Chapter Nine:
Help

Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon in any way, shape, or form. The only "ownership" I can claim are the personalities and my interpretation of how Pokémon look in a more realistic light, but other than that...yeah, I don't own anything on them. XD I do, however, own my original characters and writings, unless otherwise stated. In an exceptional case, a few special OCs belong to their respective owners, I'm merely borrowing them for the story that's to unfold. I'll point them out when their time to show up comes. :3

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It is not enough to help the feeble up, but to support him after.
-William Shakespeare

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By the time they'd left Mr. Pokémon's and traveled back down the road headed toward Catallia City, storm clouds were gathering in up on the horizon. They rose above the tree line, creeping along to overtake the cheerful blue sky with a foreboding darkness. It turned gloomy in a hurry, and the wet scent and moist touch of the air foretold of a good set of showers to be coming their way. The balmy temperature slowly began to descend. And yet, despite Totodile's complaints about the cold, he seemed empowered by the impending downpour. His tired demeanor began to pick up in energy, evidenced by his pace becoming less sluggish and more locomotive.

When Lupin finally called it to pitch camp, he was more amicable, but still as quiet as ever. She was glad that she bought the tent she had been carrying, even if it hadn't been necessary until now to use. Lugging it around had begun to feel like she'd bought it for nothing. It was a one-man tent, just enough for herself, her gear, and her sleeping bag all in a snug space. She went through the surprisingly easy setup fairly quickly, putting the poles through designated slots and then settling it on higher ground, well away from dips and furrows that may become mini-lakes of puddles. Just as she finished tucking everything into the safety of the erected tent, the rain began to unexpectedly pour in earnest. She was half soaked within the first few seconds before she ducked inside with a startled yelp, her tail puffing up beneath her coat. Totodile, however, seemed quite happy at the downpour and looked quite at home.

Of course, Lupin thought. He's a water-type. Why wouldn't he? He thrives in this kind of environment.

He waddled through the mud not far from Lupin's tent and the rain just sluiced it right off and then he'd shuffle through it again, and the rain would wash it off all over. The never ending cycle didn't seem to bother him. He even settled down at last in a growing puddle, letting the mud and the rain pile up around him while Lupin, watching from the see-through netting as she changed clothes and then dug into a travel-ready meal, quietly wishing the rain could have waited until after she'd had a fire set to give her something warm to eat.

At least we had something before this, she thought morosely. She played with her spoon through the dregs of the packaged travel-ready meal. In all honesty, she was still hungry, even after three bowls of the chowder from earlier today. She absently wondered just how much she actually could eat while she finished off her cold meal and guzzled down some fresh water. Eyeing her pack, she peeked at some of the travel-ready pokémon chow, and yanked it out before calling to Totodile for food. He was ignoring her, however, and it took until after she'd poured him some in a dish that she'd noticed this.

"Hey! Food! You know, stuff you eat to gain energy from!"

He didn't answer, continuing to wallow happily away in his muddy water. She sighed. Fine, then, he could stay out there. That was all right with her. She didn't want him dirtying everything up if he felt inclined to come crawling back over this way anyway. She tossed the food back in the bag and then everything else in her satchel before bedding down for the night. The heat was welcome in the sleeping bag and it lulled her for some time in a half-way stage between waking and sleep, while her hands absently picked at the charm and dog tags around her neck.

Her fingers played the most along the dog tags, along the bumps and dips of the engraved letters and numbers, as though trying to decipher some hidden message between their lines.

Next thing you know, I'll try looking for people's faces in pieces of toast, she thought sleepily.

Ha. Right, sure, then she'd find out right afterwards that she really was some weird sort of pokémon/human hybrid. The thought made her smile in spite of herself as she curled up and closed her eyes, drifting off to what she hoped would a peaceful sleep.

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Of course, peace-by-sleep didn't come. It rarely did these days. Typical.

She was curled inside her sleeping bag, groggily wondering what it had been that had woken her up this time. Her usual tantrum-by-night-terror wakeup call wasn't apparent. She wasn't covered in a sheen of sweat, her heart wasn't jackhammering away in her chest, the blood wasn't rushing like a roaring current through her ears. The patter of rain that had hammered at the canopy of her tent when she had fallen asleep was now absent. She noticed that change right away. It must have stopped raining, she realized, and it was a shame. The white noise had been soothing to listen to, and she could just imagine it all over again. That thought alone nearly lulled her back to sleep, when a piercing squeal cut through relative stillness and she jolted upright. It came again, and then a third time. She was already scrambling up and ripping the zipper to the tent's entrance, ducking her head into the cool night air. She barely felt the chill of the air as her eyes hurriedly searched the campgrounds. Her eyes adjusted quickly to the darkness, and the mounting suspicion that something was very wrong continued to fester in the pit of her stomach.

Then she spotted the clods of earth and mud being uprooted just beyond the tree line. Lumps of dark, multi-legged blobs were lobbed into the air, screeches and hisses galore providing a soundtrack to the otherwise eerie stillness of the night. She pushed to her feet and hurried toward the fracas, her heart jumping to her throat and throbbing painfully away when she realized she didn't know where Totodile was.

That little menace, he'd better not be picking fights again!

She'd had to drag him away from impending battles in Cherrygrove and other little towns every time they'd passed through, and she knew he resented her for tiptoeing away. She even managed to avoid other trainers by either bypassing or circumnavigating them altogether. He always seemed to be raring for a go at some unsuspecting trainer and their pokémon, and it only seemed to increase the longer they were traveling together. With the exception of the ghost-types in the haunted forest, he also seemed keen on attacking wild pokémon and if Lupin didn't keep an eye on him or planted on her shoulder to ride upon it, he'd waddle off in search of them.

"I was bred for battle, it's in my blood. I was sent to the lab for studies, but in the end, I'm meant to be with a trainer to travel with," he'd told her once when she had asked. For a cold-blooded reptile, he certainly spoke more like a hot-blooded creature, and he had the energy of one as well, despite his protests of cold and sluggishness.

And the one night I leave him alone, he goes looking. Dammit all.

Yet, even with the strangeness of it all was that for the past several days, he had been quite subdued and withdrawn, unwilling to look her in the eye for very long like he's done before. She knew something was wrong and she knew it was because of her. He was afraid of her. Ever since the night of the full moon, he'd been afraid of her. The stench of fear, discomfort, and nervousness clung to him and while he'd continued his charade of acting fine yet quiet didn't quite work. He was biding his time, waiting to get back, waiting to get away from her. Trundling off to fight pokémon might have been a coping mechanism, something to fall back on. He expressed his interest in wanting to battle with earnestness, emphasizing that he was only a temporary lab pokémon until Professor Elm presented him to an aspiring trainer needing a starter. He wanted out, and his one chance to see things and get a feel for them, and she had, in a way, ruined it to a point. She'd soiled his experience, tarnished it.

She scowled, although it was half-hearted, as she squelched bare feet through muddy terrain and pushing past the tangled weavings of the underbrush. She couldn't find it in her to be quite as angry at Totodile anymore. Something came sailing out into the air from between the trees. She ducked when a mud clod came sailing her way, ears pinned to her skull, tail puffed up in surprise. Her attention was drawn to the source, and the first thing she found was the blue reptile. The second note of interest that caught her eye was the ground and how it simply writhed and squirmed and scuttled along over and under itself. It took a few moments to fully register the menagerie of pokémon that had too many legs, bulbous bodies, the way they sprawled not only land, but also up in the trees and how some were even hanging in midair…

Spiders, her head supplied suddenly in recognition. Spider pokémon. She felt a chill roll down her spine, creeping along at a slow, mind-numbing pace when she finally observed that there was a white noise reverberating in the air, thrumming the stillness in a monotonous cycle. Then the white noise grew in clarification and she heard the chant wrapped in the proverbial din.

"Meat, meat, meat, meat!"

It was a mantra for blood, and it was only then that she was really seeing what was happening: Totodile encircled by the spindly-legged creatures, his scales glistening not with water but with webbing and it was hindering his movements. He snapped at an acid-green and black spider as it encroached closer on the trapped reptile. In response, the spider threw up its abdomen and hissed back. Totodile squealed and curled against the ground with a fearful look in his yellow-red eyes, mouth gaping in an attempt to scare right back. His legs were tangled, his tail flopped uselessly behind him and his skull was barely visible.

"Meat, meat, meat!"

The chanting continued, the spiders whispering away with glee as they pressed closer. One spat a gob of webbing at the still-struggling reptile and the piercing scream at being trapped escaped Totodile's throat. That was what she had heard when she awoke: the moans of an ensnared animal, instinct butting in over logic, and a primordial fear taking over. Lupin was moving quicker than her mind was working. She snapped a low-hanging branch off from a tree, the wood creaking in protest as she did so before she stepped forward with care. The closest little body she encountered was barely two feet away from where she'd been standing. It saw her too late and was already sailing into the air with a protesting scream when she struck. The chanting halted after she hit her third and fourth spider, sending them sailing into the darkness to strike a tree, a bush, the ground. Their legs flailed wildly as some spun about and landed on their backs. The rest of the nest turned to face the new threat, all at once ignoring the thrashing, wailing Totodile still caught in the sticky web.

Ominous black eyes stared at her from all highs and lows, their mandibles moving independently of one another as they regarded the werewolf. That dreading chill wormed its way into her spine again, while her stomach slithered lower into her abdomen until it dropped away completely.

Then, "Meat."

"Meat, meat." Another chimed in.

"Meat, meat, meat." Two added in unison.

Soon, the whole nest was chanting once again in unison. Lupin's tail puffed up in alarm as some of those she had knocked away were rolling over onto their legs or were getting assistance from others. Totodile quaked, his jaws clacking open and closed, hisses drawing out from between, but the noise was nearly drowned out by the din from the spider pokémon. Lupin rapidly tried to remember what they were, yet the name kept escaping her. They were small, but they had numbers, she knew. Numbers could mean a lot. Numbers could turn favor in a fight.

Then she saw another shape moving, creeping along in the shadows of the tree top branches above. It was moving slowly but steadily, and it was considerably larger than the littler green and black bodies shuffling closer to her. She smacked the branch at several that were encroaching too close to her personal space, distracted. They screeched in pain as they went sailing. Her eyes were off the larger shadow for a brief second, but it was enough. The revealed creature was another spider, but this was much larger, as she suspected. Its colours were muted, but reminiscent to something she'd label as poisonous: soft maroon and banded with dusky purple and muddy yellow. Its legs were longer and thinner like sabers, and decidedly more deadly-looking compared to the fatter legs of the smaller spiders, as was the intimidating horn that decorated the helm of its head. The littler ones had stubbier horns, but she doubted either of them was any less effective in an attack if utilized.

It crawled along the trunk of an especially large oak tree, its girth bobbing along as it settled on the ground. It was nearly as tall as she was, and she wasn't very tall to begin with. It regarded her with the same black eyes as its smaller counterparts, its mandibles tipped with lethal fangs rubbing over one another like hands rubbing together. The presence of the larger spider, however, had stilled the smaller ones and they stopped stalking closer to her. The nest and its newly arrived larger patron were still between her and the still-struggling Totodile, however.

"Intruder," the larger spider announced; its voice light and feminine. The little green ones mimicked her, echoing the word in a chilling whisper that overlapped one another. The spider advanced a step. It was unperturbed by the brandished makeshift weapon in Lupin's hand.

Lupin spared a quick glance at Totodile. Their eyes met for the briefest second. She could see he was terrified and she could taste and smell the fear stink as well, it was so strong, so potent. In that instant, it made her afraid. For all the bravado and know-it-all air he sported, he was still so young, putting up a brusque front. He may annoy her at times, exasperate her at others, but she had stuck it out this long with the little reptile and in return, he tolerated her. She sure as hell wasn't going to let him get done in by some overgrown arachnids. In a small way, she felt somewhat attached to the little bugger, vices and all. They were starting to become endearing, even. She was surprised by it when it struck her in that second, but she had to force the shock of it all to be put to the side. Now wasn't the time.

She aimed the branch she was using as a makeshift bat at the female spider, who she was now assuming was the queen of the nest before her.

"Let me get the little guy, and nobody gets hurt," she barked out, loud and clear so she couldn't be misunderstood. The whispers had continued, even in the thrall of the queen's arrival, although when the large female stirred at last, everything fell to an eerie hush. She advanced another step with a slender striped limb. She kept her dark gaze pinned on Lupin, unblinking and unwavering. It was unnerving and she felt another chill jolt down her backside like lightning.

"Intruder," the spider announced again. The littler ones echoed her, as though in a trance. They took a step forward, the first bout of real movement since the queen's arrival. They chattered incessantly in that whispery tone and it resonated into the darkness. Lupin bared her teeth in warning and tightened her grip on the branch. White-hot indignation grew in her chest and spread out to her limbs, heating her from the coldness that had enveloped her since she first laid eyes on the multi-limbed creatures. It gave her a much-needed kick start and she advanced herself, stomping a bare foot hard on the squishy earth. It had a much desired effect of startling some of the closer spider pokémon into retreating several steps. The rest stopped altogether. The maroon queen hissed.

"Intruder!"

"I get it! I'm on your land! And I'm so very sorry, so we'll pack up and leave! Just let me get him and we'll be out of here in a jiffy!"

"Meat," the queen spat back. "Meat for my children. Cannot let you go. Must feed my children."

Lupin, for the briefest interlude, felt the cold rushing back in, overwhelming the heat that had encouraged her seconds before and it froze her to her spot. It didn't take a genius to figure out the queen's meaning. She darted her gaze around to the little beady black eyes that were locked onto her. They chattered away, their mandibles moving in a frenzy around their mouths, the whispered ghostly word of 'meat' echoing in the air. Lupin snarled again and brandished the branch. She swatted at two of the green spiders, and was about to swipe at another when the branch was suddenly yanked from her hands. She threw her head back to see some of the creepy crawlers had snuck up into the branches above and were dangling the branch by tendrils of webbing.

Something struck her arm and her chest simultaneously, something sticky and wet. She looked to see the same silvery-white threads that had trapped Totodile were now covering her. Another tendril spat at her legs and feet, then with a hard yank, she was sent sprawling out on her backside, her head suddenly throbbing with a dull ache from impact. Probing little digits began to poke at her body, and she felt the sticky tendrils pinning her down, her legs first and then her arms. A hideous pair of mandibles presented itself in her face, and she gagged at creature. Black eyes stared down, emotionless and cold, while tiny fangs tipping the mandibles speared forward, inches away from Lupin's face.

These little monsters! Is this what they did to unsuspecting trainers that traveled through this area? Did they attack unknowing trainers and their pokémon and drag them off into the night, never to be heard of or seen again? Fear blossomed in her suddenly.

I'll never find out who I am. And whoever might be missing me, they might never know I—

She stopped short of that thought, refusing to finish it. No. No, no, no. She was not going to end up as bug food. She wasn't going to go quietly into the night; she wasn't going to go out in such a lame and piteous way. And she sure as hell wasn't going to allow Totodile to die this way either. If anything, he would rather it be by tooth and claw, face to face and in battle, not in some predator's nest, bound and gagged and sipped up like soup.

She wasn't going to let that happen, she couldn't.

And that egg—it'll never hatch at the lab like it's supposed to, I can't let it die out here, either.

A low rumble built up in her chest, building until it became an almighty bellow that startled several of the crawling bodies on top of her. Some of them leapt away in the midst of shock, letting out a pitiful squeal of fear as it did. They hadn't covered her face yet, and the red-hot fire in her chest began to grow anew, spreading out to her limbs again, this time all the way through. The maroon queen came scuttling over to pin Lupin down one with one of her spindly-tipped limbs. Despite their thin appearance, they were incredibly strong. The werewolf was right in her assumptions; it was as deadly as it looked. She could feel its tip piercing through the webbing and her clothing, stabbing down to her flesh, but only just. Lupin grunted, pushing the pain aside as a minor annoyance when the queen loomed over her face, her mandibles working in that fidgety manner of theirs.

"Meat for my children, yes. Not much meat, but meat for my babies to feast off of."

"Feast! Feast! Yes, feast! Feast!"

The fire was crawling up her throat and it tickled, almost like a cough at the back of her throat, but warmer and more pleasant to endure. Lupin glared at the black gaze staring down at her, trying not to gag on the breath that wafted out of the spider's mouth.

"Hate to disappoint you, but I ain't lettin' that happen, you bitch."

Heat drifted over her like a veil, settling into her bones like an old acquaintance. It was a strange sensation, and yet, it felt familiar and alien all at the same time. The spider queen hissed, jerking her skull back and forth in alarm, removing the appendage that had been pinning Lupin down. The webbing that had confined her suddenly felt looser. She experimented just how loose by ripping her leg out of its bonds and smashing it into the side of the spider's abdomen. The little green ones squealed and scrambled away as an abrupt flare of light flashed into being.

Sparks danced into the air, flames flicking to life, even if only briefly. The spider queen wailed, having been thrown to her side. Her legs twitched in the air, jerking spasmodically to right her bulbous girth. Lupin rolled to her side and pushed up to her feet, glad to be back upright and not down and at the mercy of the creepy little creatures. The webbing that had bound her moments before was burning away and the smell of acrid smoke filled her lungs, tinging the air with its harsh fragrance.

"What tricks, what tricks? What manner of pokémon are you? Not human, not trainer, no. Fire-type? Fire kills!" She hissed again, but Lupin could sense the fear now, could see it reflected in her eyes and off her shiny carapace. Lupin paused at that. Reflection. Light. It was too bright to be moonlight, too dense in this part of the forest. No, this was more like…

She looked down, as though fully aware of what was going on for the first time.

And she stared.

Flames licked at her hands, but her flesh didn't curl and blister and blacken like she had expected them to. It tickled at her skin, pleasant and heartening, and a sense of coziness washed over her as she stared into the flames, watched the tendrils dance and twirl. She flexed her fingers experimentally and found them to be completely fine and not stiff from pain.

Fire…she could create fire? Out of thin air?

Well, I just keep getting weirder and weirder now, don't I? At least I can save money on matches and lighter fluid now.

Her gaze settled back on the spider queen, who was now upright upon her spindly limbs, although her pitch-black eyes were no more. They were purple, dusky and muted like the rest of her, and those eyes were staring at the flames that licked at the werewolf's hands with intense hatred. She bared her fangs at Lupin and hissed in fear and resentment. The horde of green spider pokémon had the good sense to flee while they could, leaving their queen and matron behind. She stood between her and Totodile, who was still bound by webbing on the ground, immobile and unable to escape. Lupin snarled and advanced, menacing in every step and weaving her arms back and forth. The spider hissed and stood her ground for as long as she could, unwilling to abandon even the tiniest scrap of prey before instinct won out.

She scuttled away from the licking flames with a screech, brandishing her fangs in a failed attempt to scare Lupin.

"Out! Out! Put it out! Fire burns! Destroys! Kills!"

"Damned straight it does," Lupin muttered darkly, herding the spider queen away from the prone form on the ground. She jerked her hands out, as though to swipe at the spider. Flames shot out at the motion, extending her reach. It rushed forward and licked the arachnid's exoskeleton. She screamed and scurried away from the heat and light, disappearing into the cover of cool darkness. Her howls could still be heard, but they were retreating and fading away quickly. Soon there was no more of them, but Lupin growled all the same, every inch of her tail bristling. She stared over the grounds, almost expecting the creepy crawlies to come inching their way back where she wasn't looking, but only the dancing shadows created by her flames could be made out.

Only when she was sure they were truly gone did she lurch forward toward Totodile's still form. He was nearly indiscernible, his entire body covered in the silvery weavings. She hesitated on touching him, afraid of the flames might catch his scales by accident. She looked to both of her hands, momentarily feeling at a loss.

I made the fire come to life. I can put it out, can't I?

She focused on it dying, concentrated on it going out by her will alone. If she had somehow made it start up seemingly out of nowhere, then she could do the same in reverse. Slowly, the flames died, one by one and her hands returned to normal, no longer aglow. The heat died as well, and the chill of the night came rushing back, although she barely noticed as she immediately tore into the webbing covering Totodile.

Knocking a bulk of it aside, she carefully lifted him up, immediately worried by his limp form and shallow breathing.

"Hey…" She called softly, pulling him closer and untangling bits of web as she did. She gave him a faint shake. "Hey, wake up. They're gone."

Spiders, spiders, spiders, what do I know about them? Spiders are hunters, they ambush prey or lay in wait for prey to get caught in their webs and then they…oh no.

Spider venom.

She immediately began turning the little reptile over, carefully searching with her eyes and hands before her fingertips slipped in something wet along the side of his neck. At first, she thought it to be blood, but the scent was too acrid and noxious. Then she hurriedly wiped it on her clothes, but her fingertips were tingling already.

She pressed her ear to his body, heard his faint wheeze of breath and was startled by the sudden, half-hearted squirming in her arms.

"Stupid…why didn't you run when you had a chance? They could've…gotten you too. They almost did."

He paused, panting hard. Lupin shook her head. "I'm fine, see? Nothing to worry about, I scared them off." she replied, trying to keep her tone light and unburdened by the heaviness her thoughts were being weighed down by. She didn't think he saw—he didn't seem to know. She pushed it to the side, focusing back on spiders.

Spiders. Venom. Don't some spiders cause necrosis? We need to get to town, get some antivenin in him. Medical attention. We need to get help.

The swirling chaos in her head came to halt at that. She had to get to a town. Focus on the goal of getting to town. Pack up, leave. Start now. Don't panic. Just go pack, then leave.

She pushed up to her feet, trotting back to camp, ignoring the mud that now speckled her pants and feet. He stirred in her arms again, his movements sluggish and tired.

"Where're we going?"

"We need to get back to a town."

"Closest is almost a half-day away…Catallia City, we won't make there."

She halted on the spot at those words, realizing they were true. The next town was nearly a half-day's journey away. Mr. Pokémon's home was nearly the same distance. Either way, his chances of living were dwindling, no matter which way she went.

Hope withered in her chest at the admission that even if she tried, she might lose Totodile.

But I can't just give up. I can't just…do nothing and let him die. How long does this venom take before it kills? If I run, maybe I can make it.

He may annoy her, but again, she felt a rather late-blooming affection for the stubborn blue brat. He was the only one who put up with her back at the lab, even if it wasn't entirely out of good intentions or even good-hearted interest. It irked her, but she hadn't exactly been a shining example when she returned barb for barb. And even when he was scared, he tried to put up a good front, and it was something she could respect, but more importantly it was something she could relate to. She was afraid of never remembering who she was, of the memories of whoever she used to know permanently erased. She was afraid of being left to wander aimlessly about without a clue as to who she used to be. She knew he was afraid of never making it out in the real world with a trainer, like he'd been bred to do. He spoke too often about leaving and traveling, and the yearning in his voice belied his dread of never going. He was too restless for the life of a lab pokémon. He deserved to travel. He deserved to do that with the trainer that chose him, whoever they may be. She didn't want to be the cause for that dream to end.

She stroked the top of his head, then gently settled him on the ground as she started bustling to break down camp. He remained where she left him, slumped and watching with half-lidded, glazed over eyes. She packed her bag, carefully arranging everything so that the egg wouldn't be crushed to one side of her pack. Trash was tossed into a wrapper, then stowed away. She hurried with breaking the tent down.

"How long?"

"How long…what?"

"How long do we have?" She snapped the poles down, folded them up and tossed them to the side as she began haphazardly throwing the tent into lumpy folds. Her ears flicked back and forth as she waited intently for an answer. When it wasn't forthcoming, she whirled, her heart thudding with dread. No—

He was still watching her. She swallowed past the thick, painful lump in her throat.

"How long?" She repeated firmly.

"A few hours. Spinarak poison is potent. I think I would prefer Beedrill poison, though. I'd have a little longer." He paused, then added as an afterthought, "Or maybe not. They gore out big holes in their victims. Poison doesn't get a chance to work, not when you're bleeding out too quickly for it to do its job."

She didn't like how glib and nonchalant he sounded. She didn't like that he seemed to readily accept he might not make it. It rubbed her the wrong way how…how complacent he sounded with it. That isn't right. That isn't right.

"Don't talk like that. We'll make it," she said, the words pouring out before she had to chance to filter them. She heard him snort indignantly.

"I don't want to die. But the reality is that I most likely will."

"Don't say that!"

"Why? It's true. Why should I delude myself into thinking I have a chance—" he winced, cutting off his retort and curled into a semi-tight ball. Lupin's hands were shaking as she bundled the tent up and tied it down with the poles. "Why do you care so much? You don't like me. I know you don't."

She hesitated in answering, still not quite ready to admit aloud that she was, in a way, coming to like the smug little Totodile. He was…endearing, if she was to put it nicely. Perhaps it was the quiet few days without him aiming sharp words at her and the relatively quiet hours that had given her room to think. She didn't want to stay at the lab any more than Totodile. She could relate to his want to leave.

"…you shouldn't accept dying so quickly. It's pissing me off," she said at last, breaking free of her thoughts. She heard him snort behind her as she threw on her pack after clipping the one-man tent into place. Then she attended to her socks and shoes, grimacing at the dirtied mess of her clothing, but reasoned she'd rather put up with mud between her toes than a corpse on her hands.

"For someone who isn't remotely human…you sound very human right now."

She paused in the middle of lacing her boot up. Her breath stilled in her chest at the comment. She spared a fleeting glance at the prone Totodile, before returning to her task. "Maybe I was raised by humans."

He snorted. "Who would go through the headache of raising you?"

His words, while sharp, didn't feel as prickly as they could have been. It was almost teasing. She leapt to her feet, the pack swinging unevenly, but she balanced out quickly enough and trotted over, scooping up Totodile in one swift move. He barely protested, his body limp as she cradled him against her chest.

"Do you even know where you're going?"

She remained quiet, ears twitching, her eyes flicking upwards to gaze at the moon, remembering how it had risen on the horizon and how low it was dipping now on the opposite bank. The stars themselves were easy to pinpoint as well for further reference. She turned on her heel and took off back toward the main road.

"This is the most you've said to me since the full moon," she huffed at him as she bounded over a fallen tree. She heard his breath rattle into a croaky sigh. He didn't respond, not at first. The path loomed ahead and she burst through the underbrush and back onto it. The faint glow of the moon's light was stronger in the open than it was under the forest's canopy.

"I didn't believe you," he said at last. He curled closer toward her. "When you called yourself a monster, I mean. I didn't believe you."

She felt a small twinge at his words, but said nothing. She felt him shiver in her arms.

"We'll worry about the semantics of that later. Just—" What do you say to someone who has venom creeping along inside of them? She felt her indignation rising up again and before she could filter her words, she blurted out, "What in the hell were you thinking, going after those things? What were you trying to prove?"

The forest on either side of the road was blurring past them, faster than what should have been normal, but neither of them were paying much attention to that, not really. Lupin was keeping a vague eye on the road, while Totodile was busy sucking in breath, his breath rattling with each inhalation. Pain flared in his chest, but it seared like the touch of a red-hot brand in his neck. Each breath hurt to take in and hurt worse to expel. Every pounding step Lupin took rocked through to his core, making him shudder and quake in agony. He wanted her to simply stop, but he couldn't get the words out. Instead, he clamped down on the urge to snap at her, like he would have done before, and answered her in earnest.

"I told you, I was bred to be a battler. The only downside was my breeders picking me to be sent to the professor's lab before I could be given to a trainer like the rest of my nest-mates."

"So you went picking a fight with a nest of those things?"

She felt like kicking herself for digging into him about this, here and now, but the words had simply slipped out before she could properly register them. There was no way of taking them back now. He didn't answer at first, his breathing wheezy and stilted. The sense of urgency renewed itself and Lupin kicked up her pace once more.

"I'm sorry."

Then it all went downhill and she nearly tripped when she tried to stop. She ended up grabbing at a passing tree trunk for support to slowly steady herself. Her limbs tingled with adrenaline, and yearned to keep going, but her muscles began clamoring for attention, a slow ache working their way into them almost as soon as she stopped. Her chest heaved from the change in pattern while her head buzzed from the rush, but she ignored all that as best she could, staring down at the shivering reptile in her arms. Alarm rose at the sensation, when she realized that the venom was more effective than she realized. He really doesn't have that long.

His words were another matter entirely and it struck her hard several belated seconds later. She continued to stare at the side of his head. His eyes were closed, but the one she could see peeped open to look back at her. They were glassy and his eyelid drooped. The secondary eyelid covered nearly half of his eye, but she could see the pain behind it. He dug a paw into her forearm.

"I shouldn't have wandered off, but…I was tired of you holding me back. I got reckless. I did this."

They held one another's gazes for a few moments longer before Lupin tore hers away and started down the main road again. Whatever minute grudge or slight she may have felt in the past few weeks toward Totodile, they melted away in an instant. They weren't forgotten, but she felt in that moment, that they could be forgiven. He was still young, she reasoned, and had been out to rile her up, and bit by bit, he'd succeeded.

He was quiet for longer this time around, perhaps chafed by the uncomfortable silence and her lack of answering to his apology. He wriggled in her arms, but she only adjusted her grip to hold him better. She was moving quickly, he realized, so much faster than he would have credited her for, given her short legs. But by Legendaries, she was moving fast. Even if the ride in her arms wasn't smooth, she was attempting to prevent from jostling him too much and he didn't have it in him to rebuff this from her. He didn't have it in him to tell her to put him in his pokéball, either. Not that he would expect her to, that was. Even if she had, he suspected he'd pass away inside without her knowing until they'd reach the closest Pokémon Center. He felt a twinge of rejection at the idea in an instant. He couldn't do that to her, but he was loathe to think what was worse: dying in his pokéball or dying in her arms.

He felt tired; he'd used all his energy fighting that horde of Spinarak. At first it had been a few, but then they just kept pouring out of the woodworks. Then he'd wasted his precious energy and time trying to escape their String Shot attacks, only to end up tangling himself further in their webbing. If there was anyone between the two of them that was stupid, it was him. By now, he was beginning to feel the crippling pain that the Spinarak venom was inflicting on him. It was worming its way into his limbs, he could feel it making every nerve ache and cry until it sang with electric jolts and fire. He wanted nothing more than to slide into a pool of cool water to relieve his body, even if he knew it really wouldn't do much. Just the thought gave him a temporary bliss to hold on to. But soon, even that wasn't enough to drive away the impending thoughts on the prevalent situation to the forefront of his mind. If a pokémon was poisoned or burned or paralyzed, and immediate help was next to impossible, it was only a matter of time before nature took its natural course. He was frightened to die, but he could only accept that he was beyond help. Holding onto false hope would leave him bitter and resentful until his last moments and he didn't want to be clouded by it. It wasn't in him, just as he knew it wasn't something he could see in his parents, his nest-mates. They all knew and understood, just as he did.

And the fact that this woman, this impossible, frustrating oddity was refusing to admit what he'd already accepted, was beginning to grate on his scales the wrong way. He didn't care how fast she was; if she didn't have the speed of the Legendries or an even an Arcanine, then why bother? It was a question he couldn't answer. He hated not knowing.

He listened to the rhythmic pounding of her heart while his head pressed against her chest, the even breaths she took as she continued to sprint down the dirt road. They wove through bends and twists on the path, her stride never seeming to slow.

"I thought you wanted to be alone when you left," he finally said at last. "No pokémon. Why are you fighting the inevitable?"

Why do you give a damn when I gave you such a hard time, ever since you came to the lab, he wanted to add. But the question was stuck in his throat. He was surprised at his own inability to voice what he usually wouldn't have cared to say beforehand. Especially to her.

"I told you before; seeing you just giving up and rolling over to die pisses me off. I'm not gonna let you do that. So buck the fuck up and try to see a silver lining in this. I'm getting you to a center whether you like it or not!"

The words seethed past her tongue like a whip, striking him hard and fast. It left him stunned and speechless. It was then he heard her own fear tinging her voice, seeping in from between the lines. He felt another spasm of pain riddle him, this time to his core and he couldn't suck up the whimper in time. The arms around him tightened again, a reassuring squeeze, and he let himself go limp in her arms, too drained after bracing himself from the shockwave that continued to roll over him, too exhausted to argue the futility of her task. A part of him wanted to chastise her for not buying any medicines for him, something he would have gladly pointed out prior to her full moon excursion. But that change had instilled in him a primordial fear against a larger predator, and it struck him as odd that he would see her as such, and yet, it was fitting. For all his bravado, he knew that challenged her toe-to-toe would be a fool's errand. He kept his tongue this time, recognizing that chastising her now wouldn't make a difference, not out here in the middle of nowhere, far from town, far from the relative safety and secure distance of a Pokémon Center.

They were still so far away…it seemed like an impossible task to achieve.

Pain seized him again and he tried bracing himself anew, focusing on blocking out the pain. Just because he accepted he was going to die, didn't mean he was going to enjoy it or that it was going to painless. It also didn't mean he wanted to die. Poison wasn't a physical enemy he could fight against. It was a phantom that crawled within and destroyed from the inside out. If they had any antidote, he'd feel more at ease and less willing to accept something like this. He wasted no more words, too engulfed with trying to keep the pain at bay, to try and block it out and make this more bearable. He didn't know how much time had passed. Every second was an eternity as the Spinarak venom worked its way into his system, dredging its toxic tendrils in his blood, his muscles, his organs, his very bones. He was sure he must have passed out at times, before the agony reeled him back to consciousness and set fire anew to his body. He was sure those few times he had been unresponsive, however, that Lupin also had something to do with shaking him awake again.

"Almost there. Just hang on. Don't sleep, don't sleep. Stay awake," her voice suddenly cut through, faint and tinny to his ears. Every breath felt as though an Arbok was squeezing his lungs. The places where the Spinarak had bitten into his more sensitive flesh raged on, a fire in his blood that was unbearable. He was too tired to writhe and wriggle. He felt as helpless now as he did trapped under all that webbing and a terror seized his heart. He just wanted it to end, to go away and stop hurting…

"I said stay awake! We're almost there! It's right there, just hang on, dammit!"

He winced at the voice, eyes squeezed shut and both sets of eyelids firmly clamped over them for extra protection. Arceus above, it was bright, a kaleidoscope of colours that blinded him and made him cringe as the sensitivity began to intensify the longer it lingered. Why couldn't she have just gone on her way like she'd wanted the minute she stepped out of the professor's lab? She only gave half a damn because he was the professor's pokémon, after all. She only let him tag along because of the professor as well. But he would understand if things went awry, if things didn't go according to plan…right? He'd like to think so. He did only as the pokémon researcher had asked. He had escorted the werewolf, even if it wasn't a complete job.

The voice above was more distant than before, the words too garbled and indistinct to decipher. He barely felt the extra pair of hands handling him now, both with a care and firmness reminiscent of a medical provider. He was listening without attention or care to a conversation that was about as clear as having thick Mareep's wool stuffed in his ears. He was finally numb to the pain, it was finally gone. Or his body was just beyond feeling it any longer. Either way was fine, it was absolute bliss. Except that damned bright light was still present, piercing through even the armored lids of his eyes and he just wished it would go out.

Then he could rest easy.

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