Lucien, stay with me.

This fear of losing you, the one most closest to me, my heart… The weight of the pain I couldn't endure it all alone. For the past thirty hours, you taught me how to change. Change from our wicked ways, to find justice for ourselves and for our Pokémon. You were selflessly trying to show me the correct way out. I…regret. I was bound to my ideals of orders. I couldn't see the path ahead. Your blithe, I cherish it now. Your probity, I love now. Your gentle, new smile, I keep now.

Whatever happens… I want you to stay with me.

I can't do this alone. This emotional agony is clinging to me, holding me down like a spider's web trapping a fly.
Don't go… As you lie there, unconscious…

Lucien collapsed finally, falling faintly.

"Get her away from him. It's time to suffer!" Enrique shouted, the Machamps obeying his command. One Machamp grabbed ahold of Inga's shoulder, but was immediately burnt to crisp upon touch!

"Unnaaargh!" the muscular Pokémon bellowed, his lower left hand incinerated to nothing! "Why you…! C'mere!" He lunged atop Inga and grabbed her roughly. Bad mistake. Her body radiated, fire enveloping her and the Machamp within blinding seconds. She dropped to the ground, the dust of the sand cushioning her fall. The bulky Pokémon had fallen to ashes.

"…Don't. Touch. Me." Inga spoke, her voice and aura seething in anger as she returned to Lucien, covering and protecting him with her own body. "Leave us alone!"

"Heheh, you fail to understand. I'm here to kill them, and take you with me, chickety. So you best get up or I'll have to render you useless to defend." Enrique responded, fiddling through his pockets. "You're a stubborn one… I'll say it again. Remove yourself off him, or suffer with him."

Inga did not move. Her grip tightened and her heartbeat was beating faster. "I'd rather be eaten by your pansy firebird than move. Your yattering is incessant; don't you ever shut up." Burned. Enrique gritted his teeth and grabbed her by the lock of her hair, forcefully removing her from Lucien's half unconscious body.

"When I tell you to do something, you do it!" He sunk his minimal, sharp fingernails deep into her face, clawing and drawing blood from it. Inga twitched, raising her leg to kick Enrique off. He caught it.

"Nice try, but it won't work. Not again." He pulled out his pistol from his pocket and shot her straight for her back. The dark-haired girl didn't quarrel… but fell silent and dropped, the fresh wound tasting the dirt of sand. Enrique shuddered himself; where he inflicted the gun wound upon Inga, he too had begun to bleed from the same spot. He left her, trotting over to Lucien who the rest of the Machamp had secured tightly in their grip.

Suffering… pain… Is that all there is to life? Lucien, please, don't die. Please, live.

"…Inga…g-get up…" Lucien spoke up finally, hearing the gunfire and feeling her internal pain. She did not respond to his voice, but he knew she heard him. The blond-haired man sneered, holding the pistol's end to Lucien's forehead.

"You've been a good boy so far. Following orders and carrying them out. But, now that you know about Celebi and Agate, I cannot allow you to go any further. You're old scrap metal to Grand Master Ardos… You must be eliminated. It's a shame that old projects like yourself were never anything to amount for. Just useless material created to slave around. Never loved, never had hope, and then abandoned like trash." Lucien said nothing, absorbing Enrique's discouraging speech, thinking lightly…

"You thought, you could prosper in a new life as purified people. To live normally, to be together for as long as time could hold and wrap you around its tight fingers. What a waste." He continued, lifting Lucien's head up by the grasp of his hair locked tightly in his hand. "Cipher made many mistakes in deciding on projects to convert into possible schemes. You…were one of those mistakes, and by fault, you will be once again treated like the very trash you are. How about that?"

Lucien looked up, opening his crystal colored eyes, staring dead into Enrique's eyes. "…Say what you want. We will live happily together. Even if we were mistakes, we're living mistakes. Living is a good thing. All life matters, no matter how twisted, distorted, or nice it is. You say these malicious things because…your life as it is now, has nothing to mean. Will you amount to something? Or fall into the same catastrophe as the unwanted hellhole of trash?" The blond head glared, releasing Lucien's hair and backhanding him, hard, leaving a reddened mark upon his face.

"Your sass talk won't save you." He cocked his pistol again, loading it once more for the next round. "Any last words?"

"Yes, one actually… Inga."

"What?"

The ebony-haired female had gotten up and grabbed Enrique by his throat, strangling him, choking him, and bringing him down onto the ground with her. "Ghhrraaff!" Enrique uttered, trying to pry her hands off, struggling. The Machamp instantly released Lucien and rushed over to fidget the violent girl off their master. They succeeded, all holding her down with all their might. But, they were soon incinerated to ashes upon touching her!

"That little…!" Enrique gagged, catching his breath as he stood up and railed into Inga's back with his powerful kicking.

"Why. Are. You. So. Stubborn!?" he grunted, forcefully stomping upon his original with excessive, brutal, and flagrant power. Inga turned, shielding herself as much as she could cringing and weakly. He had struck her wound several times in his vicious stomping, that it was draining her physically. "Don't like it, do you!?" Enrique grinned devilishly, his left boot soak in blood, kicking her one last time a good distance far.

"This will teach you a damn lesson to mess with me—ghnnhfgh!" He stepped back, groaning in excruciating pain, gripping his stomach. The damage done to Inga was creeping up on him, faster than natural. The curse of being a clone…

"Inga!" Lucien crawled over to her frantically, short of breath.

"Gnnngh! Ho-Oh! Sacred Fire!" The enormous phoenix flew about, its body glowing once more. It cawed loudly again, taking aim and launching its whirling Sacred Fire attack at the duo by command.

This is… the end. The last time of living, the last beacon of light, and the shallow end of death's door. I may regret Lucien's words he spoke to me… but to be with him at this last point of life, I would never forget. At the dawn of life, this was the end, and I'm ready to accept them.

Instead of the intense, hot flames licking both of them dry, darkness had enveloped around Inga. When she opened her eyes slowly, there stood Lucien, facing her, arms widespread, trembling. His shirt was charred, as was his back; it gave way through his bones and body, his flesh visible and burned. Blood was protruding from his eye sockets, nose, mouth, and his head begun to crack. Her eyes widened, horrified, the fear chilling through her body even more. The dark shield around her faded.

His breath was short…

Lucien… He protected me. Selflessly… Again.

"… …Lu…cien. Why." Inga asked, softly, raising her hands slowly, shaking for him. He dropped to his knees, which his kneecaps had split asunder from his body, keeping him stationary. He slowly gripped her hands, as tight as he could.

"Inga… I did so… I love you. I…give myself to you because that happiness for you…is close by." The more he spoke, the worse his head began to crack further. Inga noticed this and tried to hush him.

"No… not for love. Please Lucien, don't talk anymore. I'll get you to Agate. They will take care of you and heal you and make you better." Tears were crumbling down her scarred cheeks, rolling down, piercing her skin. "I promise."

"…You didn't…know this, Inga. I saw you for the first time… as a regular trainer. Cipher had…stolen my Pokémon, and I f-f-followed them." He continued onward anyway, his speech tattered as was his bod. "When I saw…you. I had already seen the darkness enveloping you. I… w-wanted to save you. I… offered myself to Cipher for their monstrous Shadow Human project… They couldn't do much to me other than to close off my emotions… But… I kept strong to my inner self… to remind myself why I sacrificed my light for the shadows."

"…Lucien, stop…"

"…w-w-wanted to s-s-save you from your peril. Your agony… you are truly a beautiful person, Inga. Someone I believed I would marry one day… and live peacefully once I had my Pokémon returned to me. I wanted to break you free. I'm sorry t-to let you… own… d-d-dow…n…"

She shook her head, understanding this situation was hard for her, but she could feel his emotions clearly now. They weren't tainted, torn, distorted. It wasn't anything like that; they were opposite! Very pure and caring, the light brilliance of his aura was amazing, bright, and tender. But, at the same time, it was fading away fast. Was there anything she could do to save him? The only man who ever wanted her… after so many years of shunned and chaos. "Lucien…please do not speak. I will get us…out of here." Inga slowly rose, but couldn't get up all the way. The sharp pain in her back urged her back down.

"Inga... You are my friend, my very best friend. I love you, always." That tender, fervent, and loving smile of his again, shown to her. "Live your life—and be happy."

"This is irritating me. You're very boring to listen to. Silence." Enrique grunted, firing off another shot at Lucien.

The blood spat from the brunette's neck, dislocating his head as it launched off the main body. The poisoning red liquid tainted Inga's stunned, weary face. Lucien's body tilted sideways, falling. She couldn't move. The very thing that mattered to her heart, for the first time, just…gone like the wind.

"That's over with." The blond head muttered, walking over to the ecstatic, stunned Inga and grabbing ahold of her arm, forcing her up. "It's time to go, darling." Inga snapped, wildly struggling and trying to wring herself free.

"Let go of me! Lucien! Lucien!" she cried, using any strength left to punch and kick. Was there a way out? Was there anyone left to help?

"Hold still!" Enrique roared, gutting her hard in the stomach, a lash of saliva spat from her as she half collapsed from not only the shock of his elbow, but from desperation.

Quilava finally shook awake, after having been tossed away a mild distance and hearing Inga's voice. But, he saw that man Enrique having difficulty shoveling her into a cargo truck. "Inga!" he bellowed, trying to stand but his legs were too weak to move him. He was helpless to help her, he said he wouldn't give up no matter what to protect her, yet was rendered useless.

Moments later, they drove off. Far from the desert, far from sight. Quilava watched them in horror, and Ho-Oh flew above them. The night was a disaster.

"…Curse you filthy human scum. I will find you and kill you all."

I don't know what's going on anymore.

I am, truly afraid. Lucien's gone and I am separated from Quilava. He is all alone now, by himself and where would I be, I haven't a clue. Nothing can cease this trouble that fills my soul. The light, has been bounded by chaos. The stream of life has whittled away.

Where is…this forbidden salvation? Why couldn't it save Lucien…

Their hearts, were more of malice, than us the Shadow beings…

And, I am alone forever.

A Heart of Maleficence.

Entry IV: Complete.