. After Arceus-knows-how-long inside a poké ball, my internal body clock was thoroughly disoriented. Shades of light grey painted the sky, but all indications of the sun were absent, catching the world between night and day in a muddy twilight that still seemed beautiful to our tired eyes. A warm wind caressed my weary face.

"Keep going!" the grunt called, pointing to the path of crushed bushed and cracked branches. "Maybe we can meet up with the other trainers who escaped!" he said. After endless white hallways, the messy, unorganized beauty of nature nearly brought me to tears. We were free! I almost didn't care that Hilton's sweaty hands were about to drop me again.

Reliance boy jogged into the woods, following the path of destruction into the gloomy haze drifting above the ground. Hilton limped after him, struggling desperately to keep pace. I spared a glance back. Legendary though he may be, could Latios really hold back that many grunts? Hilton's only pokémon was absent, I couldn't hold my own in a fight, and the grunt appeared to only have one pokémon left. If the other Reliance grunts caught up to us we'd be destroyed.

The Reliance compound itself was tucked neatly away into a hill face, painted shades of brown and green to be invisible from the air. It looked so ordinary from the outside, but who knows how deeply those winding hallways descended into the earth.

A high-pitched whine sounded from the building, increasing in pitch.

"Take cover!" the Reliance boy shouted, diving behind a tree. Hilton dropped to the ground, squashing me between his sweaty body and the damp soil.

Amethyst light pierced every cranny of the forest, followed by an enormous, deafening blast. The shock wave followed, mowing through the trees, leaves flashing their silvers. It smashed into my chest and bounced around in my lungs, driving the air from them. I gasped, going limp. My eyes rolled up into my head, and blackness fell.

(***)

A/N: I've been writing this story since I was in the womb, and I'm going to finish the thing if it kills me. And for the record, it's totally cool with me if you point out typos I may have missed—in fact, I'd prefer it so it doesn't break the immersion of future readers!

Fun Fact: Word keeps trying to correct "Latios" to "Latinos."

Until next week, friends!