Chapter four here! Sorry for the long wait, finding the will to write but having so many ideas in your mind sucks. Hopefully though, I'll post the next one sooner.

Anyway i wanted to explain a few things. Yes Ash can power up his blades by giving them aura. However, he only has a finite amount and he also needs it to strength himself. So he can't just go nuts with his Aura. He needs to strategically use his supply.

Anyway, let's start the chapter after these warnings.

Xenoblade Chronicles belongs to Monolith Studios and Pokémon belongs to Gamefreak. I own and profit nothing from this!

-Chapter Starts-

The tense atmosphere was so thick between the four individuals, seven if you counted each driver's blade, that it can be cut through with a knife. Or any of the assorted weapons each individual have, it was honestly like small armory between them.

Ash's eyes wandered to look at his new surprising ally and the faintest blush rose to his cheeks, she's quite the attractive woman. Despite the opinion of his friends, and that of anyone who meet him, he did in fact have some knowledge of romance and could in fact feel physically attracted to a female, like now. He wasn't just insanely obvious like a certain gym leader friend.

Ash was entirely focused on his goal of becoming a pokémon master and decided having a girlfriend would be a needless distraction, he knew relationships could be really high maintenance and time consuming. Also, unlike Brock, he wasn't easily attracted to a women, he could count all the women he was attracted to in one hand, two of them were fighting beside him right now. Zenobia and Brighid are possibly the two most attractive women he knows, and he knew a lot of women. He's curious what would happen if Brock ever meet Zenobia, he'd probably have a heart attack and a nosebleed

"Brighid. Where's your driver? Won't you be considerably at a disadvantage?" Ash asked her eyebrow raised, this was the first time he's ever seen a blade without a driver nearby. Zenobia told him a blade weren't tied to there driver by the hip, they could be on two seperate Titans and the blade would be fine, however in battle it was a different story. Without a driver, a blade would be very limited in the power department and their powers be harder to control. A blade could train to remove the latter issue but not the former.

The purple haired woman turned her head slightly to look at him, their enemy distracted by a flying rodent or something along those lines. Her lips quirked up a little, Ash wasn't sure if it was smile or just a grin, before speaking. "Your concern for my well being is appreciated, truly it is young man. However, I can hold my own against most without my driver," she reassured him she'll be fine, she seemed pleased with his concern instead of offended that he'd question her strength and ability.

She refocused her attention onto her enemies, her lips returning to a more neutral position, however seemed something caught her attention. She stared at the blade known as a Pyra and mumbled something under her breath, "That core crystal… is she really the blade of legends? The Aegis..." her tone was very quiet but Ash was able to catch her words, peaking his interest.

A blade of legend? Ash thought to himself, was it like his world with legendary pokémon? He knew from experience that legendary pokémon were a tier of their own, able to create new continents or flood the world to name a few of their possible abilities. Makes sense why Zenobia is no match at range against her. He knew all too well how difficult facing a legend head to head can be, he lost an entire team of six just to beat two of them.

"I'll take the brunette on," Ash suggested his body tensing up quite a bit, he thought that plan was the best course of action. Despite the difference of strength between blades, he was confident that his aura gave him the advantage. In close range anyway. If she could take down the healer, than victory would be assured.

"I disagree. I wish to… test that blade," Brighid said politely disagreeing with his plan, though do to her own personal curiosity not because she disagreed with what he was strategizing. She wanted to confirm if this blade was truly the Aegis, visuals alone was not enough to confirm status. Only through combat alone, and seeing her power first hand, would she truly know if she was the Aegis.

Ash raised an eyebrow at her but didn't complain, merely shrugging his shoulders. If she could order the captain around means she was his superior, in some fashion anyway, which meant she was his as well. He couldn't argue with her and not do what she says without possibly getting in trouble, last person he saw doing that had to clean the barracks toilets. All of them. Which was Greum. For flirting with a female officer, funnily enough. "Alright. They're all yours."

Ash turned his gaze to Nia and sighed, he was kinda disappointed that he couldn't finish his battle with Rex. He hated leaving a battle unfinished. Well a pokemon battle anyway. He pumped aura into his legs and charged forward towards Nia with Zenobia following, his new speed allowing him to reach the midway point in only a few seconds.

"bugger he's a fast one!" Nia shouted out in surprised, what was this guy? Somehow he withstood their most powerful attack and now he's fast enough to rival some blades in speed.

Rex however knew how fast his opponent was from their earlier skirmish, and knew a few ways to counter. His blade erupted in flame once more before swinging the blade horizontally, creating another blade of blade like earlier but also different. This attack was far wider and taller than the first, making the attack impossible to get around.

Ash hit the breaks and raised his axe high, he felt confident that he could create a opening in the attack, causing it to pass by him with only minor burns on his outfit. What's that sound coming from behind me? He thought to himself turning his head, it sounded vaguely familiar…

A blue wave fire was heading towards him, or just slightly to his left, obvious meant to intercept his enemies attack. The blue wave wasn't going to sandwich him, it was vertical compared to Rex's horizontal attack, but the explosion the two attacks will create will hit him.

But to his surprise, Brighid's attack actually cut through Rex's, like a hot knife through butter. Like Ash before, Rex was shocked that his attacking was easy overwhelmed, so much so that Nia had to tackle him out of the way. The attack surprisingly just dispersed before making contact with anything, like she dispelled the attack to limit collateral damage.

Ash stood there in awe, the remaining flames sailing past him harmlessly slamming into the stone walls of the buildings. Me and Zenobia couldn't even come close to matching their ranged attacks. Brighid easily turned that around, without a driver. Admittedly, this attack was less powerful since he traded power for a greater area. Still, he bet in straight power they're roughly equal but it seemed she had better control over her power.

"She's strong… and she doesn't even have a driver," Rex spoke out, slowly getting up off the ground has Nia got off him. He honestly didn't expect her to cut through his attack like it was sheet of wet paper. If this was her without a driver, he'd hate to see her with one.

"That's to be expected my boy. Brighid is the jewel of Mor Ardian, strongest blade in the Empire. Underestimating her is awfully foolish, even without her driver," Gramps spoke out, flying out of Rex's diving helmet stretching his tiny body. "Also, please be more careful. If you keep getting tossed around like that, you'll find titan pulp in your helmet soon," he whined out, metal was not a good material to slam your back into repeatedly. If this keeps up, he'll have a crooked wing by the end of the day.

"I'll keep that in mind but I won't be making any promises, this isn't exactly an easy fight Gramps," that would be an underestimate of the year, this fight has really turned against them in one swoop. At least before they had a few advantages over their enemy, now all those advantages have went up in flames. He charged forward towards Brighid, hopefully this would be the opposite with Ash, she's stronger at a range but weaker in melee. One could hope at least.

Brighid notice her enemy charge but simply stood in place, waiting his arrival. seems he believes he can best me in swordplay she thought to herself, slightly amused at the thought of this obviously young driver can defeat her. She wasn't being arrogant, only seeing the most likely outcome of them fighting, though he seemed to have a natural talent. She has years of combat experience with her driver, something her opponent lacks.

Rex, only having a single meter separating them, jumped into the air and performed a forward flip. "Rolling smash!!!" He yelled, his blade exploding into flames, he was gonna hit her with his strongest blade art!

Brighid simply raised one of her rapiers, holding it in a diagonal angle, and took a single step to the left. Rex's blade made contact with the rapier but easily slid down the length of the weapon, leaving her completely unharmed and exposing the teen to a counter. She swung her other blade at the brunette, aiming a slash for his shoulder.

Rex twisted his body, trying to limit the damage he was going to receive. The last ditch effort rewarded him with a shallow cut on his shoulder, a significantly less painful punishment for his action. He leaped to the side a meter, wanting to avoid a follow-up attack from the blade. Unfortunately, Brighid launched herself forward and began to take the offensive. Well there goes that thought! he thought to himself, doing his best to block his enemies barrages of slashes and thrusts.

"She's really impressive huh Zenobia?" Ash asked his blade, wandering what his blade's opinion was on their ally. His blade didn't say a thing, causing him to look at her confused by her silence, she was usually really vocal. To his surprise, she seemed to have a look of annoyance on her face.

Am I going to get showed up by every blade I meet? Zenobia thought to herself seriously annoyed, first that red haired blade and now this purple haired one. She hated feeling useless like this, she honestly felt like her driver was carrying her since she couldn't match up to the enemies blade. To somebody like herself, proud and boastful, that was a serious blow to her.

Ash simply sighed, it seemed Zenobia was too lost in her thoughts to respond. He wanted to ask what was wrong but unfortunately this wasn't the place or time to start having an emotional conversation.

He suddenly raised his weapon, blocking a downward slash from Nia, who tried to take advantage of his momentary distraction. "You know it's rude to attack someone when they're talking with someone else!" he shouted, moving his head slightly to avoid a diagonal swing from her other chakram in her free hand. He pushed her back using the hilt of his weapon, causing her stumble slightly, before retaliating with a vertical swing aimed at her waist. Sadly, she was able to back flipped out of danger, she's quite acrobatic.

"Well it was rude of yah to laugh at me! We're even now!" Nia shouted back angrily, annoyed that he'd call her rude after what he's done. She rushed at him once more, noticing he was taking more time to recover from his swings. Seemed he wasn't perfectly fine after their skirmish, his movements were more sluggish and slow. "It seems your tough guy act is merely that, an act!" she shouted, unleashing a flurry of swings, the two chakrams coming from different angles.

Ash was taking steps back while he tried his best to defend himself, using his axe's massive girth as a shield to block the attacks. Despite his best efforts, he was receiving cuts on his arms and hands, nothing too deep but it was still painful. I won't last much longer. He thought grimly walking back, slowly pushed backing up towards the underpass of the bridge.

His aura was a wonderful thing, but it wasn't a miracle that can fix all his problems. His aura was doing it's best to keep his body going, stopping his bleeding and soothing his pains, but the damage was still there and his aura was too low to augment his physical attributes. "The only reason you can say that is because I've been through way worse than you in this fight!" he shouted back at her, taking another horizontal swing. He won't go down without a fight, he'll be defiant until the end like he always was when faced with a problem.

Nia expertly ducked under the swing, she could feel the wind made by attack tingle her ears, before launching herself forward. It was time to finally knock this stubborn bastard out! "Your open!" she shouted, swinging both of her weapons upwards to cut into his chest. With that chest armor of his, it shouldn't kill him but was definitely going to hurt him.

Ash stared wide eyed as he saw the blades move closer to him. It was like time slowed down for him, the blades felt like they took minutes to reach while he was exactly too slow to do anything. This is gonna hurt… he thought to himself, somewhat disappointed with himself. Is this how his first battle has a driver is gonna end? Laying in the dirt beaten and unable to help? It's almost has much as a shame as is first gym battle against Brock.

Has the teen closed his eyes, accepting his defeat, but the sound of metal grinding up against something caught his attention. The sound cause Ash to open his eyes and they widened at the sight. A yellow barrier separated him and stopped her attack dead, the impact causing the cat girl to stumble back.

Suddenly, the barrier disappeared and Zenobia zoomed into his sight, now being in front of Nia. She lifted her right leg and launch a roundhouse kick aimed towards Nia's chest. The cat girl raised her chakrams to block the blow, the blades of the weapons digging into her leg in a painful matter. Despite the block, his blade's super strength kick sent the criminal tumbling away five whole meters, her body grinding painfully on the floor.

Zenobia stared down her opponent, who got up relatively quickly despite the power of the kick. "It ain't an act… my driver goes through my hellish training everyday! He's earned being called a tough guy!!!" she shouted back at Nia, nobody insults her driver, even the slightest offense is gonna get a knuckle sandwich from her. Or a roundhouse kick in this case.

"Zenobia? Finally came out of that trance of yours huh?" Ash asked her smiling, he was really glad that she came through for him. He honestly thought it was the end of him there, well in this fight anyway. He was sure she wasn't going to kill him.

"Yeah I did. Sorry about that, just some annoying thoughts is all. How about you?" Zenobia asked back, turning her head slightly to look him in the eye. "You stood there and had a look of defeat on you. Where's that typhoon I saw before?" she asked him further, almost a hint of disappointment in her tone. "I expect you to go out the same way you came into this world, kicking and screaming. Got it?" she had a grin on her face, he only needed a reminder and she'll remind him anytime.

Ash couldn't help but chuckle at her words, he was acting a bit melodramatic there for a second there. "Your right, sorry about that. I blame you for that, looking like a lost bunny a moment ago," he talked back to her, no way was he going to let her have the last word.

Zenobia couldn't help but chuckle at his comment. "A bunny huh? I'm one of the most powerful blades in the world and you see me as a bunny?" The thought alone was incredibly amusing to her, she'd love to understand the logic of his comment.

"It seems they've regained their will to fight my lady, troublesome," Dromarch noted, standing beside his lady has she placed a hand on him to help pull herself up.

"Yeah I can see that Dromarch…" Nia said getting back, annoyance in her tone. It was quite annoying seeing her two opponents chatting and laughing while she was here, were they ignoring her. How's Rex doing on his front? She thought, turning her head to look at her ally's fight against the solo blade. But honestly, she shouldn't have even bothered.

"GAHHH!!!!" Rex yelled, sliding several meters and stopping beside Nia, stabbing the sword into the ground to stopping his momentum. He had a number of cuts on his arms and on his outfit, obviously things weren't going his way. "Guessing… things ain't going too well with you either..?" he asked in between heavy breaths, dear Architect was he exhausted. Pyra came rushing towards his sides, checking up on him worried for his health.

"What tipped you off to that idea?" Nia asked back sarcastically, she was honestly mad about this situation. If they had knocked out that one driver, they could've bolted and wouldn't be dealing with this. "Let's double team the purple haired blade. We take her out and that wall of fire behind us should disappear, than we can make a run for it." she explained, they really had no other option other than trying to run past their enemies. Yeah, she wasn't feeling suicidal enough today to try the latter one.

"Got it… I'll hit her with something from a distance and you attack her from up close." Rex told her, pulling his sword out of the ground and nodding his head at Pyra, who nodded back in confirmation. Without waiting for response from Nia, he lifted his weapon up as it exploded in flame and swung it downwards. Like when he first fought Ash, the swing created another wave of flame, smaller and more intense than the one Brighid countered, aimed at the blade.

Brighid's rapier exploded into flame in response to the attack, it seemed he didn't learn his lesson from earlier. Seems she'll have to re-educate him on that lesson. She mimicked the gesture of her opponent, firing off her own wave of flames with the only difference being the colour.

The two attacks rushed at each other and meet at the midway point, though slightly more towards Brighid and Ash's side since Rex fired off his attack first. When the attacks, and just has Ash thought earlier, the two attacks couldn't overwhelm the other and they simply exploded.

A wave of heat hit Ash before being followed by shards of rocks and dirt knocking into him, causing to him to raise his arms to his face in case. He didn't need a piece of rock or dirt from entering into his eyes, maybe Brighid had the right idea of keeping her eyes permanently closed. He wouldn't have to be dealing with this.

When the barrage of shrapnel ended, Ash stared at the large dust cloud in thought. Are they trying to use my own maneuver? he thought scanning the dust cloud, it seemed eerily familiar to what he tried against them.

And, not to, his surprise, Nia and her blade, with one chakram in his jaw surprisingly, jumped out of the dust cloud. The two seemed to use the dust cloud to cover their movements. The two were midair and descending towards Brighid, obviously their changed their game plan and were trying to focus on his ally. To bad for them, he didn't like getting ignored in a fight.

He rushed in front of Brigid, Zenobia in tow, and readied himself to launch an air blade at the duo. They couldn't dodge midair and he hasn't seen her use any ranged attacks outside of her blade special, it seemed like she's seriously opened herself to an attack. Well, her problem not mine. He thought shrugging his shoulders, maybe she didn't think the attack through.

Wind gathered around his axe's head, a sure sign of him launching an attack. He pulled back his arms to the side readying his arms for a vertical swing, the best direction to hit both of his opponent. He swung his weapon, launching the air blade, however his attack didn't connect with its intended target.

Just has he swing, Ash saw two strange glowing nets fly past him and hit his opponents, ensnaring them and causing them to fly back slightly before crashing onto the floor. This caused his attack to sail harmlessly overhead before crash into a massive tree root, causing a deep cut into the bark."Got her captain! See that shot?!" a voice shouted excitedly from behind him catching his attention.

Ash turned his head to look who shouted, and who also probably shot the net. To his mild surprise, he saw the captain and the soldier he ran off with earlier. He couldn't remember the name, he couldn't tell any of them apart unless they spoke or didn't wear their helmets. They should use name tags so they distinguish each other better, it was honestly bothersome.

The two men seemed to be carrying a form of net gun, though its design wasn't anything he's ever seen before, looked both simplistic and complex. Especially since it seemed like the two were having trouble. "Stop celebrating!!! Help me reload so we can capture the other criminals!!!" seems the reloading process was difficult, the soldier seemed to have nearly ensnared himself using the net has he tried to load said net into the gun.

Ash turned his back to look at the trapped Nia, didn't seem like he could help the two and honestly he didn't desire to. He noted that she couldn't get out despite having her weapon, actually the blue energy that made up the cutting edge of her weapon disappeared. "What's going on with her?" he asked out loud to himself, was the net for the reason of this? We're they the anti-driver measures?

"Those nets not only stop the flow of ether between driver and blade but also disables a blade's ability to draw ether from the atmosphere. Without these abilities, blades aren't much different from a regular human." Brighid explained out loud, to answers Ash's question or to answer the look of confusion on Nia's and Rex's face, he didn't know. Good to know either way.

"NIA!!!" Rex yelled out, running towards his trapped friend, obviously intent at freeing her of her bindings. Before he could reach her however, Brighid created another, smaller, wall of flame between the two of them, causing him to stumble back slightly. This was not Good!

"Rex!!!" Nia yelled back, continuing to struggle in vain against her bindings. "Take Pyra and get out of here!!!" he couldn't win this fight, they were outnumbered and she couldn't fight now. Soon enough, the two idiots will load another net, better just her and Dromarch get caught than all of them.

"But I can't just-" he tried to say before getting cut off, forced to roll away has a pair of flaming bladed whips struck where he was. She wasn't letting up in the slightest. How could I even get out of here? Rex thought looking around, behind him was a wall of fire and in front of him were powerful opponents. He was gonna need a miracle to get out of this.

As if some divine entity heard his plight, something unexpected happen.

What was that? Ash thought to himself, he swore he heard a loud bang nearby and it wasn't any of them. Suddenly, he saw a baseball sized projectile fly through the wall of flame before kept going in their direction. The projectile however was heading for them, in fact it's going over head.

The object slammed into the bridge over head and Ash turned his head to look at the bridge, noticing a detail he didn't notice before. There was a large pipe connected to the on their side. Which was now ruptured. Suddenly, a huge amount of water surged out of the pipe and headed towards him, Zenobia, and Brighid. So that's why they aimed high…

The wave of water hit him head on and knocked off his hat instantly. He heard Brighid yell something out harshly, he couldn't hear properly with all the water in his ears. The downpour only lasted about ten seconds and he couldn't see anything, his long hair wet and heavy, now free of his hat, covered his eyes.

He pulled his hair apart to look at what happened while he was blinded. The wall of flame was gone and so was Rex along with his blade, they obviously escaped when the flames died down. Why it did, he didn't know. Nia and her blade was still here though, seems they couldn't afford to grab her.

"What happened there huh?" Zenobia spoke up, catching Ash's attention and causing his attention to shift to her. She was soaked just like himself, though her outfit didn't cling to her like it did himself. But that was probably because she wore so little. "All it took was some water to beat you? That's gonna look bad on the report," She commented to Brighid with a smirk, seems she enjoying the somewhat failure of their ally and superior. Why? he didn't know.

Before Ash could speak up and apologize for his blade's words, Brighid had already walked to her and stared into her eyes. Kinda. "And you would've done much better if it had been ice? Next time, hold your tongue despite how you feel about your inadequence compared to another," she fired back coldly, she definitely didn't hold back her words. He almost felt the cutting edge on that.

Zenobia smirk turned into a scowl and her fists clenched, it seemed she was ready to deck their superior. Luckily, Brighid turned her head to focus on Ash, thought simply getting ignored simply incense her further. "You fought admirably today. I'll question the captain further about what occurred before I arrived, which seems quite a bit. Don't worry…" she seemed to pause mid-sentence, turning her slightly has if looking at Zenobia from the corner of her eye. "your blade's words won't reflect on you," Ash flinched slightly, she was really digging into his blade.

Zenobia's anger was palpable, needling a prideful woman like her was a poor idea. Ash grabbed her arm, knocking her out of angry thoughts, before flashing her a smile. Surprisingly, she calmed down at his touch and smile, she was still annoyed though but most of her anger disappeared. Just you wait. I'll grow stronger and I'll show you who the real 'Jewel of the Empire' will be! she thought glaring at Brighid, who was walking away towards the captain, giving out orders.

"Let's go back to the base. I can eat a all Armu right now," Ash said while scratching his stomach with his free hand, he was exhausted and starving right now. Maybe Brighid will let them get the rest of the day off, no way could he do drills after such a fight and so little aura.

"Yeah. I'm starved too. You better split that Armu with me," Zenobia joked nudging him with her elbow, all her past anger forgotten. Despite how energetic he was, he had a surprisingly soothing presence for her. "Let's get out of here before they ask me to help transport our friends," she pointed towards the downed Nia and Dromarch, who kept wiggling inside the nets.

Ash gave her a cheeky grin before grabbing her hand and running down the back road, ducking into a side street while the captain was helping soldiers get back on their feet. None were seriously injured so they shouldn't need his help that badly. Now out of sight, he briskly walked towards the base, Zenobia floating just behind him, her own grin on her face.

"Everybody seems to be alright. Private Ash, can you carry the prisoners…" the captain stopped mid-sentence, looking around for the now missing private. "Where in the heck did that boy go?" he asked loud, only getting shrugs from his men in response. "Guess we'll just have to carry them ourselves…"

- Next Day: Afternoon-

"Come on ladies you can do three hundred sit ups! Those who can't have to do one hundred laps around the base!" Frang shouted out to his subordinates, which included Ash.

278...279...280 Ash counted out mentally, performing the sit ups but was lagging behind everyone else but that only made sense. None of them were doing the exercise with a backpack filled with scrap metal on, courtesy of his blade. He wasn't sure which was heavier, the bag or Zenobia herself.

"So I heard you visited the criminal you captured this morning," Greum asked beside him, performing the exercise like everyone else. Ash couldn't see it, due to the fact he wore, but he knew he had a large grin on his face. "Gotta admit, a prison isn't the place I'd go to pick up ladies. Unless you only got the hots for that terrorist chick, wouldn't blame you though. She's a real cutie," he joked getting up, finishing the mandatory three hundred sit ups.

Ash didn't even bother commenting on his words, too focused on the exercise and knew that he'd just twist whatever he said to fit his perspective. He wasn't wrong though, he did visit Nia in the evening of yesterday, luckily he had the rest of yesterday off due to Brighid's word. He could easily remember that visit.

Ash opened the door to Torigoth's prison, the army base didn't have it's own so they used the local prison for all criminals. He noticed a lone guard sitting at a desk just near the entrance, his feet resting on the desk while reading a newspaper. He walked up to the guard and knocked on his guest. "excuse me? I wanna see a prisoner here," he never thought he'd ever say that in his life.

The guard out down and looked at Ash, noticing his uniform and Zenobia at his side. "Sure but your blade and her weapon have to stay outside, no weapons in the holding cells," he said removing his from on top of the desk, opening up a drawer on the desk and pulling out a key.

Ash nodded his head, couldn't risk some random guy with a blade breaking out a prisoner. He gestured his head to Zenobia to the door, implying what she had to do. The blade simply snorted in reply but did what he asked and left the building, but it was obvious begrudgingly.

With Ash's potential has a threat gone, well at least as far as the guard knew, the guard walked up to the door leading to the holding cells. "You came to see that Nia girl huh? Only criminal we caught in months, most hooligans run off into deeper parts of the Titan. We usually let the beasties deal with them," the jailer commented, shoving the key into the lock before turning it. He pushed the door open before walking inside, Ash following right behind him.

The holding cell block had the most metal he's seen in Torigoth, outside of the army base of course. Ash turned his head and noticed Dromarch, Nia's white tiger blade, was in an iron cell near the front. The two keep walking down the cells and he finally noticed Nia in the cell at the far back, furthest from her blade. The two stopped in front of her cell and the jailer turned to him.

"Here you are. Take as long as you like, she ain't going anywhere,'" the jailer said before turning away and walking the way he came, he got a breakfast to eat.

Nia sat on the bed of the cell, back leaning on the wall, and looked quite curious to why he came. "What do you want soldier boy? Here to gloat at how you helped caught me?" She asked annoyed, still upset at getting caught and still sore over the whole fight.

Ash stared into her eyes, almost like he's boring into her soul. "Your friend Rex escaped. Nobody knows where he is, guy just disappeared," he told her, his lips perking up into a grin. He was quite happy that the brunette got away, he and Zenobia wanted to fight him and his blade again. Without interference.

Nia looked up at him surprised, glad that her friends got away from the law but confused to why he was telling her. "That's good… their safe," she looked at the floor has she spoke, her own grin splitting on her face. She looked back up and stared into his eyes, getting off her seat. "But why tell me this? Is this some trick?" despite what she said, she saw no logic for him tricking her. They only just got here, she didn't know where they'd be hiding out.

"As a thank you," he told her smiling, turning his head to the entrance. "You could've killed those soldiers yesterday, and possibly me, when we fought. But you didn't. You went out of your to not kill them and I'm grateful for that. I know they won't see it like that… consider this me thanking you for them as well." he told her honestly, that was the only thing he really wanted to say to her. He owed her that much. "Your a good person Nia, I don't think you deserve to be in that cell. Too bad we couldn't meet on different terms before." He finished his statement, starting to walk towards the exit. He didn't have much else to say.

"You ain't half bad yourself soldier boy…" Nia said, just loud enough for him to hear, with a slight smile, the guy wasn't a bastard has she originally thought, hell he was kind of a decent person.

"Ash Ketchum." he corrected her, giving his name to her. Being called soldier boy was kinda annoying, he was defined by his job!

Ash grinned happily at the moment just has he finished his last pull-up, it was always great for him to put a smile on someone's face. He unhooked the pack on his back, the backpack hitting the floor with an audible thud, before getting up and stretching. "Seems it's our free time Zenobia…" he said out loud, looking at her expecting her to demand him to do another grueling exercise.

"Yeah. Wanna head into town for a walk?" the blade asked him with a grin before slowly making her way towards the exit, she was expecting that response to take her driver a few minutes. He was too used to her working him to the bone.

Ash nodded and slowly got onto the ground, readying to do push-ups. He started perform them, counting up to ten, before what she said finally hit him. "Really?!?!" he shouted jumping back onto his feet, renewed energy filling at the thought of an actual break. He rushed up to her, walking beside her when he caught up.

Zenobia turned her head and smirked down at him, guy got excited too easily. "No, I'm going to make you do push-ups in the middle of the marketplace. Of course I mean it!" she told him, gently nudging him with her elbow though she did wanna punch his shoulder softly. But she could dislocate it if she did, so she didn't. "Consider it a reward. You did alright, could've been better, but you did better than expected." she complimented him, he definitely pulled his weight.

The duo suddenly stop when captain Pardrig stopped in front of them, hand rubbing his head for some reason. "Oh lad! I wanted to give you something…" he said looking around, trying to see if anyone was watching while free hand rummaged through his back pockets.

Ash blinked and tilted his head slightly, confused about what the captain wanted to give him. Is this some reward for yesterday? he thought searching the back of his mind, maybe he was just generous and handing out the gifts. That would be nice of them.

"I wanted to give you something since for what happened yesterday… we were under prepared for the situation," the captain said looking to the side, seemingly embarrassed at simply rushing the capture of the terrorist. "Anyway, I tried to get Consul Dugall to give you the bounty for her, not really a large sum. He was…. against the idea," he chuckled softly, the verbal lashing he got for the suggestion was quite the sight. Didn't compared to getting knocked across the face with a vase, the Consul had surprising strength for someone of his… body type.

Ash raised an eyebrow at the chuckling, while Zenobia looked bored of the talking and simply walked past the gate to the base, heading to Torigoth. He never meant Dugall but heard other people talk about the guy, quite the mix opinion on the chubby man. He was pompous and quite arrogant, on the other hand he was actually pretty good at running the place, so the locals tolerate him.despite the bad attitude. "You don't need to award me captain. I'm just glad our comrades are fine and will be back in action in a day," He told him brushing off his desire to award him, he wasn't much of materialistic person himself anyway.

"That they will but you still deserve a reward for your efforts, the Empire rewards excellency and so do I. I won't accept no for an answer." Padriag said determinedly, Dugall may not believe in rewarding troops for 'just doing their duty', but he did for an excellent performance. After searching his pockets he finally grasped what he was looking for and pulled it out to reveal Ash's prize, a core crystal. "I got permission to give you this from Lady Brighid herself, you have to accept. Don't want to disrespect the strongest blade around eh lad?" he joked, pushing the core crystal to him.

Ash sighed, well he did have a point there, he couldn't say no if she herself thought he deserved it. He grabbed the core crystal and pocketed it swiftly, he didn't want to resonate with it immediately and wasn't sure what caused his first awakening to trigger. Best get out of his hand quickly. "Thanks captain. I best go, Zenobia ain't the patient blade around." He chuckled to himself, walking around him but accidently walked into portly man wearing fancy clothes, causing Ash to stumble back a little

"Look where you going soldier! What if I fell and ruined my outfit in the mud?! This outfit is worth more than two months of your salary!" Dugall shouted chastising Ash, making over the top hand gestures to make his point across. He scoffed before focusing on Padraig after getting his shouting fit out. "Captain Padraig! Follow me to the docks, word has reached me that Special Inquisitor Mórag herself will be arriving soon!" his tone surprising shifted, from boisterous and arrogant to panicked with a strange undertone of fear.

"The Special Inquisitor herself?! She's come all the way from the motherland?! We must go meet her at docks at once and greet her properly!!!" finishing the sentence, Padraig ran down towards the dock at a speed Ash never thought he could go, Consul Dugall following behind at far more slower pace.

Ash looked towards where they went and his eyes widen exponentially at what he saw. A massive Titan ship just docked and it was far different from any he's seen, damn thing seemed bigger than Torigoth itself. The ones he's seen at the commercial docks, the only Titan ships he's seen before in fact, acted more like blimps. This massive thing was a mismatch of organic and machine, a great deal of steel plating all over and too many guns for him to count. He quite felt bad for the poor titan, he was curious at how it felt becoming a flying fortress.

I wonder who's this Mórag person is… Ash thought, he/she had to be very important to have a title like 'Special Inquisitor' and to have that huge thing has her personal transport. "I get the feeling something big is gonna happen soon…" he mumbled to himself out loud, seems things were escalating for some reason. He turned around and headed towards town, he shouldn't keep Zenobia waiting too long. She might actually make him do push-ups in the town square if he does.

-Chapter Ends-

Sorry for the wait guys. It's hard for me to get the will to write sometimes, especially at home after work.

Anyway, I'm not gonna do the Vess idea, too many chapters in Torigoth already. I'll hopefully get to Uraya in the next two chapters. Also, I'm gonna give Ash six blades, you know the classic pokémon six. Also, he'll get a new blade every new titan he visits. So he'll get one in Uraya, another Mor Ardian, etc.

Anyway, keep up the comments and suggestions!