Cilan's POV

Another day, another struggle.

I'm trying every day to be an optimist, trying not to look at my bruised and battered brother and my broken brother. It was hard, but I'm trying. It's hard.

Since a few days ago when Cress was attacked, I've been waking up every morning before him to check up on him, get him whatever he needed. I tended to his wounds and helped him get dressed, just like a mother would. Chili helped as well, but he was still dreary, looking at his hand whenever I came into his room. He—We are all so robbed and lost. What more could we have taken away from us I cannot even begin to say. It may start with one another.

"Are we opening the gym today?" Chili asked me, adjusting his bow tie as he entered the kitchen. He looked extra prim and proper today, but I could still see the usual way he presented himself showing.

"Yes," I said, handing him a cup of coffee and a doughnut. "We are,"

Chili gave a short laugh. "Another doughnut?" he scoffed, even though he took it from me anyways. "Where's the usual big, nutritious breakfast we usually have? You've been giving me doughnuts to eat the past few mornings," He sat down across from me at the table and teared of a large bite from the doughnut.

I shrugged. "I don't know," I softly mumbled. I looked up into his eyes. "Why are you complaining?"

He chuckled. "I'm not complaining," he replied. "I'm just a little concerned, that's all. You and Cress are usually health nuts to me," he took a sip of his coffee.

"I said I don't know," I mumbled again, looking down at my buttered toast. "A lot has been going on lately, you know..." I brought my toast up to my mouth and took a bite, not nearly as big as Chili's.

Chili set down his coffee. "Yeah, I hear ya," I replied, looking away from me. I could see he agreed with me.

Cress came into the kitchen. "Good morning," he greeted, trying to be bright. He picked up the coffee and toast I left for him on the counter and sat down next to Chili. Chili looked back towards me and into my eyes. He mouthed "Is he okay?" and before Cress looked at me, I nodded.

"Work as usual?" He asked and then sipped his coffee at the same time as Chili.

"Yes," I replied, looking up at the clock. I finished off my toast and coffee, then stood up. "Come help me get ready to open when you two are finished," I went over to the sink and put my plate and coffee mug in there.

"Okay,"

"Alright,"

I went into the restaurant and laid the table cloths back down and set the table decorations back down. I made sure the host stand was full of menus and utensils. By the time my brothers were done with breakfast, all we had to do was decide who was going to be who today. We decided that Chili was to be the host, Cress the cook, and I the waiter. A few minutes after we took out stands, Chili opened up the place and we let customers in.

It was a peaceful morning, customers being friendly as usual, though I couldn't keep my mind off a sickening feeling I was getting. I was clueless as to why I was feeling this way. Everything that happened months ago was long gone besides recovery.

I kept thinking and thinking about it, but I kept it from my brothers. None of the customers questioned me, so I guess it wasn't noticeable on my face. Though it was it regular for me to keep a normal expression when I hurt inside.

All I could hear was the talking of customers before I heard a loud sound outside. I lifted my head from looking at my notepad when the windows of the restaurant shattered, glass flying everywhere.

I shielded myself from the glass with my arm, my apron whipping around with the gust. I backed away from the window and Chili came running behind me. Customers screamed and rushed out the door.

At that moment, I saw them.

With all my strength, I grabbed onto Chili's arm and tugged him out of the restaurant and into our living area of our place. Cress came running out of the kitchen and to me.

"What's going on?!" Cress yelled, looking scared.

"Shh!" I hushed him as I slammed the doors shut. I clicked the knob lock and bolted it with the other locks. I knew these would've come in handy sooner or later.

"Cilan, I saw them!" Chili hissed, tears forming in his eyes. "It's them!"

"What?!" Cress hissed back, now shocked and scared.

"Stay calm," I ordered them, but Chili refused.

"Why?!" He wailed, looking deeply into my eyes. "They've found us again and they're out there! We're done for!" Tears were now streaming down his face.

"We're getting out of here," I whispered, pulling at their arms. "Get your Pokeballs and backpacks. We've got no time-,"

"They've probably got this place surrounded by now!" Chili shouted. "Once we step out of here, we're dead!" He fell onto the ground and cried.

"I don't want to die," Cress repeated over and over, his arms crossed over his chest and shivering.

I couldn't think straight, but I had to keep them going forward. I needed to motivate them to get out alive.

"We're getting out of here alive," I yelled at them for the first time in forever. "Go get your things before they break down this door and die without trying!"

That motivated them. Chili was up and running down the hall along with Cress. I went with them.

I slammed my bedroom door open. It came to my realization that all my belongs will be dug through. They wanted us so they most likely wanted our things as well. I picked up my backpack and shoveled in my Pokeballs, my wallet, and all things that I could think they'd want. All I could hope is that I took what they would want and that my brothers are doing the same.

I clicked my backpack closed and dashed out of my room just in time to meet up with them in the hallway.

"Here's the plan," I told them. "Chili will use his Pansear to distract them with flames and smoke while we escape. Okay?" They nodded, but I noticed Chili hesitated. I understood why.

Chili lead us out, but then stopped. "We need to wear something dull over our bright heads and clothes." he quickly said. He swung open the door to our mud room and pulled out three dark colored ponchos.

"Good thinking," Cress sighed in relief. We slipped them over ourselves and slipped the hoods over our heads.

Chili let out his Pansear. "Pansear, I want you to use Fire Blast to create smoke while we escape," He told it our plan. "Don't worry. I'll be right behind you. I'm not leaving you behind," He patted its worried head.

"Ready?" I asked my brothers, looking around at them and into their eyes. They nodded, their eyes looking frightened but brave, wanting to survive.

As Chili twisted the doorknob and swung the door open, his Pansear burst out flames with a Fire Blast and the bolted door down the hall went down. We were out by the time the rumble in front of them cleared.

"Pansear, keep at it just a little longer!"

Hot flames surrounded us all around, smoke gathering. We covered our noses and mouths, staying low and out of site. There was streets behind the place, so we had to escape without a trace. Chili joined us close behind as he returned his Pansear down the alleyway between two buildings. We ran down and down till we got down to the end where sunlight could be seen and stopped.

I looked out to see where we had ended up. "We're near the Pokemon Center," I whispered loud enough for them to hear. "There's a crowd of people so we can just slip through there and get out of the city through alleyways," My brothers nodded.

I looked around once more. I could hear sirens in the distance, most likely headed for our place. I noticed the crowd was thickening, so I took the chance.

We dashed out into the crowd, weaving though and sometimes shoving people, but not enough to drag attention to ourselves. Some people yelled at us, but that was all. Cress was grasping my poncho the whole time, so I knew I didn't lose him. I knew I didn't lose Chili either because he normally shoved through crowds.

Running down the alleyways once more, I felt my arm begin to sting, but I ignored it. I wasn't going to stop running till we were out of the city.

It seemed like forever, tripping and almost falling as we ran, but we got to the outskirts of the city before we ran head first into trouble.

As we were about to make it out of one alleyway to the last one, a shady man screeched to a halt on a motorcycle in front of us. Without hesitation, I reached for Pansage's Pokeball and sent him out.

"Pansage, use Bullet Seed!" I commanded. It let out its cry as it did as I told and the man shielded himself from the attack. While he was blinded, we went around him and went down the next alleyway.

When I turned to return Pansage, who was running right behind us, I noticed the man turned his motorcycle and drove it down the alleyway behind us.

"Pansear, use Flamethrower!" Chili sent out his Pansear as my Pansage hopped on my shoulder. Pansear followed through with his attack and set the man's bike ablaze. We ran and ran, the man no longer coming after us due to being too busy trying to set himself out.

When we no longer saw buildings and saw trees, I knew we were out. But we were still being hunted down.

"Cilan-!" Cress hissed at me. "We've got to find somewhere to hide soon!" He was almost out of breath, same with Chili and I.

We heard explosions behind us and I knew we haven't lost them yet. And I didn't know how to either.

"How about we get off of the ground and into that tree?" Chili whispered loudly. He pointed up to a big, old tree. It's leaves and branches were close enough together that we could easily hide.

"Alright," I replied. "Let's go,"

Chili got up perfectly on his own, but I had to lag behind and help Cress up. We had just gotten hidden when we heard something in the distance coming closer.

"Stay still and quite," I whispered. We held out breaths as the noises approach. The crunching of footsteps in the snow came closer and increased. I could feel the tension increasing inside of me. I'm sure my brothers felt it as well.

"They went this way!"

"Over here!"

Shouts and angry cries came closer, rising from their throats. I could see from the corner of my eye that Cress was trying so hard not to give in and surrender. He never ran away when he was in trouble and admitted he was wrong, even if he wasn't guilty of what he was being accused of.

The walking stopped and their talking went silent. I didn't dare move a muscle to see if they were below us. It would cause too much noise and I might fall out of the tree.

"Dammit!"

"Boss, we swear on our lives that they went this way!"

"We're sure of it!"

Silence. All I could here was the wind blowing. No more shouting. No more chasing.

One of them stirred down below.

"I'll let you three get away this time," A deep, shady voice spoke. "For now. Keep running and I'll come get you when you're exhausted. You cannot run forever,"

The voice began walking away. It was a few moments, before I heard the others begin to walk away as well, following him. I signaled to my brothers to wait a while longer before we even spoke.

Once they sounded a safe distance away, I went to speak, but Cress beat me to it.

"Cilan, what are we going to do?!" He whined in a terrified whisper. "They ruined our home! And we can't go back there! They'll find us again!" He began to cry, looking so lost.

I felt Chili touch my arm and it hurt like crazy. "Cilan, your arm..." Chili whispered and he hurried to lift up my poncho. My arm was cut all over, bright blood staining my once white sleeve. Small shards of glass stuck out from the cuts, but not too many.

"It must have been from when the windows crashed and I shielded myself," I whispered, looking at how torn my arm looked. The sleeve was torn and ruined, most likely by large shards of glass. Thank Arceus that one didn't slice my arm or head open.

"Let's wait awhile longer before we get down from here and find a better place to hide," Cress suggested, sniffling as his tears ceased. He shifted towards Chili, who put his arm around his shoulder.

We waited and waited. We didn't even bother checking the time on our phones. Besides, we need to save our battery. I suggested we turn them off because we didn't know if they knew our numbers and were tracking us. After that, none of us spoke. Cress occasionally cried off and on, Chili comforting him by patting his back and being by his side.

"My ass is cramping up," Chili announced suddenly, when it seemed like forever since we got up here. "Let's get down and find a better hiding spot so we can treat Cilan's cuts," The blood on my arm was already clotting. I don't think it was safe to have not tended it sooner.

We climbed back down. I helped Cress once again, who was having another emotional breakdown. We stretched our weary muscles and quickly made our way.

It wasn't that long of hurrying through the trees and scary a few wild Pokemon before we found a hollow tree. To our surprise, the sun was already starting to set, but we still weren't sure if they were still hunting for us.

We got inside. It was pretty roomy and to our convenience, there was a space where we could hide if they came around. We took off our ponchos and settled into that space. My brothers placed me in the middle to tend to my wounds.

"Good thing I thought of bringing this," Cress sighed in relief as he pulled out a small, but well equipped first-aid kit. Chili rolled his eyes, but I nudged him with my good arm to tell him he should be grateful.

Cress opened up the first-aid kit and pulled out alcohol wipes, dressing, and gauze. Chili lifted up my arm for him and he began to wipe down my cuts with the wipes. It stung so bad, each and every time he dabbed my arm with it. I was grateful when he put it down and reached for the dressing. He held it in place as he wrapped the gauze around my arm to keep it in place.

"There," Cress said, finishing off my treatment. He lightly patted my shoulder and then looked over at Chili. "Do you have any wounds, Chili?" he asked him.

Chili shook his head. "Nope," he replied. "I was near the entrance when the windows crashed, so I'm fine," He lied down on his poncho, but couldn't see to get comfortable.

Cress heavily sighed as he slid the first aid kit back in his backpack. "We've got a place to hid now, but what are we going to do now? We've got nothing to eat," He looked so sad, hungry as well. In fact, I believe we all were. We only had breakfast today and it really wasn't much to begin with.

"Well, first," Chili said, now getting up. "Let's get a fire started so we can stay warm. Pansear and I will go and find some firewood," he let out his fire monkey from its ball.

Cress got up as well. "And I'll go find some berries," he added. "I won't go too far though and I'll be sure to stay near Chili and Pansear. I'll have my Panpour help out as well," he let out his water monkey as well.

"Okay," I whispered, feeling exhausted. "Please be safe and don't be gone too long,"

"We will," Cress assured me. "Don't fall asleep though. You need someone near you to be awake to keep watch," I nodded in response and they left.

I sat there for a few moments before I picked up my backpack and opened it up. Slowly, I pulled out the photo of mother that I threw in at the last minute. I batted my tears away, trying so hard not to cry. I didn't know I had become such an easy crier.

"Mother," I whispered to her photo. "What's going on? Why is this happening to us?" I stroked the worn wooden frame with the tips of my quaking fingers. My tears began to hit the picture, falling slowly from my eyes.

Pansage came out of its ball. Its big black eyes widened with worry and cuddled into my lap.

"Pan?" It questioned me. It pawed my face to rid of my tears, which was the sweetest thing that I've gotten all day.

I gave a soft laugh and ran my fingers through its leaves. "I'm okay," I lied, sniffling. I gave a small smile, knowing things weren't okay. Things were going bitter and distastefully wrong.

Chili bursting it scared me to death. Thank goodness he had good news to deliver.

"Firewood was easy to find," He announced, Cress close behind. Then a frown came over his face as he set down the firewood and looked over at Cress.

"But we didn't find very many berries or anything edible," Cress sighed, his Panpour and him setting down what they found next to his poncho. He then noticed my face and what I was holding.

"Cilan?"

"It's nothing," I quickly replied, shoving Mother's photo back in my bag. Normally, Cress would have nagged me about it till I told him, but none of us were in the mood for any of that. He just shrugged it off and settled down next to me.

"So," he started, looking down at the berries in front him. "We found five berries. Thank goodness we three can have each one, but I have no idea how we're going to feed our Pokemon with just two," He though hard, staring intensely at them as Chili's Pansear set a small fire on the firewood, once Chili set aside some for later.

"Simple," Chili spoke. "We split the berries into two. That gives us ten halves, meaning we'll have enough to feed us and our Pokemon," He smirked, thinking he was a genus. Cress rolled his eyes at him this time around and Chili gave his a glare.

"Okay," Cress continued. "Three halves for us, three halves for Cilan's Pokemon, and two halves for yours and our Pokemon," He thought for a moment. "That means we'll have one berry left," He seemed disappointed.

"Let's save the extras," I contributed. "We don't know when we'll be able to gather more and if we could find any," I looked around at my brothers and they nodded.

To make it fair, I took four berries and split them in halves. Once that was complete, I let out my Stunfisk and Crustle. I told them the situation and to be grateful they had something to eat. It was hard to convince Stunfisk, but I got it to understand.

I then passed out the halves to everyone. When it came to the point where there was two halves that were uneven, I gave Chili the larger half and took the smaller for myself. He gave me a look of concern, but I gave him a look back that told him that it was fine. I knew he was probably starving more than any of us.

I returned my two other grumpy Pokemon to their balls before my brothers and I sat and talked, watching the flames of the fire.

"So, who's going to stay watch first?" Cress asked, looking at all of us.

We didn't know what to do. Chili needed his sleep or he became a mad man in the morning and Cress needed sleep or he would barely function. It seemed that I was the only one who could tolerate a little lack of sleep.

"I'll go first," Cress volunteered before Chili and I could. "Cilan's body needs some rest so he can heal properly and we all know the situation with Chili," Chili glared at him, but I gently touched his arm and it calmed him.

"Alright," Chili mumbled. He sure was tired. When he went over to his spot in the tree, to my surprise, he pulled out a very small pillow from his backpack and laid it on the ground. He covered himself up with the poncho and fell right asleep.

I looked over to Cress. "And I guess I'm after you," I added. I patted his shoulder. "If you feel like you're about to fall asleep, wake me," He nodded and I made my way over to my spot next to Chili. I saw Pansear go patting over to Chili and nuzzle its way close to him as possible. My brother let out a snort and shifted in his sleep. I couldn't help but smile.

I picked up my poncho from the ground and began undressing myself a bit. I took off my vest and apron and untied my bow tie so I wasn't so constricted in my sleep. I put them by my head and used them as a pillow. I looked up at Cress, who was already looking at me. He shyly smiled and looked back out into the night, his Panpour in his lap.

I was about to get settled in to go to sleep, but I noticed that Chili was shivering. How could I forget? He may seem warmer than a lot of people, but he can't stand the cold. I took my vest out of my bag and covered him up with it. Pansear looked up at me and thanked me for my brother.

Pansage cuddled into my arms just as I got as comfortable as possible on the ground. It looked up at me with its big black eyes again, but this time they were comforting more than giving a worried look. I ran my fingers through its leaves again and it gave happy sounds.

And with that, I closed my eyes and fell to sleep.

(Intermission – End of Chapter 10)