Disclaimer: I do not own anything of great value, especially not Pokemon. Happy?

"You did not believe you could use my power without paying a price, did you?"
I sniff, unable to see the owner of the cold, growling voice in the blizzard. "Who are you? What do you want?"
I hear an emotionless laughter. "My identity should be your last concern, whelp." The voice almost seems to spit while calling me whelp. "And what I want? I gave you access to a piece of my godly power, give me the core of your energy in exchange."
I snarl. "You wish! Forget it!"
"The pawn declines to sacrifice itself for the protection of the king? Let's see if that changes if I take back my power."
I shortly glance at a dragon-like shape covered in ice before my core melts and the frozen energy leaves me, and I start shaking. "I-I'm n-no p-pawn, i-icicle."
"We will see about that."
By the time the final bits of my energy return to normal I feel my shadow power bursts free and fills me, despite the resistance of my body against it. The other dragon laughs at me. "Again you try to grasp forces beyond your reach, whelp. Tell me, where did you steal this? Which insane creature did you trick?"
My body keeps rejecting my old power and I feel my red scales turning sore, dripping blood onto the snow at my feet. I groan, it feels like my skin is dragged off and a fire burns in my bare, pulsing flesh. "This power … is mine. Leave me alone!" I cough, I don't care who or what it is, I just desperately need some time to recover.
"Really? It looks like it was yours. But you don't seems to listen, so I will leave you with your pain. I will take my payment from your corpse."
The figure vanishes and I try to push the shadow energy back to my core. I struggle and fail. 'This was a part of me. Why is it not now?'
The pain increases and with it I feel my despair growing for not seeing any solution. 'There is no way to get out of this mess. How did I end up here anyway?' I notice the agony decreases as frustration and anger flood through me. I glance down, the blood did not lower and I feel a dull, pulsing pain. 'It's only covered, I'm still not one with my shadow.'
I carefully approach it and feel a wave of rage hitting me. I take a step back, I expected anger, but blind, feral one, not concentrated hatred for any weak point I fail to suppress. I grit my teeth, it feels like every wound I got in the last week opens and aches again.
I slowly move closer and grab the energy. 'You can't part body and mind and expect both to stay intact.' I gulp as the veil of anger in my mind starts to clear and the pain intensifies again . 'This will hurt a lot.' I drag the energy to my body and slowly lose conscious as spikes of pain erupt from it.

"Wake up! How did you manage to damage our body this disastrous in less then one night?"
I slowly wake up and raise my head to look at Drak, but instantly regret it as even the tiniest motion hurts. He looks at me with a mix of anger and concern. "Ouch. What do you mean, how did I manage to damage our body disastrous in one night? I slept."
I gulp and notice the taste of our blood, way fresher then it should be. 'It was only one of my stupid, weird dreams, right?'
"So you got no idea why we woke up drenched in our own blood and sore to the bones?"
I carefully shake my head, trying to avoid any major motions. "Maybe our body likes to train while we sleep?"
I see the glimpse of a smile, but it quickly vanishes as he grits his teeth in pain. "I'm pretty sure you know something, or are at least aware of a different reason. But we have not time to spare guessing who or what hit us like that."
We stand up and groan in unison. Drak is right, we have to get going, even if every muscle aches as I step forward. I glance around, but the cave did not lighten up. 'Is that molten snow?' I take as second step, the blood really seems to be thinner than normal, leaving me puzzled. 'There are no ice-dragons, right? At least as far as I know.'
Half an hour later I have to confess, I'm lost. And more then slightly confused. I feel weaker then I think I should be and even as I follow a track of human scents I can't get rid of the feeling I move further away from the entrance of this cave.
"How did you end up in here, dragon?"
I sniff and smell a human nearby while Drak snarls at the general direction of the voice. "Who and where are you?"
I hear the human, judging by voice and scent most likely female, snicker. "No need to react so aggressive, friend. I'm Sam, but let's lighten this place up first."
I have to close my eyes and take a step back as bright light floods the cave.
"You seem friendly, how about we become friends?"
I look at my body and have to blink in confusion. Drenched in blood, covered with cuts, most of them barely healed, and standing prepared to run or attack if necessary. I turn back to her. She is slightly smaller then a Gardevoir, I don't know they seem best suited as comparison, wears a blue cape with some sort of emblem on her back, I can't see what exactly it shows at the moment, and shows me a big smile. 'I don't know what exactly she took, but it like she's off, far, far way.'
I shake. "Friends? Do you have any clue who or what we are?"
"No. But you seem like a dragon and I like dragons. So, do you want to be my partner?"
"Partner?" I spit at her feet. "We don't need any partner."
Drak nods. "Yeah, why would anyone need a weak, pathetic human as help? We are better off alone."
She looks disappointed for a second, but quickly cheers up again, an annoying trait. "Maybe you change your mind if you meet my partner. "
She pulls a Pokeball from her belt, I suppress a shudder, a smiling face is drawn on the surface, and throws it. It releases a serpent shaped, blue dragon, Dragonair. The pure dragon-type smiles at me before quickly turning to it's trainer. "Need my help to show him we're not so bad?"
I blink at her. "How did you know we are male?" 'Did I miss anything important? I think there has to be some trick.'
"Most important mark for me is the stance, yours tells me you're male, annoyed and surprised. And the little twitching shows me you have to focus not to attack me while we talk. The stench of blood around you and the fact you don't seem to care about it made it even clearer."
I take a moment to think about her words. 'Why did I not already notice that?' I shake and snarl at her and her trainer. "Still not interested in joining you."
She grins. "Already thought so."
The dragoness fires a dragon breath at me, but we roll out of the way and counter with the same attack. She sinks down, evades and wraps around us. "You're already sweating and coughing? You could really need some training."
I cough. "I just had a bad day." Drak bites into her, a dozen inch or so under her head. "And it's pretty stupid to get so close to a pair of heads eager to hurt and maybe kill and eat you."
She still has the stupid smile on her face. "But you won't kill me, right? Only prove your strength and let me go."
I hear her scales opening and see blood running down our intertwined bodies as Drak puts more pressure in his bite. She groans and her grip loosens which I use to step on her. I lick some of the sour blood from her body and grin as she shudders. "I think this should be the moment your trainer pulls you back." She looks like she is about to cry and I slowly turn to her trainer. "I think she needs a break or she could take some serious damage."
I grin as the Dragonair slowly nods, unable to turn without increasing her pain. The human hastily grabs the ball, almost dropping it, and retreats her Pokemon. I grin, the smiling face on the capsule almost seems ironical now.
After a short moment the trainer seems to have gotten back her confidence, or at least parts of it. "Everyone needs a break from time to time. You won't be so lucky with my next friend."
She grabs the next ball from her belt, painted with a big grin. I take a closer look at her belt, every capsule has some sort of smile painted on it. My wish to stomp her into the ground and do anything I can not to get captured gains a huge boost. 'I won't end a capsule with a smile drawn on it.'
I focus on my opponent and almost stagger for a second. 'Shale?' I take a closer look and relax. The fin has a cut, the stance is a lot more offensive then Shale ever looked like and the growling sounds different.
"Hey, you little brat! Show me some respect or you will regret it!" I grin and hear Drak answer, interrupted by short outbursts of laughter. "Sorry, but we were, worried for a second, you could, be someone else."
I cough and turn serious again as I spit some blood. Drak slightly nods into my direction. "Let's get started, shall we?"
We jump forward and try to tackle and bite him, but he rolls to the side and throws us back with a wipe. The other dragon grins. "Was that everything you got, weakling?"
I snarl and hear Drak does the same. "We will make you eat your words, poser."
He runs into our direction and slashes at us, but we duck and hit him with a duo-dragon breath, throwing him multiple feet backwards. He coughs, but keeps grinning. 'Does she feed them something special or why do they never recognize a stronger opponent until they are half-dead?'
The idiot even laughs. "Nice try. But give up, Sane did a pretty good job exhausting you, there can't be much left."
I grin as I hear his trainer. "Sorry, but he did already look that way before we started the fight."
While his laughter stops Drak starts laughing. "Yeah. And , Sane was her name?, did look worse then we do after a few minutes."
"Really? Maybe I did underestimated you, a tiny bit."
He dashes forward while we jump at him. Logically we collide midway, my head hits his, Drak bites into his right shoulder and his claw, glowing in a bluish-purple light, cuts into our chest. Carried by the momentum we tackle and pin him to the ground while I cough, in our weakened state the dragon claw had a greater effect then it should have had.
The Gabite groans. "You give up already? If you keep that up it won't end well."
Drak manages to penetrate his scales and rip off some flesh before turning to the ground-dragon with a crimson smile. "There is no way you could come close to killing us. Besides you should be the one giving up by now."
I bite into the left shoulder, increasing force until I can taste his life spilling out into my mouth. "Reminds me of better times. Bittersweet, despite your sour blood, weakling." I snicker before wrapping my teeth around his arm and using dragon breath. I hear it cracking inside the arm, our enemy screams in and stops struggling. "A nice, little reminder of us."
We step back and off him and he stands up, coughing, wounded arm hanging down limp.
The self-claimed dragon-specialist draws my victim back into his capsule. 'Why is she grinning?' She grabs the next ball. "You will make a great addition to my team after we got your temper under control. Time for my best and strongest friend!" I glance at the cover of the capsule. 'A smiling worm with wings? The marks are getting ridiculous!' Our last enemy gets released and I guess this time the mark wasn't so far off. My confidence sinks as a large, blue dragon with orange wings appears and shows its teeth, you could call it a smile, but the growling exposure of so many sharp objects is nothing you could call friendly if you're on the opposite side of it.
I hear Drak chuckle nervously. "I guess that's a bit more of a challenge then our typical opponent."
We take a step back and I cough. "You could be right this time."
The winged dragon uncomfortably shifts backwards. "Are you sure you want to use me? It looks a bit unfair. I'm sure Sane could beat him or Fin."
Her trainer nods. "You're my last hope, he did beat Sane and Fin."
The dragon turn to us."Really? Looks like he took some heavy damage while fighting. I will make this quick and as painless as possible."
I can't suppress a grin, if she thinks we are so weak we could have a chance to win, but my grin quickly vanishes as I hear the human again. "Don't underestimate him! He already looked so weakened before the battle, but had no problem finishing of the others."
I groan as the Salamance nods. "Understood. I won't give him a chance to take me by surprise."
She dodges Draks dragon breath and glares at him while he snarls. "I don't like oversized introductions."
We roll out of the way as she leaps forward and tries to hit us with a dragon claw, we counter by tackle her side. The wyvern throws us off her chest and we land about two times her length away from her. I spit some blood as some of our wounds open up by the impact. Suddenly the flare expires and we're engulfed in darkness again.
"Don't worry, I'm sure I got some flares left!"
I carefully try to circle my opponent without creating any noise while I hear the trainer digging and searching in her bag.
"What the..? There's a hole in the area I kept the flares. They are all gone!"
I keep silent and slowly walk closer to my enemy as she tries to comfort her trainer. "Don't worry. I'm sure I can win without any light."
I think she has to be around three steps away from us. Drak seems confident we can turn the tides now as he whispers to her. "Don't act so overconfident, winged worm."
We ram into her and I bite her throat, but her hardened scales seem as solid as rock. I try to cling to her as close as possible as she stands up and tries to shake us off.
I grasp at my remaining power and try to somehow push it into my body and increase my physical strength. I regret it almost instantly as the power combines with the shadow energy I strangely feel pulsing in my whole body, opening and widening every cut and scar we have as a shadow aura extends from our body. I have to force myself to keep conscious as the aura further widens and slowly wraps around my enemy slashing at her. 'Wait. Does it really cut her or just open every wound she every received?' I try to ignore the searing pain the attack makes me endure and follow the effect on the winged dragon. The wound seem to appear randomly first glance, but after a few seconds I can almost see parts of her previous fights, if a cut deepens a lot she seems to had problems protecting the spot in many fights. The shadow has engulfed her completely by now and I notice there are almost no wounds on her wings. 'Does she take special care for them or did she evolve recently?'
I twitch as Drak starts laughing next to me. "Pure, physical pain. Interesting change of pace, Ke."
I feel a red beam colliding with my aura, unable to penetrate it, as our enemy drops down onto her back. We keep sitting on her for a few seconds while the attack fades. I try to catch my breath again and feel our condition get worse, we have lost a lot of blood.
The human finally succeeds in retreating her wounded friend.
Drak snarls at the trainer. "We won."
She almost snivels. "Yeah, you did. So? Want me to give you something?"
"Correct. You wasted our time so it seems fair you hand us some food and hints how to get out of this giant cave."
"How to get out this cave? I already thought you did not come from here. If you keep going this way you will reach Celestic Town, turn around and you get to Snowpoint City which has a port."
We shudder for a moment before walking closer to her. "I guess we keep on track, I got enough of snow, hail and blistering cold for a while." We reach her and sit down. "Now hand over some food."
I'm close enough to see she's twitching. "But I only got a few cans of Pokefood to spare, and without a can opener that won't help you."
Draks head slowly moves closer to her face while growling. "We won't need a can opener, but if you don't hurry up I will prove I can serve as a human opener."
She twitches again. "N-no n-need t-to become aggressive, you won."
She pulls out four cans an sets them in front of us, two for him, two for me.
Drak swiftly grabs one of my cans. "I handled the negotiation and that's my payment."
I only nod and open my remaining can. I would have been surprised if he had not acted that way.
The human quickly grabs her bag and runs off. 'I'm not sure if she can make it to Snowpoint with so little skin attached to, but that really isn't my problem.'
I finish my meal and see Drak is already waiting for me. We get going while trying not to cough and spit blood along the way.
By the time I see the light of an exit I have to focus not to stagger each step we take. We leave the tunnel and I grin as we fall to the floor less then a dozen steps away from the exit. 'We made it! And no more snow!'
I slowly feel my conscious fading, but Drak headbutts me. "Hey! Stay awake, it would be a real shame to black out so close to our goal."
"Stop talking and lend me some strength, I got no idea why I always end up carrying you around."
New power fills me, not a lot, only enough to hopefully keep us going until we reach a safe place. "There you have it. Now stop whining, I haven't got anything left."
I nod and sniff. "The human scent is pretty strong around here. I guess we are close to the city, I think Celestic Town was the name."
"I'm sure we can trick trick the nurse in the Pokecenter to give us some food."
We keep on track and soon see a small human city. I'm able to drag us close to the gates before the rest of my energy leaves me. I turn to Drak and see he has already fallen asleep. Our body collapses and my vision turns blank while I hear two human walking next to me.
"It's drenched in blood!"
"We should carry it to the Pokecenter."
"Are you nuts? What if it's not its own blood?"
I faintly feel a hand sweeping of some blood of my side. "Look at this cut! A lot of it has to have spilled out of the dragon. And now stop talking and help me, we should carry it in before the rain starts."
"But it lies ten feet outside and looks heavy."
I hear a slap and black out.

End of chapter 12. Nothing to say, only thing is I slowly start to question myself if someone has gotten this far. Enough of my self-pity, hope you enjoyed it (yeah, I'm talking to you, only reader left.
"Don't dwell on that, it's not funny."), review if you think there is something I can improve (pretty sure there are multiple things) or anything else you want to say.
"You're desperate for attention, huh?"
Yeah. And now back into the story, Ke.