(Author's note: I do not own Pokémon just most of these characters.)

"Son, you must learn to control your aura." a guardian explained to his son. This earned him some questioning looks from the raven haired boy who was standing in front of him. "Aura is the make up of all living things and we have come from an ancient line of people who learned to use aura, some use it for good, others for evil. Wars were fought and in the end a Pokémon named Lucario helped the side of good make peace. In return we taught them to use their aura in ways that no Lucario thought of doing."

The child looked as if he understood so the father went on, "From that day every man with this ability has been called an Aura guardian, and under the circumstances I will train you to master the ability that you have found... so there isn't another incident like the one at school." The child lowered his head, his eyes to the ground, shame written across his face.

"Yes, where you accidentally drained that girl of most of her aura and so now she lays half dead." When his son heard this, he lifted his eyes scowling. "It wasn't my fa-" the boy was interrupted by his father' hand, assuring him everyone knew that.

"Wait, if you know how to give her aura back why don't you do it?" the boy was skeptical of his dad still, "I'm not the one who did it. So I am not the one who can undo it. If you are going to ask why I can't, it's because you have her aura and if I gave her aura I'd be in the same position as she is now. So you will have to give the aura back yourself, Charles." The guardian looked almost as bitter as the words felt, both of them knowing they have no choice in the matter.

(Monday after school)

*Charles's Pov*

"You're home early… by about, oh I don't know, the entire day." My father scolded me as I walked into the kitchen. I gave him a glance, heading to the pantry for something to eat. "The teacher told me to go home, or rather: you're not welcome back into school until Erica is back and you apologize to her for doing... whatever… you… did..." I explained while trying my hardest not to scowl as the bitter-sweet words passed my lips. 'Who knew, teachers didn't know everything about this world,' I thought to myself, 'actually, scratch that, everyone knows that.'

I felt myself being broken from my thoughts as I felt a rough hand grab my shoulder, "Well, since you're home early we can start training." I wasn't sure what kind of training he was talking about, but I had a feeling I was about to find out as he pulled me out the back door into the yard.

"You can eat later, for now we're going," he said as he continued dragging me across the yard.

"Alright, your first test is a test of power," He explained as he let me go. Looking around I noticed that the area was anything but my back yard. Vines twisted over head and the area was surrounded by trees. I felt a hand grab my head and turn it so I would look forward. In front of me where there appeared to be a group of titanium sand bags hanging from thick, individual vines over head.

The task sounded simple enough, as I threw my fist into the metal, hearing a cracking sound from my hand in response, "Ouch, what the heck is the point of breaking my hands?" I scowled, rubbing my throbbing knuckles.

"Not like that! Like this!" he explained to me shaking his head while walking to a bag. He started by tucking himself back into a stance as his hands started to release a blue energy. I took a step back as I felt power flowing from the strange light. My eyes widened as my father's position changed without even seeming to move, the bag no longer remained on the rack but instead lied on the other side of the 'room'.

I was completely awestruck by the amount of power he possessed. My body shook as I took in what just happened. "Your turn," I heard him say as he got up and moved back. Snapping myself out of it, I rushed to one of the sand bags, closing my eyes as I tried to mimic what I just witnessed. Without looking I smashed my hand into the bag feeling confident, I earned another cracking sound from my hand. Grasping it in pain, I opened by eyes, upset to see all I did was knock it off the vines, nothing more nothing less.

I turned to see my dad was laughing, "Is that the best you got? I was better than that your age!" he was laughing so hard he fell over. As for me, I clenched my fists trying to keep my patience, my fear turning to anger inside me. Feeling more frustrated by his laughter by the second. "Put the bag back up!" I growled. Stifling his laughter, he got off the ground to reattach the fallen bag.

I closed my eyes again, this time I could feel the anger from him laughing at me burn inside me, and so did my aura. All I could think about was making my father pay for laughing in my face, but suddenly his laughing stopped as I drew my arm back and slammed my fists deep into the metal bag. This time, when I opened my eyes I didn't see the bag anywhere to be found and my hand didn't hurt. My dad was standing off to the side of me, almost as awestruck as I was before, his jaw hanging wide.

"What's wrong with you?" I asked, looking around for the bag. "You broke the titanium bag…" he barely managed to say, when I turned around me to where he was pointing I saw that he was right. Where the bag used to hang was now just scrap. Turning back to my dad, I saw he was biting his lip, motioning me to follow him to the next area.

"Ok, well, next test, agility."

I looked at the course and shrugged, "looks pretty simple if you ask me." I said plainly, my dad wasn't amused.

Turning away from me, he walked over to a bench and sat down. The logs started swinging back and forth as he sat down making the course look more like a maze. The ground started to shake as the floor in front of me opened up to reveal water below us and poles jutting out of the floor up to the logs.

"When you get to the other side without falling, you pass the test," he smirked, his face hiding the intention of this 'test'.

After about an hour of trying and failing at the maze, I was furious. Each time I tried through the test, a log would end up hitting me off a platform and into the water below.

"I hate this test," I growled, my fists clenched as my body shivered from my now soaking wet clothes, "I mean why I have to do this? It seems completely irrelevant with giving Erika her aura back, so what's the point?" I was not going to get smacked around by the logs again without an explanation. He smirked before explaining, "This actually has nothing to do with your training. I just wanted a way to punish you and get a laugh out of it,"

I stood there, a blank look covering my face, "I really, really hate you right now… so I suggest we move on before I kill something," I forced out in the calmest voice I could manage. He knew that there was one thing that I hated most, wasting time.

"Okay, but I think it's time I give you something first. Follow me," He replied, leading me deep into the woods where I was told I wasn't allowed to go. I saw three small buildings that looked like a green house, a shed, and a wooden house. As he opened the door to the green house, he brought me to a shelf with a bunch of different types of flowers. "Oh, you want me to look at flowers?" I mocked.

The guardian didn't seem amused; he just picked up the red and the yellow roses. "What, just getting some flowers for mom?" but instead of answering me he placed the roses down and tilted a gracidea flower. The room started to shake and he led me to the storage shed where there was a passageway that looked like it hadn't been used in over a century. He motioned me to go in and told me to take only what was in the chest at the bottom.

I nodded slowly then started to walk through the passage and head down what seemed like 50 flights of stairs until I found the chest. I wasn't very thrilled when I opened it however since it only held a pair of blue and black clothes along with some gauntlets and shoes. "He sent me down 50 flights of stairs just for clothing! What was the point of this?" I sighed.

As I shut the chest and turned around to head back up the stairs, a chamber opened to the left of me and a riolu stepped out holding two gem-like objects. It slowly made its way up to the chest and placed the objects into the palms of the gauntlets. Each piece of the black and blue gear started to glow in a white light. When the light faded the small pokemon gathered each piece of armor into a bag and handed it to me.

I looked at the bag and then back at Riolu, "Well, thanks I guess," the pokemon nodded, walking over to a wall and pressing a button. I heard a ding and a door opened. 'I'm going to kill him,' I thought to myself as I got in, gritting my teeth at the fact that he made me use the stairs.

Getting out of the elevator I was back at the house where my dad was laying comfortably on a couch while watching sports. "Okay, looks like you…" but I cut him off and as calmly as possible and told him, "Don't talk to me. Just take me wherever else we need to go and train me to give aura back… and if it involves stairs…well, then you'll be coming with me..." he just sat there chuckling at me as I fell to the floor, thankfully it was carpeted, and just laid there being poked in side repeatedly by the riolu until I could get up again.

After the rest of my training I finally was able to return aura. I was not yet a master of controlling my own aura however, so there was a risk of death.

"Dad, I'm ready." He looked hesitantly at me but nodded. "Alright, just take Riolu with you." I wondered why I would need to but I wasn't going to ask, instead I just took her and went. "Think I can do it, Riolu?" She pretended not to hear me. "Riley, I mean," I corrected myself, she looked at me and nodded. "Your really picky, ya'know that?" Riley just looked at me and smiled. I rolled my eyes and we ran the rest of the way in silence.

When we got to Erika's house, I knocked on the door only to be greeted by Erika's yelling father. Ignoring him I walked in to find her breathing heavily on her bed. By the look of her you could tell that her half life wasn't the only thing twisting in her. Erika's red cheeks, pale body and horrified expression on her face suggested she was having a nightmare as well. Closing the door behind me I set myself to the side of her bed and placed my hands on her chest feeling strange as I did so. Shutting my eyes, I felt a stream of aura gathering from my body to the gems in gloves as it slowly leaked into her.

I felt pain as realized that I was losing my grip on my own aura, feeling closer to death myself. "Riley! Ack..." I called out, pain ripping through my body. The Pokémon knew what was happening and kicked me away. I fell on the floor unable to get up, or move, for the moment. I remembered the strength technique that my father taught me. I closed my eyes and thought of the most annoying thing that I could. First thing that popped into my mind was being defeated again and again like when I was trapped in an endless cycle of being hit and falling during the second test. The memory alone made my body quiver in rage.

I forced myself back up to her and placed my hands yet again on her chest and started to take out my aura with my left hand and gave Erika her own aura back with my right. She squirmed under my touch as I continued. Soon, I felt my strength return and I started feeding her aura through both my arms. When I was finished, I looked around for a split second as my vision blurred before I fell unconscious to the side of her bed.