So, did everyone have good Christmas? I sure did. Here's hoping your New Year's Eve is just as great!

On to relevant news. Sorry this was a little bit delayed. I've been held up a lot because of the holidays and haven't had much time to write. I wanted to have it posted by Christmas Eve, but I just couldn't get it done on time. Oh well, at least I tried.

Chapter 7: Fate Set in Stone

Samantha sighed, Tobias following in suit, exhausted by the events of the past days. Some of the pokemon were playing in the remains of the old playground, each in their own way. Lea, as his species classification may imply, was swinging on the monkey bars, despite that pieces and entire rungs were missing. Synth was having fun gliding down the slope of the metal slide and struggling to climb back up, just to repeat the process afterwards.

Totodile, as opposed to them, was not playing. He did not feel the joy of his two companions; he couldn't. Like Samantha, reality had taken its toll on him, too. As a result, he didn't feel he deserved to have fun. No matter how anyone could sugar-coat it or how many times he was told that it was coming to the trainer, Totodile knew that he was a murderer. Plain and simple. He was nestled in his new master's lap, her soft arms wrapped around his tiny chest. It comforted him; at least the warmth of her embrace kept his mind off the subject.

"It's amazing," Tobias began, "how they can always find a way to have fun even in a place like this." Anything to start a conversation, he thought.

"I guess so," was Sam's solemn reply. Seconds of uncomfortable silence ticked by, the two moving their legs in a way that swung the swings they sat on inches forward and backward.

"I talked to Reese's grandparents," he said. "They said it was okay if you kept Totodile. Said it would be best if he goes on the journey, even if Reese can't."

She smiled and pet the small alligator's head, but elicited no response from him. "That's good. I've been starting to grow on him, anyway."

"Sam, I've been meaning to talk to you."

"About what?" Her smile vanished. She looked at him; he returned the gesture.

"I want to leave."

Samantha was taken aback by the statement. "Huh? What are you talking about?"

"I want to leave the islands. I just… I can't stay here. Not after what happened."

"Tobias…" she groaned. "Do you really have to go? I don't really have any other friends here, and-"

"I want you to come with me," he cut in.

"What? Really?"

"I know you can't stay here either. Like you said, you don't really have many other friends besides me anymore. We're both planning on going to Sinnoh, so it seems pretty convenient. And we can both start our journey now; we've already waited years past our tenth birthday."

"But… what about school?"

"Even if we fail the final test, it's not going to prevent us from getting a trainer's license. It's not exactly mandatory to even have a big education to become a trainer.

"Okay. And our parents?"

"My parents already agreed on this. Trust me, I can get yours to understand."

She didn't bother to ask what he meant. "Okay, I'll go with you. I guess it won't do any harm to start a little bit earlier than usual."

"Good. We leave in two days."

"What!" She shouted. She nearly forced Totodile off of her lap.

Tobias rubbed his ear. "Dang, don't scream so loudly."

"Well don't you think that's a little too quick? I mean, we still have to get ready and pack up everything."

"I'm already ready," he said. "It's not like it takes that long to get everything together."

She was mystified. "You're telling me that you were able to prepare for an entire journey that will take up a good few years of your life in one night?"

"Well, except for warmer clothes," he said, sheepishly. "They don't sell snow jackets in this tropical place. Aside from that, all you'll need is a backpack, some money, a few pokeballs and some first-aid stuff."

"And you already have everything?" She sounded skeptical, but he nodded. "Well, I guess I should start packing, then."

"Be quick about it." Tobias shoved his hand in his pocket and took out a paper stub. He tossed it to Samantha, who missed, and Totodile caught it for her. "We already have the boat tickets."

Totodile handed the ticket to her. She examined it, stunned. "Were you really that confident I'd say yes?"

"I just had a feeling you would." He smiled. Sam did the same and placed the ticket in her pocket.

The three sat and stared for a short while. Lea and Synth had both grown tired; Synth was lying on the ground with his stubby legs sprawled, with Lea drowsily resting his head on the shell. Totodile was secretly glad that they were to leave soon. He wanted to get as far away as possible from this place.

"Before we leave," Samantha said, breaking the silence, "I have one more thing I need to do."

"Huh? What is it?" Tobias inquired.

"I just wanted to go back to the zoo one more time. I never got to see that baby Larvitar that hatched."

This time, Tobias was taken aback. "No, you don't want to go back there. It will only bring back those painful memories."

"Oh, come on." She tugged at his shirt like a child would her father. "I only want to see the baby. It's not like I'm going to be there forever."

"I don't know…"

"Besides, I bought that season ticket for a reason. I don't want it to go to waste. Especially since it cost fifty dollars and I've only used it once."

Tobias was quiet, considering the notion. "…Fine, whatever. I'm going with you though. Just to make sure you don't get carried away."

"Good, 'cause I was about to ask."

Tobias looked up at the sky, noticing the approaching night. "Well, we should probably start heading home. We both have a big day tomorrow and the day after."

"Okay, sure." They each called their respective pokemon over, waking them from their nap in the process. Samantha set Totodile on the ground and stood up, stretching her limbs. Tobias did the same.

"Just think, Sam," Tobias said as they started their way home the pokemon following in tow, "two days from now we'll be on our way to Sinnoh. Are you excited?"

"I have to be. Otherwise you wouldn't be taking me with you, would you?"

They both laughed, and the question went unanswered.

I had been left alone for the rest of the day. Bella and Clyde were practically invisible, but I didn't go looking for them. I spent most of my time practicing my new ability to walk, since Bella wouldn't be there to carry me anymore. I only left the cave to eat, and, with nothing better to do, I went to sleep early. Even then Bella and Lexus hadn't returned to the cave.

Tonight, I experienced no lingering nightmares or memories of my past life. Maybe because I was not stressed today, with Bella and Clyde not bothering me. I had considered saying something to one of them, but I couldn't. If I apologized, then it would mean that they had won the argument, and I wasn't about to let that happen.

I didn't wake up on my own that morning. I felt the jostling of my shoulder that lightly awakened me.

"Ugh… Bella..?" I groggily wondered aloud. "Is that you?"

My vision came completely into focus, and I saw that it was Eli, closer to my face than would be considered comfortable.

"Aah!" I screamed, taken off-guard by his appearance, "What are you doing here?"

"Sshh, it's okay, boy," Eli whispered, trying to calm me down. He pet the top of my head.

"Get off me!" I swatted his hand away. "Sicko…"

"Don't worry," he continued anyway, "we're just going to pay a little visit to the vet, okay?"

"Ugh, you were telling me about this yesterday, weren't you?" I slowly, shakily, stood up. "Fine, let's go."

He seemed to get the message that time. "Okay, come on," he said. He squatted down and grabbed my sides, in an attempt to lift me up.

"What the hell are you doing now?" I asked, feeling more than uncomfortable.

"Rrgh…rrgh… guh!" he groaned, giving up. He wiped a bead of sweat from his forehead. "Okay, I'm going to end up with a hernia if I carry you like that."

"You're not seriously that weak," I nearly shouted, disbelief in my voice. "I can't weigh that much."

He slowly reached into his back pocket. "I'm sorry, little guy. You may not like this, but I have to do it."

"What are you doing now?"

In one quick motion, he whipped out a strange object from his pocket and launched it at me faster than I could blink. Too stunned to react, I could only watch as I felt myself disintegrate into hundreds of pieces as it opened, being sucked into it. Everything went white as I was blinded by some sort of red tinted light. I felt the ground shake wildly, three times, to be specific, before it suddenly stopped and I heard a "ding!" noise.

Too late did I recognize that this was a pokeball. When I was able to see again, I saw nothing, just a vast sea of white. I tried to move, to see if there was anything in this blank slate, but hit a curved wall. I felt everything around me, everywhere was the same wall, there was no escape. It didn't take long for me to begin panicking.

"Eeyaah! Let me out here!" I screamed. I punched the wall around me; maybe it would break like my egg did. It didn't. If only I had recognized the ball and struggled sooner, I wouldn't be in here.

"Calm down, calm down!" It was Eli's voice. I could hear him, but I was unable to see him anywhere in this small room. It should have been soft or soothing, but I was too scared to embrace it.

"NO! Please, get me out of here!" I kept hitting the walls, but all I felt was this prison rolling around. There was a sense of weightlessness, the ball being lifted in the air.

"Come on… just give me a few minutes, okay?" He was talking in a whisper, but the voice resonated all around me. "I'll let you out once we're there, okay?"

"I want out… I need to get out…" I quickly tired myself out flailing about so much. I lay down on my curved floor and panted, already exhausted from such meager efforts a side effect of recently being born. Nothing would work, I had decided, so I sat myself down on my curved floor and waited.

I don't know how long it was before I was let out. I assumed it only a few minutes, but it felt much longer. It felt like my mind had been numbed by sitting in there, to the point where I couldn't judge the passing of time. I do know that when I was let out, but when I was, I was disoriented and, as much as I would not like to admit it, scared.

It was a new place. It was a large room overall. Various medical supplies decorated the walls and counters, which were spotlessly clean. I sat on a metal table. It held an icy cold, and forced me to shiver as I materialized onto it. When I moved, it creaked.

There were two men in the room: one was Eli, holding my new, damned pokeball, and the other was one of the people from the night before. He was definitely much older, judging by his height over Eli, his sagging skin and the gray hair emerging from his scalp. I hadn't paid much attention to his features that night, when he took my blood, but I had some sort of sense that it was him. It made me suspect that Eli may have been the other person with him then. Currently, both of them were standing over me cautiously.

"Where am I?" I asked aloud, though I knew there would be know response. "Really, where is this? I have to know, I have to get out!"

"Shush up, kid," it was the older man. "We'll get this over with quickly."

It took me a few more moments to regain my senses. I could think clearly now, clear enough to realize that I was, in fact, in the vet's office. Why I couldn't remember earlier, even after I was told where I was headed, I don't have a clue.

With all of these thought raging in my mind, I was surprised when a thermometer was shoved in my mouth, the cold tip giving me more shivers. I would have made some sort of fuss, but I was too busy silently thanking God that they didn't use the other type of thermometer.

"Okay," the man continued, "we need to check to make sure his skin is hardening."

"What are you talking about?" I managed to say without dropping the thermometer.

Eli walked up to me and raised the knuckle of one of his fingers. He tapped my arm repeatedly, each time with a dull resounding knocking noise.

"Seems good… one more thing." Eli took out a small coin from his pocket. "Let me know if this hurts, okay?"

"You're really starting to scare me."

He took my tiny arm in his free hand and used the other to rub the thin edge of the coin on my skin. It made a scratching noise, but did not hurt at all. He rubbed harder, but still no result. He kept scraping it more fiercely, until it progressed to a feeling of my skin peeling off.

"Gah! It hurts, it hurts!" I shouted out, the thermometer nearly falling from my mouth. I rubbed my other arm against the one he scratched, and it stung somewhat.

"Okay, skin thickness is a check," Eli said. "It's actually seems like it's hardening faster than it normally does for rock types. That's not a bad thing, right?" He sounded nervous.

"On the contrary, that's a good thing. It means his body is developing faster than normal, a sign of an exceptionally healthy pokemon."

"That's good, I guess," I said to nobody in particular. My arm hurt a lot, and I kept my other arm on top of it.

"That's good," said Eli, with no idea he was mimicking my words. The thermometer in my mouth gave a soft beep. "Should I check his temperature now?"

The man gave him a look that said, "What do you think?" He repeated the expression in words.

"Don't blame me; I usually don't do the medical examinations." Eli yanked the thermometer off of me. "One hundred and thirty… that's normal for rock types, isn't it?"

"Yes," was the man's blunt answer. "Now we need to check his weight."

"I think I already did that when I tried carrying him here," Eli added, embarrassed.

"Maybe you're just too weak to carry anything more than five pounds," I inputted. Clearly, this wasn't true; I saw him carrying those heavy bags of pokemon food the day before. I still felt the need to make fun of him though, if only to keep my sanity here.

"What? You can't get him up by yourself?" Eli sheepishly nodded. "All right, then. Come on, I'll help you."

They each used one arm to grab my sides and my… underside. They hefted me into the air, struggling, and I could feel their muscles straining to keep hold.

"Seriously?" I asked, sarcastically. "There is absolutely no way both of you are that pathetic."

"Calm down, already! We'll put you down in a moment."

"That's not what I'm complaining about!" I screamed, frustrated that they couldn't even come close to knowing what I said.

They took me a few feet over to the wall making no effort to hide the fact that they were too weak to carry me, where a scale, the kind one would see in a doctor's office, was waiting on the floor. When I was hovering over it, they dropped me onto it. The scale part at the top dipped to the side.

"Ah! Assholes…"

They exhaled in relief. "Okay…" said the unknown man, who itched the back of his head. "Now, just check the scale, Eli."

He panted. "Alright, hang on a minute."

I looked up and saw him fiddling with the slide weights. He moved the biggest weight over just a small amount, but I heard it click into place. I tried to read what it said, but I couldn't. It was written in some foreign writing.

He moved the remaining two sliding weights into various different positions, the scale moving in a corresponding pattern with the weights. Eventually, the scale fell into balance.

"Hmm… One hundred and thirty seven pounds."

"What the hell!" I cried, completely surprised at the result.

"Good, that's normal for a Larvitar."

"How the hell am I that heavy!? I'm barely a foot-and-a-half tall!"

The man wrote something down on his clipboard. "Eli, would you keep him company for a short while? I need to get some of his papers."

"Uh, sure," replied Eli, and the man opened the door and left the room. He stayed silent, I was busy "wondering" how it was at physically possible that I could be so heavy.

"Now, could you please calm down little guy?" said Eli.

"Stop calling me that! I hate that name!"

"Please? I need to show them that I can take care of you, so-"

"Screw you! I'm having a bad enough day already. I don't need you to make it worse!"

With the same speed as when he took out the pokeball, the boy balled his hand into a tight fist and slammed it against my head. I toppled over to my side; it hurt about as intensely as Bella's blows to the head.

"Eyah!" I screamed, holding my head with both arms in pain. "How the hell did you do that without hurting yourself?"

"That was a light hit," he said in a new, threatening tone. "So behave now before I have to really hurt you."

"Argh… God, I hate you even more now."

"That's the spirit." A few moments of awkward silence passed. "So, how are things goin'?" If I had eyebrows, I would have raised one.

"How are things going? What's the point of asking that? What do you think I've been doing?"

"That's nice," he said. It was like talking to a wall.

"Please, just kill me now."

"Fascinating," he said convincingly. Although he was just going along with what he thought I was saying, I couldn't help but chuckle at his misplaced compliment.

"You know, do you really think you can understand me? Because you certainly aren't showing it."

"No, of course not." His eyes widened.

"Good, because… wait, what?"

"Eli?" the man opened the door and came back inside He was holding a folder with a few papers sticking out.. "Could I show you this for a moment?"

"Yeah, sure," was his quick reply. I heard mutter "Thank God" under his breath as he stood up. He rose to his feet and speed-walked to the man. "What do you need?"

"The Larvitar, he… just look at this." He opened the folder and took out a sheet from the stack. I saw a glimpse of what could have been numbers and statistics, but I couldn't tell.

"Hmm… these are his blood results. What's so special about it?"

"Look down here," he said. Eli's eyes rolled down to where the man's finger pointed.

"I don't… oh, I see."

"Exactly. He has absolutely no biotin or cobalamin in his system."

This alerted me. I didn't know what that was supposed to mean, but it sounded serious.

"Well," Eli went on, "is this bad?"

"Sort of. It won't affect his body systems at all, and he'll still grow to be a strong and healthy Larvitar."

"Then what is so wrong with it?"

"Do you know what those two chemicals are?" Eli shook his head. "Those are two chemicals only produced in pokemon. Once a pokemon levels up to a certain level, the chemicals are released everywhere in the body, which causes evolution.

"Think about it. I said 'Larvitar,' not 'Pupitar' or 'Tyranitar." Something clicked in my brain and his point became clear. "The point is, he will still grow and develop, but he will never evolve."

Not much else say today.

-Finalsmasher13