Authors Note (Phantom SunsSong): I apologize for not getting this up sooner. I've actually had it finished for a few weeks, but I haven't gotten around to actually posting it here. Anyway, here it is, and the next chapter will be up within a few minutes as well. There's only one more that I have prewritten, though it'll be needing some editting before it can come up.

Chapter Ten

"Daryn, I don't know about this." The hesitant tone in his sister's voice made him stop in his tracks. He turned to duck back under the low branch he had been walking through when she had spoken, and he winced as a sharp twig snagged a lock of his black hair.

"Now you're having second thoughts?" He asked, sounding exasperated. "El, where were you when we were first considering this whole charade a month ago?" She gave him a fierce blue-eyed glare, her former indecision melting away.

"I'm not questioning whether or not to go through with this," She snapped back. "I'm questioning how we're doing this!" She paused, more to calm herself than anything. She took a quick look around, taking in the foliage and greenery of the wood that surrounded them. It really was a nice day, with the bright sunlight filtering through the trees, and a light breeze keeping away the worst of the heat. Finally, she shook her head slightly and continued.

"We shouldn't just catch a Pokémon. That's taking it away from its home, from the place it's always known." Daryn raised an eyebrow.

"That's what you're worried about?" His sibling's glare returned as he took another step forward, and he lifted his hands apologetically. "Sorry, sorry, I didn't mean it like that! I just thought that, well…"

"What?" El asked irritably.

"Well, I thought it might be about, you know, the egg. It was a shock to all of us that the egg meant for you was stolen, El. I know you were disappointed when I got Rin—"

"I'm not jealous of you," El cut in, almost self-consciously folding her arms around herself. She really hadn't been thinking about it, and she did not need his apologies!

Elina and Daryn were twins, the only children of two breeders. Their parents had wanted so much to provide them both with exactly the Pokémon they wanted to start their own journeys as trainers with, once they had turned thirteen. That way, they could care for it from its birth.

And then Elina's egg had been stolen. It was almost humorous, in a way, because Elina had wanted a plain buizel, not exactly a rare Pokémon here in Sinnoh, while Daryn had wanted a ralts, which was quite rare. Whoever had stolen the egg could not tell the difference between the two, or it would have been Daryn's egg they had stolen.

It was after that when she had conceived the idea that, once Daryn and his ralts, Rin, were ready, they could catch her a Pokémon as well. Maybe a shinx or a starly, since she was not entirely sure she wanted another buizel. Any pokémon was better than none. Now, though, she was finding that she was having second thoughts.

"Forget I said anything," She continued. "Let's just—" Then, she stopped. Both Elina and Daryn's heads turned as a bush rustled. The boy grinned.

"Here we go, El. A Pokémon. And if it makes you feel better, we'll ask it first." Elina scowled, but did not reply, because at that point two fuzzy white ears poked out of the bush. After just a second, she realized something.

"Uh, Daryn? Are there any Pokémon around here with white fur?" Her brother frowned.

"Now that you mention it, I don't think there... are..." As his words trailed off, the creature stood straighter, revealing more of itself.

A round head sat atop broad, powerful shoulders, all covered in the same white fur as the pointed ears. Its eyes, though, were blood red, and across its left was a jagged crimson scar-like marking. Another was slashed across its chest. On the ends of its powerful forelimbs were long, deadly-looking ruby claws. Both teenagers immediately paled.

"Za-Zangoose," Daryn just managed to gasp out before the creature moved. They scarcely saw it leap when it was suddenly upon Daryn, its claws slicing down at his face. Shocked, he lost his balance, a movement that saved his life. The zangoose's Slash attack, its arm a blur, cleanly sliced the front of his bangs, but otherwise only pulled a chunk out of the tree he had been standing behind.

Daryn winced as branches from the bush he had landed on jabbed into his back, but as the zangoose towered over him, he quickly realized they were the least of his problems. A jolt of pure terror gripped his heart at the look in its eyes. It was not just angry because they had intruded on its territory, which would have been strange enough to begin with, here in Sinnoh. What he had seen there was, quite simply, murderous rage.

Adrenaline shot through his veins, faster than seemed possible, and in a movement of nothing but instinct, his leg shot out. His foot caught the zangoose square in the stomach, knocking the air out of it in a great whoosh. It staggered back, startled, and gave Daryn a chance to climb to his feet. He turned to see that Elina was still there. At first, he was grateful, and then he realized that once the zangoose was finished with him, it would not hesitate to go after her.

"El! Run!" He yelled desperately. The girl, who had been paralyzed by shock during the attack on her brother, finally came to her senses. She nearly turned to run, but her fear for her brother outweighed her fear for herself. She was rooted to the spot.

"Daryn!" She shouted, panicked.

"Run!" He screamed again. "I still have Rin! You don't have any—" His words were cut off by a hoarse cry of pain as the zangoose struck again. After recovering, it attacked from behind, knocking him to the ground. Dazed, he hardly registered the fact that the zangoose had yet to slash his neck and simply be done with the fight. The truth was, the zangoose was rendered immobile. The reason was evident very quickly. Blue electricity was crackling up its legs, wrapping around it like some kind of snake made of nothing by lightning. A second later, he realized it was engulfing him as well, and after that, all he saw was white.

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A blast of wind ruffled my blue and black fur, and I half closed my amber eyes against it, trying to get a look at Arrow, the bird alighting beside me. Razor talons touched the ground as the staravia landed, folding his large brown wings to his body. I felt his black gaze on me.

"What's wrong with you?" He asked, concern in his voice. "At the end of the fight, you jumped away like you'd been struck by lightning." I averted my gaze from his. The battle was over—I had heard Al finish the cage he had been making around the munchlax. But I couldn't forget the blood.

"… I bit him," I said finally. "It drew blood. I could have killed him!"

"What are you talking about, Tasha?" I looked back up at him, surprised by his disbelieving tone. "You? Kill someone? Tasha, it was a battle. By nature, Pokémon have disagreements and fight one another. You weren't killing anyone." I blinked, trying to accept his words. He was staring straight at me, his gaze hard.

"But—"

"Now is not the time to be questioning yourself," He cut me off. "You're you—that's not going to change. The Tasha I know gets mad, but she doesn't kill others." I couldn't take his stare any longer. I looked down, trying to hide the fact that I didn't completely believe him. In spite of what I felt, Sirene was my mother. Could I have inherited a killing intent from her, without my notice? Or, since I was a shinx, could it simply be inbred in my species?

Finally, I just shook my head. He was correct about one thing. Now wasn't the time to worry about it. Sirene was our main concern.

"You're right," I replied. "We have to find Sirene." From behind us came the now-familiar sound of metal against metal. Looking over my shoulder, I saw it was Al, standing upright. In one hand was a cage, with the munchlax inside.

"Shinx," He said, looking worried. I realized that, as quickly as I had jumped away from the munchlax, he must have thought that I was hurt. I stood and turned to face him, giving him a full chance to see that I was physically fine.

"Good, you're alright," he said, more to himself than anyone. "I was afraid-anyway, we need to find Brother." He sighed. "Knowing him, I'm sure he's already in trouble of some kind, especially if there are new chimeras around." He lifted the cage in his hand slightly in emphasis. I nodded, actually smiling at Al's jab at his brother. Al cast a questioning glance at Arrow, and I followed his gaze to look at the staravia as well.

"Are you-" The avian Pokémon began, but I cut him off.

"I'm fine," I pressed. "Let's go." He shrugged.

"Alright. I'll be circling, watching for any more Pokémon." Without another word, he took off. I watched him for just a second before I turned away. I walked to Al, who was also followed the bird's progress with his gaze, until he glanced down and saw I was waiting. After a quick cursory glance to make sure no one was around, he opened his metal chest.

Even after all the times I'd been inside him, it was still a bit disconcerting when he revealed that there really was nothing inside all that armor. Carefully, he put the cage inside one leg and picked me up, setting me gently in the other. In a few seconds, Al had replaced his chest, cutting off all light but a few pinpricks here and there. I sighed as he began walking. It had only been a few days, and yet I was getting more and more used to traveling this way.

Then a metallic scent hit my nose. I recognized it at once. It was the same hauntingly familiar smell from the other times I'd been in Al's armor. I felt my heart sinking; I finally understood what it really, truly, was. It was blood. I squeezed my eyes shut, the thoughts from earlier flooding back. Remembering what I had last told Arrow, I had to ask myself, was I really okay?

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Mera gave a slight cry of pain as she hit the palm of the stone hand. It was not serious, considering she only fell a few feet, but falling from any distance onto solid stone is going to hurt. Even with her aching back, she gave a sigh of relief—though perhaps too soon. Her head shot up as she heard claws scraping against stone. Black paws scrabbled against the side of the hand, and Mera realized what had happened. The luxray had jumped after her, missed the hand the boy had made, and was trying to climb up. Wincing but ignoring her pain in her urgency, she climbed to her feet. She scrabbled forward, hesitant due to her fear of falling the rest of the distance to the ground, and tried to dislodge the luxray's paws as best she could with her own, since her weak electric attacks would have no effect against such a large electric type. With a yowl of fear and indignation, the luxray finally lost her grip and plummeted to the pavement below.

Then the hand began to rise up.

Panic gripped Mera, and she clung to the stone for dear life. After a gradual ascent, though, she stopped and slowly opened her eyes.

What she saw were a pair of bright amber eyes and a lightly tanned face, framed by long blond bangs. It was the boy, the one who had saved her numerous times in just the short time since they had met. The boy who knew her name.

He was giving her a strange look, with a single golden eyebrow raised and his lips quirked in a slight smirk.

"You're pretty big for a rodent," He stated simply, as though finally getting a good look at her. Her eyes narrowed.

"You're pretty small for a human," She growled back. One of his eyes twitched.

"Why do I get the feeling that was a comment about my height?" He asked, more to himself than anyone. However, before either could continue speaking, they heard a pained cry from below.

The both looked up in time to see the luxray had picked herself up and was trying to limp away, though she was moving surprisingly fast as she favored one back leg. Presumably, the cry had been from when she tried to walk on the back leg, though as she loped away, she seemed to be favoring it less and less.

"It's injured," The boy said quietly to himself. Then, without warning, he grabbed hold of Mera by the scruff of her neck. She squeaked in surprise as she was hauled up onto his shoulder again, where she hung desperately to his braided hair. He hopped easily onto the hand he had made, and, this time much faster than her climb, it dropped. Wind whipped past them both, tugging at Mera's ears and the boy's hair and loose red coat. Before it even came to a complete stop, he jumped off and landed nimbly. He caught his balance quickly before launching into a full-out dash. Air whizzed past them both as the boy whirled around the corner that the luxray had disappeared behind—and was stopped rather abruptly by what looked like a wall of metal. After a jolt accompanied by a resounding clang, the boy fell back and hit the ground, dislodging Mera in the process.

"Ed!" The wall of steel exclaimed. Mera looked up… and continued looking up. For a second, she was sure it was a Pokémon, an aggron to be exact, until she realized it has spoken in human speech. Had it been a name? Her trainer's name? Intrigued, she listened.

"Brother, are you alright? Why were you in such a hurry? And what is that—" As it spoke, Ed, her trainer, gathered himself up rather quickly, grabbing Mera in the process.

"No time, Al! I saw the chimera!" Mera started at that comment. What was he talking about? She was Chimera! It was her name! But if he had not been saying her name, then what had he been talking about?