First of all, I finally came up with a new name for this. Thank Arceus, because I think it fits, and it's nowhere near as lame as "Pokimono." Secondly, I realize that I'm not updating any of my (other) stuff. You can look at my profile for my reason as to why. Thirdly...

Thanx so much 4 reading!

Please enjoy!

The Kill

By: Snowy Refuge

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.

Chapter 1

When Ursula's mother and father were still alive, they used to tell her and her eight siblings stories all the time. There used to be tales of lands full of the most beautiful of people and Pokémon, of princes and princesses, and of tragedy and bittersweet endings. She would always sit in bed next to her twin brother Link. Both of them would sit with their ears perked, listening closely to every word that the pair had to say. Her father would point out an idea and not a moment later her mother would expand on it as if a sudden burst of inspiration had just hit her like a title wave. Her father would then quickly pick up on what she was saying and jump into the story, as animated as he could possibly be.

It always amazed Ursula at the time how the two became so connected through storytelling, and how they were able to come up with so many ideas when they already had to go through the same routine for their three older siblings, the triples, first. And when the other pair of twins, Lin and Margot, came along into the picture, she suddenly became aware that the process was not tiring to the two, but a pleasure. Bedtime became everyone's favorite time simply because of how alive and happy the entire family was. In fact, she didn't mind having to move in with her other siblings when her parents had to make yet another nursery for their newest family editions. She could put up with the extra snoring, so long as story time continued to be a family tradition.

In fact, her parents' storytelling capabilities were so good that Ursula believed at one point that her parents could have been authors. They could paint words to life with nothing more than their own tongues, a practice that they had perfected over the years as they spoke to their children at night. Every time that she brought the subject of writing up, however, her parents would share a small, weak smile and look back at her.

"I don't think that we can do that, honey," her mother would tell her softly.

"Well why not?" Link would be at Ursula's side, arms crossed. He would believe in his twin sister's cause until the end, for he, too, loved his parents' stories.

Their father would kneel down to their eye-level and ruffle the tops of their heads. "Well, our stories are just for the family. You can tell them to your kids someday, but for now, it's a family secret."

At the time, Ursula had been pleased with the answer, believing that she would someday be able to tell such tales to her own family. Now that she looked back on it, however, she realized that this was merely an excuse. Her parents simply didn't want to have to explain to their children that they could not afford to invest time into writing. With a family as large as theirs, they had to put as much time as possible into working and holding the family's strings together as closely as possible, most of which was done through their brilliant story time tactics.

Every one of the children had a favorite out of the stories that their parents told. Ursula's was the story of the moon goddess Cresselia while Link's was the one about Darkrai, the legend of the lonely gijinka that only needed help from a friend. In the future, the two always found it ironic how Link's tail ended up losing its brown fur, giving way to a more pink color and slim shape while Ursula's eyes turned from chocolate to red and her ears shrunk in size and shifted to a black color with little yellow bands on in the middle. How was it that her brother ended up the Espeon and she the Umbreon?

Such were the mysteries of life.

Their older brother Fallon, however, loved the story of how gijinkas came to be the most. Fallon had always been one for history, and so hearing this story in particular always piqued his interest, since it was, in a short summery, their heritage and history. Being Pokémon with human traits, gijinkas were by far one of the greatest mysteries to the world, and their parents had come up with a vague solution as to why it may have been.

When asked by Margot, one day, why they were different from Pokémon and not quite human, they told her that once, a long time ago, that the god of all Pokémon, named Arceus, observed a young Bellossom crying in a field and that, when asked what was wrong, the Bellossom replied, "I'm in love with a human but he cannot love me because I am a Pokémon."

This practically tore Arceus's heart out. He did not wish to see his creations suffer in pain because of the bodies that he gave them. So he made a deal with the Bellossom. "What would you say," he began in his beautiful, resonant voice, "if I could give you a human body?"

The Bellossom looked up at Arceus with the most hopeful eyes that the god of all Pokémon had ever seen and smiled serenely. "That would be the most wonderful gift anyone has ever given me," she said to him.

And so a moment later the Bellossom was gone, only to be replaced by a beautiful young girl with bright blue eyes. Red flowers rested on the top of her short blonde hair, which shone in the sun like the most lustrous of gold. Her grass skirt scattered and folded beneath the girl as she smiled at her god and bowed to him in gratitude, and then ran across the field, out of his sight.

The God Pokémon had never seen such a happy face. He swore to himself that, had any other Pokémon asked the same request, he would grant it. And so he did. Whenever he came across another soul that, for one reason or another, wished to be human, he granted them that wish and they would set to do whatever it was that they had wanted to do.

However, not everyone was pleased with these Pokémon that turned into humans. Many humans were afraid of them, as they discovered that they had the powers of a normal Pokémon. The only difference that they could see was that they came with a human face and spoke in their tongue. What if they ever caught their own Pokémon? What if they wanted revenge for being pitted against one another in battle? The humans saw them as a threat, and so they threatened the gijinkas in return.

The one Bellossom was the first to be forced into hiding by the boy she had loved. He did it for her safety, but she had never felt so lonely. So she formed a community of creatures just like her, who needed shelter and protection from human harm. There were several other communities spread around the regions like hers. It was one of these communities that Ursula's great, great, great grandparents were born, and where she, herself, was birthed from her mother.

To Ursula, the story always seemed farfetched, and not one of her parents' greatest pieces of work (the whole "Pokémon falls in love with a trainer" idea was coined up much too often by the media), but she still found herself respecting the story. Besides, in a secret community filled with people like yourself, it could be hard at times not having the slightest clue as to how you all came into existence. Even if the stories were merely lies, they gave some sort of closure and made the gijinkas feel more at ease.

Fallon always loved the story, though. His fluffy yellow tail would wave back and forth while his large orange ears would stand on edge, waiting for every word that their parents spoke with the utmost attention. Valentine always liked the story, too, although it was more of because she was a hopeless romantic. She always cried when their parents told the part of how Bellossom's one true love had to send her away heartbroken.

After their parents died, though, things became different for Ursula's large family. Link became much more pessimistic and Lin, one of her younger brothers, started to act seriously about every little thing that happened. Lin's twin sister, Margot worried over him most of the time, and was constantly trying to cheer him up. The two were always close, and even with Lin's new-found solemnity that would not change. Fallon and Valentine took over the parental roles of the family while their triplet Elsa, feeling a bit left out of the circle, began to spend more time to herself, usually hanging around outside, scratching pictures into tree bark with a bored expression on her face.

Ursula, too, changed from her parents' deaths. On minor inspection, some people may not have noticed any huge differences, since she was always a bit shy and reserved in the first place, but ever since her mother and father were hunted down by a group of gijinka hunters while they were out on vacation, she became even more quiet and withdrawn from others. Now, as opposed to simply hiding behind her twin's back whenever a new person came up to say hello, she would glare at the Zoroark from down the street every time he came up and tried to flirt with her until he eventually realized that his advances were going nowhere and walked away.

Still, he always tried.

Ursula remembered this one time when she was walking to school alone (Link had been sick, and he was the only person that she would walk with comfortably) when the Zoroark, Spirit, ran up to her side and invited her to drink sake with him after school.

"We're too young to drink," she had replied, not bothering to look at the hansom gijinka as he smiled mischievously at her.

"You need to chill out," he'd told her. "And stop scowling; your face might stick like that." Spirit laughed as the girl gave him another dirty look. He just ruffled her hair and gave a flirtatious wink, then jumped back just as she was about to lash out at him. "You'll know where to find me when you change your mind!" He turned and ran off in the opposite direction as her, obviously planning on skipping their day of school. She watched his long black and red mane, and the little blue orb that tied it all together at the end of his hair as it disappeared down the street.

Spirit had said "When," not "if." This turned out to be a rather embarrassing idea of his when Ursula, if fact, did not show up at his house for him to take her out for sake that night. He had refused to speak to her for another week before going back to hopelessly flirting again.

The only ones that hadn't really changed from their parents' death were Adam and Eve, the youngest siblings out of their large, over-sized family. They were young when they passed on, so the two never really remembered their mother or father. They constantly asked questions, but the sad look that Fallon and Valentine gave them always got them to shut up. They would run off after that and play wherever they wished, probably out by the creek outside of their house. They would sometimes bring along Devon, a friendly and loyal Dewott that Eve adored to no end. Anyone with eyes could see that the two had little crushes on each other.

Other times, Soul, Spirit's little sister, would join up with them. Most of the time, she relentlessly taunted the twins and Devon, but the group would, most of the time, chase her away with sticks and raised claws until she ran off with a wide grin on her face.

Soul was obviously in the process of evolving, as her hair was growing a little longer each day, her body was beginning to stretch into a tall and thin figure, and a little bit of that thick under-layer of hair was beginning thin out and turn to red. The entire community could only hope that this evolution would help mature her a little.

Soul was known as the Neighborhood Terror. She has a thing for jeering kids her age and purposely annoying adults by asking pointless questions and talking in a high-pitched, annoying voice. Adam and Eve generally avoided her at all costs, and if the girl ever so much as looked at Ursula, she would walk in the opposite direction or, if she was with Link, nudge his shoulder as an indication to walk faster.

There were, however, a few people that were safe from her constant teasing.

For example, there was this "elderly" couple living across the street. The reason why nobody can say "elderly" without being sarcastic is that the couple comprises of a Ninetales woman and her Arcanine husband. They were newlyweds (married only a year ago), and everyone knew that the husband Fang was only twenty-three. But nobody was really sure how old Ember, the wife, was. Whenever asked, she would avoid the question as if answering it would make her melt into a puddle. She looked like she was in her early twenties but then again, she was a Ninetales, and Ninetales virtually never age. There have been records of some living past a thousand years.

There's this beauty about Ember that everyone couldn't help but admire about her. She had lovely, delicate skin, red eyes that practically glowed, and some of the most gorgeous nine tails that anyone would ever be able to see in their entire life. But she was also refined and very formal in contrast to her happy-go-lucky husband. Whereas Fang would walk up to a stranger with a beer in hand, Ember would only speak when spoken to, and if anyone said the wrong thing, she would practically spit a vehement insult at them. If anyone touched her tails, she would claim to curse them.

It might be because Ninetales are rumored to actually possess these kinds of powers, but Soul generally stays away from Ember and Fang.

Another person that Soul will never bother is this Serperior that Margot has had an eternal crush on since the dawn of time, Cypress. He's a bit of a mystery to everyone, since he never speaks to too many people, but it could be this mystery that makes him so popular. Girls swoon at his feet and boys wish that they could be as cool as him. He's just that guy. It doesn't matter how cold he is to people; they love him, fear his quiet intellect, or are jealous of him.

Ursula, personally, was on the jealous side. How was it that so many people liked him when he hardly said a word and acted mean while she only had one admirer that did nothing but sexually harass her from daybreak to sunset?

It was possibly Cypress's cold stare that kept Soul away; she was possibly in the group that feared him. Ursula couldn't blame her, though. He was tall, lean, and had these beady red eyes. How the hell her sister liked him, Ursula wasn't sure, but whatever it was, she must have had a good reason. Anything that could make her green, leafy tail sway so much had to have a reason.

The last notable person that Soul for some reason never speaks to is one of Elsa's friends, Lynx. Ever since Fallon and Valentine took up parental duties, she's been bored so she took up her free time with their apathetic neighbor, who just so happened to be a Luxray. Elsa often described his hair as "black silk" and his eyes as "golden suns," which made things a little more than obvious to the entire family. Whenever asked, she would always deny him as her boyfriend, but Ursula knew better. She once caught them kissing out at the park.

She was just walking by when she spotted Lynx holding the blonde hair out of Elsa's face. Her long yellow ears twitched excitedly as he'd whispered something to her and then leaned forward and touched his lips to hers. They stayed in a position like that for a while before they pulled away from one another. Elsa leaned her head down on Lynx's chest and he pulled a protective arm around her. His eyes met Ursula's at one point, but after that she scurried away in a hurry.

But Ursula never told anyone about it, though. This was one secret that she could keep.

If Ursula had to take a guess, she would say that Soul also had a crush on Lynx. It would certainly explain why she always stopped to stare at him, open-mouthed and wide-eyed, but never spoke to him. She supposed that even Soul could be a girl every once in a while.

One of Soul's most prominent victims was Valentine's best friend, an Altaria named Atlas. Atlas was a bit frail for a boy and tended to take on some feminine habits such as cleaning and cooking so most people mistake him for being gay- which, Ursula wasn't quite so sure, but he could have been. She's always had her doubts, though, with the way that Atlas always stares at Valentine as if she was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

Ursula had spoken to Atlas once, and all he would talk about was Valentine. "She's just so kind-hearted and generous," he told her while looking into space with a dreamy look in his brightly-colored brown eyes. "And have you seen her swim- actually, don't answer that; I'm sure you have- but she's so elegant in the water. I mean, that's normal since she's a Vaporeon, but still! And those ears of hers! They're just too cute!" Her ears actually were quite adorable. If she had the choice, Ursula would trade for her older sister's webbed ears any day.

Atlas was also the kind of person that would worry about other people without even knowing them. The first time he had met the entire family, Valentine had brought him over to dinner. Lin had sat at the back of the table, glaring the boy down with his icy blue eyes the entire time and, when the meal was over, dragged Margot away just as Atlas was about to start some sort of conversation with her.

Later, Atlas asked why Lin seemed so upset with him, and Link had said that he's an "over-protective, too-serious party-pooper." This didn't sit well with Valentine, however, who said that he was just a little mistrusting. Atlas still continued to fuss, though, insisting that he had done something wrong and that he needed to go apologize.

After weeks of observation, Atlas had concluded that Lin was lonely, since he saw him talking to almost no one but Margot. But even then, Margot had lots of friends and couldn't spend all of her time with her twin brother. Atlas thought that his being around Lin's older sister made him upset and that he perhaps didn't want to share Valentine. So he did one of the most rash things that a person could ever do.

He set Lin up on a blind play date.

Everyone had been shocked at first when Margot opened the door and found Atlas standing next to a short young girl with her hair in two buns that stared at her as if she wanted to tear someone's throat out.

"This is Gene," Atlas had explained when Lin finally arrived at the front door. "You seemed lonely so I brought you a friend."

Honestly, Ursula half expected Lin to leap out at Atlas and freeze him alive, but he didn't. He just stared at the Teddiursa that stood in front of him. Blinked. Stared. Blinked again. And then just burst out laughing.

It had been a long time since anyone had seen Lin laugh, so the entire family was put up on guard and ready to tackle him to the ground or tear him off of Atlas if it came to the worst. But nothing bad ever happened. After his laughing, he slapped the Altaria's back good-naturedly and pulled his arm around Gene and wandered out the door with her with a large smile on his face.

"My name's Lin," he'd told her, still laughing a bit as he talked. "It's nice to meet you, Gene."

"You, too, I guess…" Ursula heard the girl mutter just as they walked out of ear-shot. "So how do you know that creep?"

Ever since then, Lin could sometimes be found having conversations with Gene or waving to Atlas. He still stayed his serious self, but he's been steadily moving forward.

Ursula hasn't been progressing past her quiet nature, though. She still walks to school with Link and avoids Spirit and his obnoxious little sister as much as possible. She still hasn't the courage to look that lovely married couple in the eyes whenever they wave to her in the mornings. She still will look to her twin brother rather than one of her older sisters whenever she seeks guidance. And she still pays as close attention to her surroundings as possible.

For example: an Absol gijinka passed right by her on her way to school one morning. This was a highly unusual thing, considering that Absol, the Pokémon or gijinka, typically stay up in the mountains, locked away in solitude. Why in the world an Absol would be there was far beyond her.

Another thing that Ursula noticed on that same day was that when Adam and Eve went out to play in the evening, they went without Devon and Soul wasn't pestering them as they left as usual.

Ursula noticed that night that there was a shooting star out in the sky and pointed it out to Link. He simply blinked at her. "And why should I care?" He asked.

"I thought that you might want to make a wish," she replied, watching the sky for any more stars that may fall. Her black tail was slowly moving from side to side and her ears twitched in anticipation.

Link sighed, which caused his sister to look away from the window and into his eyes. "Look, Ursula, that stuff is all fake; wishes on stars don't come true."

"Well, how would you know that? Have you ever tried?"

The young male sighed again and rubbed the tiny red jewel on his forehead with his thumb and index finger. "Fine, I'll show you."

He shoved his sister's body to the side and stood in front of the window. When he spotted a star falling, he, rather grumpily, went into the "Wish I may, wish I might," routine and ended with a, "I wish for five thousand dollars."

Ursula crossed her arms and glared at him. "Well, that isn't even a very realistic wish," she deadpanned. "Now do it over again."

Linked rolled his eyes but did as instructed and repeated the process. This time it ended with, "I wish for life to be more exciting."

When Link pointed out that nothing had happened, she simply told him that wishes take time, and that he would have to wait.

One other thing Ursula noticed no more than five minutes later was that Adam and Eve were late to getting home. When expressing her worries to Fallon, he shook his head and assured her that they would come home in good time.

An hour later, everyone in the house noticed that something was wrong.

Fallon took off with Valentine to look for the twins. Elsa was in charge in the meantime. She cooked dinner for the remaining four siblings and ordered them to bed much earlier than they would have liked. Margot and Link complained while Lin sighed (but headed off to bed a moment later, anyway) and Ursula's ears flattened against her head, but Elsa insisted with a happy smirk across her lips. She was enjoying the power of being in charge.

Just as the three were planning on actually giving up and going up to bed, however, Fallon and Valentine rushed into the house, panting and sweaty. Each of them held two small bodies with brown hair lying stiffly in their arms.

Ursula clutched Link's arm while Margot held a hand to her mouth. Elsa stared in horror at her two youngest siblings, whose eyes were both glazed and held wide open.

"Elsa," Fallon commanded. "Run over Mr. Claydol's house and have him get into contact with a doctor."

But Elsa would not move. She was frozen to the spot, staring at Adam and Eve.

"Elsa!"

She still wouldn't move, petrified. Finally done with all of this waiting around, Link pushed Ursula off of him and bolted out the door, no doubt following instructions, off to find Mr. Carol Claydol, or any other psychic-type that might have been up at the time.

Meanwhile, Adam and Eve were set gently down on their ragged couch. Margot and Ursula raced over and each held a hand around their tiny closed fists, watching their younger siblings' faces.

Lin had apparently heard Fallon's screaming, for he came into the living room, rubbing his eyes and scratching his long blue ears. "Hey, guys, can you keep it down? I'm trying to sl-" He stopped talking and put his hands down to his sides. "Arceus!" He shrieked, horrified. "What the hell happened?"

He pushed past Elsa just as Valentine explained. "When we went to get them, we found them out by the stream like this. We thought they had just fallen asleep at first, but then we noticed that their eyes were open and that they wouldn't move…" She trailed off.

Ursula's grip on Adam's hand tightened. His fingers were ice cold.

"Will…" Elsa's voice cracked as she tried to speak. She swallowed to clear her dry throat before starting again. "I mean… Are they dead?"

When she looked up, Ursula noticed that this was the first time she had ever seen Elsa cry since their parents' death.

Fallon, only just noticing the tears running down Elsa's face, only looked his triplet in the eyes and said in a quivering voice, "I sure as hell hope not."

At that point, everyone in the room was shedding tears.

Author's Note:

You know the drill. Please review. I accept critisism (this is encouraged, actually), short/quick comments, summaries on what made the story good or bad, and even flames. So long as I get some form of feedback, I think I'll be fine.

(And for anyone wondering: my new title is, indeed, named after the song by 30 Seconds to Mars.)

Thanks so much for reading! See you whenever (if) I decide to update this!