Book 2: In Our Darkest Hour
Part Nine: A New Dawn, New Players Enter
Day 1 Of The Prewar: The Destruction Of The Pokeball Factory
Lucario and Tsubaki walked off the beach and into the forest behind them. Lucario was feelingpretty bad, the violence of the past few days had torn him up and what he really wanted was a rest. Tsubaki felt the same way, tired, morale at an all time low. The past few days had scarred the two. And they knew it was only the beginning, only the first step into hell. As long as Team Rocket stood, there would be continued violence and continued attacks.
And as Pokemon yelped out, fluttered about, and went on with their daily lives, disregarding the intruders invading their home, Lucario realized that he could give up, be just like them. Live a life where he disregarded the humans in his turf. But when he looked over at Tsubaki, the girl who had been thrust into this because she had the common decency to help. And because she was good, she was now wanted dead.
And Lucario knew he couldn't leave her alone. He couldn't let her die. She was the purest thing in the world, she helped save Oak. She was the light in the darkness. Despite the fact there was something off about her, something that Lucario just felt on his inside she wasn't telling him, she was the only person he could trust and the only person he wanted to protect. To hell with the rest of the humans. They were worthless specks on an otherwise tarnished towel.
"I have something to tell you before we continue." Tsubaki had been staring at the ground when she said this. She looked up at Lucario with tears streaming down her cheeks. She was breaking down, and Lucario could see it easily enough. He grabbed her and set her on the ground.
"What?" Lucario said, as he watched her lower lip tremble, as if she was trying to make the words form, but couldn't.
"I've killed before." She finally got out. "I...I'm used to..." Her eyes fell to the ground again and she spit the next word out like it was a curse "killing. I killed my father, I killed ten people other than him. I was an orphan when my mom killed herself." She cried harder now and Lucario grabbed her.
"Slow down." Lucario said. "Don't cry. Tell me."
"It was during the civil war in on Ocean Island. I was born there. I lived there. When I was ten, my parents were fighting, my mom was trying to tell my dad not to go...And he hit her with the butt of the gun. I was crying, she was crying. He then...stomped on her chest and I heard a crack. And before he could scream at her or hurt her anymore I had a knife in my hand and I shoved it through his chest."
Lucario still held onto her as her sobs got worse.
"And then the village I lived in was attacked and I grabbed Dad's gun. I ran out there and helped defend the village. I killed ten people. I bathed in their blood. And then shortly after my mother killed herself. She was depressed because I had killed my bastard of a father, the man who would hurt her and probably would have killed her just because she was trying to protect him."
Lucario stood. "I'm very sorry." He looked at the ground, tears threatening to explode from his eyes as he thought of who his parents could be and Tsubaki's story. He then shook them away and walked to the left. "I'm going to get some water. Please stay there. I know you may also need a moment to yourself."
And so Tsubaki sat under a large oak tree, eyes full of tears. And Lucario walked toward a river, eyes also full of tears.
He looked at his face in the river, the image wavering. He could only trust her.
She had told him her secret, she trusted him. And now he knew he could completely trust her. He knew she was the person he needed to bodyguard. He knew if he had to he would die to protect her, would allow her to capture him and use him how she wished.
He knew now that his life was changed again and that he was now going to follow her. And he knew if he did, Team Rocket would be in the way, waiting for the challenge that would imminently be proposed by Lucario. And he knew that if he protected her, the last pure human on the planet, he would defeat Team Rocket.
He walked back and saw that she was standing, a smile on her face and ready to go. He motioned for her to go ahead and he followed.

"I was trying to keep you as last resorts."
"And we still are." One of the people in the dark room said.
"Do you think you can dispose of those who need disposing of?"
"We will find the one woman easily enough. The girl and Lucario will be very easy to find and kill."
"Good. If the opportunity presents itself I would enjoy the chance to meet this Lucario. But more than likely, we will just have to kill him."
"Yes sir."
"The Acolytes of Darkness better not let me down."
"We won't sir."

The forest subsided and opened to a large factory. Forklifts and other heavy machinery lay about, as well as a train stopped alongside the factory, a series of trucks, and a cargo plane. It was all surrounded by a metal fence with barbed wire standing atop it, circling menacingly, glinting in the sunlight.
And the moment Tsubaki and Lucario saw the compound, they knew that it would be the killing floor for the night. Team Rocket members stood around, cigarettes trailing smoke, machine guns slung over shoulders. And in the large fields in between the various sections of the factory stood squads of Rocket members, drilling and aiming their rifles at targets placed against the metal walls of the buildings.
The facility had been the Pokeball factory. It still was, only it was not run by the government and the Pokemon branch of the government. It was now run by Team Rocket, more than likely as a choke point in case they needed to use it as leverage against the government or anyone else. Stop the flow of Pokeballs, stop Pokemon getting caught, and destroy the prime source of income for the government in Sinnoh.
And then the thought came to Lucario. Why would the facility still be running if the government were not helping this along? Why wouldn't the government attack Team Rocket for taking over a government run facility like this?
The answer was easy enough. The people taking positions in the government were associated with Rocket.
"We're attacking this place tonight." Lucario told Tsubaki, who watched as the squads marched and the commander yelled out cadence.
"There are a lot of people." She replied.
"That's never stopped us." Lucario smiled.
And so they sat in the forest until darkness.

Daylan sat back and stared at his Darkrai, floating in the tank. It's head was complete now, a spinal cord dangling from it. The projected finish date was two weeks. And he had never been so excited.
And so he sat there, staring at the tube like a crazy man. Which he was, he admitted to himself. But generally, genius scientists were crazy.

It was during a small dinner of berries and water that Lucario said what he wanted to tell Tsubaki all day.
"Capture me." He said.
"What?" Tsubaki replied, looking at him like she really had not caught what he had just said.
"Capture me." Lucario replied.
Tsubaki looked at him some more. "You want me to capture you?" She asked, like she suspected something behind his motives. "Why?"
"Because I was given this body for a reason. I wasn't just handed this power." He looked down at his hands. "I know I'm going to be a Lucario for the rest of eternity, but I was given a job along with this body. Not an everlasting job, just a job to until I retired. I really didn't recognize this fact until I was sitting in front of the river this morning. Then something rushed to my head."
"What?" Tsubaki asked, throwing a berry in her mouth.
"When I touched the Godstone when I was young it gave me a vision, a vision I had forgotten until this morning. It was a vision of a girl. She was just a silhouette though, a figure made of light and lost in darkness. Dark figures surrounded her and I saw a Lucario, made of light, that walked beside her. And then it became clear to me that my mission is to protect you. Despite your past, despite the fact that you have blood on your hands, you are the purest thing in the world. I need to protect you, because in the end, you are going to decide what happens, not me. We need to shift positions. I need to quit leading and you need to lead. I need to be your soldier, I need to be your Pokemon. I need to join Zangoose and Gengar."
She looked at Lucario and tears streamed down her cheeks. "When I killed my father, the blood pooled into a form that resembles a Lucario, and then when I killed those ten men I saw a Lucario in the distance, watching. Like a guardian."
"And now, I have appeared in the forefront."
Tsubaki took a Pokeball from off her belt and looked at Lucario.
"I can't believe I'm going to do this. Are you sure you can't protect me without being in one of my Pokeballs?"
Lucario shook his head. "This is how it is supposed to be."
The Pokeball was opened, Lucario was sucked in, and it closed, the front white button turning yellow, declaring that the capture was a success.
Tsubaki looked at it for a moment. She realized that she didn't want it to be this way. She threw the Pokeball out and released him. Lucario stood and looked at her.
"I'm completely at your disposal now. You're the boss."

Sillindra held the Godstone in her hand and felt a rush of air and was suddenly standing in a dark room. And she then saw a girl and a Lucario, made completely out of light. They cast white shadows on the ground, but they were connected. As were the lights of the figures of a Zangoose and a Gengar.
She snapped out of the vision and watched the Godstone explode in her hands. It was gone. It's mission was complete.

Standing in a wooden tower at the top of a mountain looking out at Rock Island, a monk smiled. "The light has been united. And only that light can overtake the darkness. The Monks of a Forgotten God have completed their mission." He looked down at the twelve monks, heads bald, wearing orange suits. They each held a knife in hand, aimed at their bellies.
"Let us go meet this forgotten God and reap our rewards in heaven."
Five minutes later, intestines piled on the ground, trailing from the slit stomachs of thirteen monks, all dead and smiling.

"GO!" Tsubaki yelled. Lucario used his arm horns to slice the fence to pieces, creating an opening big enough for the two. He then followed her as she ran toward the door to the manufacturing area.
"Go inside. Kill them all. I'll have Gengar and Zangoose attack the guards."
Lucario nodded and had her open the door for him. He walked in. It was dark, the conveyor belts were not running. Parts of Pokeballs laid about. He saw four guards standing around and ten asleep on cots in the corner of the room.
Lucario sent an Aura Sphere at the sleeping men and killed them all. The guards turned around fast, and started shooting. Lucario ran for it and slid under one of the guards, knocking him to the ground. He then stepped on the man's head and ran to the next guard.
A similar scene played out for the last three. And then Lucario left the building.

A half an hour later, the hit and run tactics were ended. Lucario, Gengar, and Zangoose had killed every guard.
And watching from atop one of the buildings with two men in Kevlar, wearing night vision goggles and completely black body suits was a man in regular Team Rocket garb.
"The place is going to self-destruct. Get some good pictures of the two of them now, and then running from the explosion. We'll broadcast them and watch the public reaction. They'll explode. Any politicians against us will back us in our want to kill these people."
"Yes sir." The man answered and walked away as his two ninjas started snapping pictures, then jumped to the ground and started running as the buildings exploded one after the other. They got pictures as the Lucario and the girl ran for it. She had her other two Pokemon return right as the first building exploded.
"They show their faces in public, they are dead." The man in the white mask said over the radio as he watched what was transpiring from the TV's in his room showing live feeds of what was taking place from the small cameras on the men's masks.

Day 2 Of The Prewar: The Dark Acolytes Discovered
Archer cut his pack of cards over and over again, a kind of calming ceremony. He looked out from the deck of his luxury mansion. He enjoyed being an Acolyte. The riches, the spoils. Though he was a bit materialistic, it didn't bother him. The job was fun. And he enjoyed sitting on his deck, looking at the forest and town beneath him. His daily paper was brought to him by his servant. He thanked the servant as the front page showed a picture of an explosion, with a Lucario and a girl clearly discernible.
He smiled to himself.

Lucario and Tsubaki smiled to themselves. The idiot was apparently not smart enough to realize that explosions tend to light up a place, and whether wearing white or black, you were still exposed. So they followed him to his mansion. The two ninja-like men had gotten away though. But they would be disposed of.
"I like being your Pokemon." Lucario said.
"There is not much difference."
"Trust me, for the Pokemon, our bond tightens. Your word is my command."
"Should we attack now?" She asked.
"You're the boss. I'd say why the hell not, but if you have a different opinion..."
"No, I like your idea. Why the hell not? Let's go."
And thus, they headed for the giant mansion together, Pokemon and master.