In which ... yeah, I'm not entirely sure, myself.

Saxen had struggled at times with being himself. This was an undeniable fact. There were parts of him that he didn't much care for, and there were parts of him that he just couldn't control.

Perhaps the strangest thing about him was his group of friends. They were nothing like him and yet they were so similar to him; further proof that humanity is all the same in the end.

There were many things that Saxen had struggled with. His name, for example. He loved it now. Saxen. Saxen Saxen Saxen. His full name meant warrior wolf, and he did enjoy that.

Another thing for him was conflict. He both loved it and hated it. Right now, Kitty and Matthew were shouting at each other outside the hotel doors, and the other boys were both pretending not to notice and trying to find something else to do. He was listening. He knew they were all listening really.

"Just what the hell do you think you were doing anyway?" Kitty demanded, pacing back and forth. A warm breeze blew past and Saxen took a deep breath. He was bored of this argument now.

"Me? You practically pounced on me," Matthew yelled back, both his hands balled into fists. Saxen snorted silently – he sincerely doubted that.

The thing he was strangely the most curious about, however, was not this exchange but also the brand new pokemon that Kitty now held in her hands. Happiny. Apparently Rocky had run back to his mate and the newly hatched baby, and refused to leave until they were safely in the helicopter too.

The whole experience at the base was strange, and that would need some going over, but right now Scott was in a coma, and Kitty was too angry to have a conversation with. Although Matt looked a little more sorrowful now. The dance they had danced their entire lives was getting monotonous now.

"I'm sorry," Matthew said softly. Kitty looked at the floor.

"Thank you for this," she said, meaning the tiny pink pokemon in her arms.

"I overheard you talking to your Eevee that day we ate at the restaurant," he said. "You said you wanted a Happiny, so I found you one."

"Wow," she said, and then smiled, but her eyes were pooling up. "Thoughtful." She shook her head. "But no, I'm still mad at you." She strode away, the Happiny flinging its arms in the air happily. Saxen smirked.

"Holy-" Charlie said loudly and suddenly. The other boys looked at him. "There may be a chance we severely peed off a legendary with the power to render us fatally ill."

There was a pause. Then they remembered.

Pestilice had asked them to do something. They had not done it.

"The button," Matthew said. "We never really got round to it, did we?"

"Jesus, do you think it'll come after us?" Charlie said, his normally flushed face paling slightly so that his faint freckles showed more.

"Cordelia," Kitty said, coming back over. "I completely forgot Cordelia!"

"Wow ... we suck," Adam pointed out.

"Cordelia?" Charlie asked her. "She was with you?"

"Yeah," Kitty nodded. "I think she's probably just at the base now."

"She could press the button for us," Adam said.

"What button?" Kitty asked. Saxen smiled to himself.

"There was a button in the Umbra base that Pestilice told us to press. It was supposed to have protected them from his diseasey power, but we forgot to shut it down."

"Right, well, I'll just tell Cordelia to-" Kitty paused and frowned. "There may be a slight chance that Cordelia is convinced of my death, and anything otherwise will raise a lot of difficult questions …" She looked at the boys. "Oh well." She took out her PokeNav device thing and walked away to call Cordelia.

"Dude," Saxen heard Adam whisper to Charlie, "won't she get sick too? Pestilice didn't give her immunity."

"I'm sure she'll figure that out," Charlie said seriously. "She'll find a way."

Saxen raised an eyebrow and turned to face the town. He figured there must be something else to do in this place.

"Hey, man, you alright?" Elliot nudged him in the back and then walked around to his side, hands in pockets. "This whole Scott thing's pretty heavy, huh?"

"Yeah," Saxen said. "Do you know if we're planning on staying in this town forever or what?"

"I think the plan is that we wait for more news from the doctors. We have to keep moving if we want to save the people back home from Morbidark." Elliot's brow creased. "I really hope everyone's ok."

"Your mum?"

"Especially my mum, but everyone, you know? Like the kids in our school, and our teachers, and the old lady in the post office … Death is in our town, Sax. We have no way of knowing if it's struck."

"Well, Kitty does have that communication device," Saxen pointed out, "but we still don't know how to freaking work it."

"I'm just worried," Elliot said quietly, then looked Saxen in the eye for a moment. "Are you worried?"

"I guess," he said dismissively, and frowned. "I don't really have anyone to be worried about."

"Your dad," Elliot said without hesitation. "I know you had your-"

"Yeah, ups and downs, whatever whatever. I don't care."

"If he's dead?" Elliot asked, raising an eyebrow.

Saxen looked at him for a while, and then sighed. Elliot was his best friend, and always had been, the best friend he had out of these guys, and that meant a lot. He could tell the truth.

"I don't care if he's dead, no," he repeated, and then added, so quietly he wasn't sure if Elliot had heard him, "In fact I wish he was."

"You're not my son."

The words were growled, as if the man he had looked up to his entire life was now some sort of beast. His father stood there, filling up the entire doorway with his now rather formidable silhouette.

"What … what are you saying?" Saxen asked. He could hear a roaring in his ears. This wasn't happening – it couldn't be. His father loved him … he was all he had …

"I'm saying you need to leave."

"Leave?" he repeated. "Forever?"

"Get out. Don't look at me."

"Dad …"

"I said get out. You are no son of mine."

He was hungry. The food here was a little different to the food at home. He realised after looking at the ingredients on the back of a chocolate bar that this was because it was made from extracts of pokemon instead of animals.

Lithium, his Absol, was hungry too. He could tell because he kept chewing on his ankle.

"Hang on," he said to his pokemon, who looked up at him sulkily. "Well what do you want?"

The shop was very small, but still had a large amount of people inside. Saxen wondered why they hadn't expanded at all – it was the only decent place to buy food for miles. But it worked out well for him.

He picked out a sandwich for himself and a small pouch of pokefood for Lithium and looked around briefly. There was a handily fat man blocking the way to the till. Saxen slipped the food into his inner coat pocket, which was made large and inconspicuous for exactly this kind of thing.

Then he walked out.

"Absol," his Absol said excitedly as the food came out when they were by the forest edge and safely away from anyone who may have twigged. Saxen held out the pouch in front of his pokemon's nose and opened it. "Aaaab," he said, and sniffed it. Then he looked at Saxen accusingly and then turned away towards the forest.

"What's wrong?" Saxen asked, bringing the packet closer to his face to inspect it. "Gulpin's Natural PokéFood, made with pure essences and the finest ingredients, catered to each and every type and breed." He tilted his head and then squinted at the bright green packet. "Grass type," he said dully, and then sighed. "Jeez, sorry, Lithi." Then, "Lithium?"

His Absol had caught the scent of something and was galloping off deep into the forest.

"Oh, good grief," Saxen muttered, and, flinging the packet on the ground, he ran after his pokemon. "Where are you going? I said I was sorry!" He leapt over bushes and branches, panting a little and watching out for the white flashes of the Absol's fur as it disappeared further and further into the trees.

He had had no idea that the forest was this deep, and wondered for a moment if he would stumble across a new town or something interesting. He slowed down and bent double, panting and sweating. It was hot here, despite the shade from the trees. There was practically no sunlight, but shadows danced regardless, looming around and over him, shimmering in the heatwaves.

A tree was on fire.

"Lithium," Saxen croaked. Ash was getting into his mouth and he coughed. "Lithium, come back."

Then the tree went out. Literally, like someone had blown out a candle, or flicked off a switch, and the tree looked as good as new, green and healthy and the forest was once again cool and breezy.

"What the hell?" Saxen whispered. There was no way he could have imagined it … the embers had made him cough, and the heat had made him sweat. He was still damp from it. He stepped a little closer, and looked through the bushes to see a clearing beside this strange tree.

People. Five or six of them. On their hands and knees, faces resting on the cool grass, hands planted firmly in front. They were speaking, saying something together. Chanting. Saxen swallowed, his throat still a little dry from the ash.

"Lithi-" he began, but then stopped. There was a group of pokemon beside the tree as well. Dark pokemon. They stood and they looked out at the chanting people, unblinking and unmoving. A Sableye, Honchcrow, Skorupi, Mightyena and Umbreon. They sat and they stared.

A man, cloaked in rust red, as were the others, stood up and walked to the front of the group and the chanting escalated for a moment before dying out completely like the fire in the tree.

This man was marked different from the others in that he had tied a white rope around his belt, but like the others the rust red hood was completely obscuring his face.

"Come, fellow Dark Ones," he said, in a voice like molasses, rich and deep and wholesome, "join me in giving thanks to our beautiful and loyal familiars." They all bowed their heads again and said something incoherent. Saxen caught his breath finally and sniffed, wiping his hand across his shining brow.

"And now," he said warmly, "for the joining."

"Praise to Morbidark," they all said as one. Saxen frowned, and then took a step back. These people were worshipping … death?

"Lithium," he hissed, but his Absol was nowhere to be seen. Could he have been drawn to this place because of the dark energy? There was little doubt about that, but where was he now? "Lithium, we gotta get out of here, man."

Just then there was a terrific crackle of energy that lashed him across the back and caused him to fall to his knees. More sweat broke out across his body and he sucked in a breath in pain, jerking his head again towards the clearing.

The people were now in a circle around the pokemon, who were all shrouded in a dark mist. Once again they let out a Dark Pulse in unison, which hit the circle of humans squarely in the chest at close quarters. Amazingly, they all took it, and while one wavered nobody fell as he had. He coughed again and looked up.

"Praise be to Morbidark!" the one with the white rope around his waist yelled again. They all joined hands and a few of them let out a laugh. "I feel the power!" he roared, as the pokemon fired off more Dark Pulses. Saxen swallowed and frowned deeper.

"Aaab."

Lithium leapt onto the scene, and in front of one of them, a larger woman. He took the full force of the Dark Pulse instead of her, and fell.

"Stop, we have a newcomer," the leader announced. "Are you hungry, friend?"

Lithium cracked open an eye. "Absool," he said.

"In time, friend, you will come to withstand the darkness from other familiars. It will not bring you to your knees," he said kindly. Lithium looked at him, and stood up again. "Eat." He placed a leaf full of food down and the pokemon all began to devour it, Lithium included.

"Jesus," Saxen said to himself, still squatting behind the bushes. "They worship Morbidark, man, get out of there."

Then, to his horror, there was a firm hand against his back that shoved his face into the dirt. He couldn't move, or breathe very well. His heart started to race.

"Weavile," his captor growled, and then took hold of his arms and jerked Saxen into the clearing.

"WHAT?"

The normally calm Incendia was shaken and burning with anger, her platinum hair practically on end with fury.

"You let them get AWAY?" she roared, then shook her head furiously. "No, scratch that. You HELPED THEM get away?" She yelled out and pushed over the charred remains of her desk onto the floor. Pyra, bandaged and limped, whined and moved towards the door.

"Please, listen, we-"

"Yeah, I heard already. You didn't know it was them." She gently placed her robin's egg blue manicured fingers on the bridge of her nose and took ten deep breaths. Her heart was beating so hard she thought she might explode, and Pyra didn't need that stress.

"They told us they were Umbra, and with the massacre we had no choice but to get them to the hospital as quickly as possible," the grunt pleaded, looking pale and very small.

"Did it not cross your mind that it had been their doing?" she asked quietly, eyes still shut and fingers still pressed against her eyelids.

"There … there's no way," the grunt said, and shook his head meaningfully. "They had no weapons, nothing that could have ripped five men apart like that."

"They have pokemon, don't they?"

"With all due respect, there's only one pokemon capable of murder to that bloodthirsty degree, and he is currently in another universe," the grunt said, wringing his hands.

"How are we supposed to track them?" she growled. "Now we have no leads."

"The boy should still be in the hospital if he is not dead. He was injected with a lot of the lethal serum."

Incendia looked at the grunt and raised her eyebrow. "What lethal serum?" she asked. "I haven't authorised any of that in a long time."

"The … the charcoal liquid?" the grunt said slowly, sensing another mistake that he would be held accountable for. Incendia's eyes widened enormously, and then a look of amusement played over her face.

"That's not for a lethal injection, you stupid, stupid boy."

"What does it do?" the grunt asked, and swallowed.

"It's what we inject into pokemon," she said, and then she laughed for a moment. "And she used an entire syringe? Goodness, if the boy survived that then …" She arched her head back and laughed again. "This would be incredible; a breakthrough! Morbidark would be as good as in our hands!"

The grunt looked at her for a moment, and then remembered how to breathe.

"You're not angry?"

"No," she said, and her face lit up with pure excitement. "No, not at all."

"So what was the injection supposed to be for?" he asked, the hesitant beginning of a smile on his still pale face as well.

Incendia looked at him, and trailed her robin's egg blue manicured nails gently across his face, and grinned darkly.

"It's the injection to make pokemon obey us without question."

"Right. Who are you?" The leader of the dark worshippers stood over Saxen. He swallowed. "Why were you spying on us?"

"I wasn't spying-" he began.

"Weavile caught you, don't deny it."

"I was … I was trying to find my Absol," he said, and pushed himself to his feet, looking warningly around at them all. "And he's here. Come on, Lithium, we're leaving these freaks."

Lithium turned to him and his eyes shone briefly, then he went back to eating his food with the other dark pokemon.

"Lithi," Saxen said, tilting his head. "Come on, man."

"You have a dark pokemon," the leader said. "And you're in no way interested in the power they hold?"

"What, the power that all pokemon hold?" Saxen asked. "Isn't it basically the same, but different?"

"No, dark pokemon have a unique source of all of their power," the man said, and then he smiled and pulled off his hood, revealing striking features and longish dark hair. "I'm Aaron, by the way."

"Saxen," Saxen said distractedly, "what's the source of their power?"

There was a pause, and then Aaron's smile broadened. "Morbidark," he said. As the word left his lips, he and the other members of the group clapped their hands once, bent over a little and muttered something that sounded like, "Gambari." He figured they were praising him or something.

"I think I'm really going to go now," Saxen said, and walked over to his Absol. "Jesus, come on. I'll get you some food back at the town."

"He likes the energy here," Aaron explained. "Dark pokemon are powered up by our rituals."

"Prove it," Saxen said. He wasn't sure why.

"I'll battle you with a powered up pokemon. Will that prove it?"

"No, you could have just trained it well."

"If you have that attitude I'm afraid you'll never get anywhere with your Absol."

"What?" Saxen said. "Are you telling me that you can't train dark pokemon if you don't worship the harbinger of death?"

Aaron laughed before he could stop himself. "If you're willing to listen, I'm willing to explain what we're doing here."

"Go ahead," Saxen said, looking over to Lithium again, who was now playing an intense game of tag with a Mightyena. "Looks like I'll be here for a little while."

"Of course you are aware that Morbidark has, over time, acquired the nickname of the Marionette," Aaron began.

"Sure," Saxen shrugged.

"This is because he forces small amounts of his power into others, along with a sort of telepathic link that allows him to control them from the inside … now, it has been said that a long, long time ago, before humans even invented the pokeball, Morbidark did this same thing to a number of pokemon. These became dark pokemon."

"Do you know that for certain?" Saxen asked, frowning.

"Actually, no," Aaron explained, "we don't have proof. But we believe this to be true." He paused, and looked at the dark pokemon around them. "Now we believe that these dark pokemon hold in them the power that Morbidark holds. And they in turn hold the power to pass it on to others."

"To … to you all?"

"Yes. For generations the Dark Ones have been meeting in secret and harnessing the power of dark pokemon through rituals and chants. We have faith that when judgment day comes and Morbidark rises, he will spare those who have been tainted by his darkness."

"Oh … ok," Saxen said. "So you think that absorbing Dark Pulses gives you superpowers?"

Aaron laughed a little again. "Yes, we do."

"And, let me guess, you don't have proof."

"Actually-"

Aaron bent over and picked up a twig. Locking eyes briefly on Saxen, his lips curled upwards into a confident smile. The twig went up in flames.

Saxen sucked in a breath and stepped backwards. The flame travelled down the wood and licked at Aaron's hand. Just then, the fire went out. But unlike the tree, the twig remained charred and burnt.

"But, the tree," Saxen said, "it went back to normal."

"You saw that?" Aaron rolled his shoulders a little and then dropped the twig. "There are very little limits to what Morbidark's power can do."

"You all have that kind of power?" Saxen asked hesitantly. "Can your pokemon do this too?"

"Dark pokemon can attack with pulses of their dark energy. You know that."

"Oh, right, yeah."

"And in answer to your other question, no. I am the only one with this extent of power. I have been doing these rituals since before I was born. My mother was a Dark One."

"So … so what other things can you do?" Saxen asked, feeling his own mouth twist into a smile as well.

"Good question," Aaron said, and then his eyes twinkled. "How about you figure it out on your own?"

"You mean do the rituals myself?"

"Yes," Aaron said. "All you have to do is break down the walls inside you that are there to protect you from the darkness. It takes time. Months, even, but you just need to have confidence in yourself."

"Tell me how."

"Meditate. Get your Absol to channel its darkness into you, and when the pain stops, you'll know it's time."

"When the … pain stops?"

"It's a strange kind of pain," Aaron said, and then struggled to find words.

"It's like," a lady behind him piped up, and pulled off her own hood. She was a pretty little redhead. Saxen watched her lips move. "It's like … your soul is aching, you know?"

"Why would you do that to yourself?" he asked softly.

"I told you already," Aaron said, looking agitated with his underling for speaking over him. "We do it so that we are not destroyed when Morbidark comes to judge us all." He grinned. "Also the powers are pretty nifty, you have to admit."

There was a pause. Saxen was aware that Lithium was standing next to him again. "Fine," he said. "Come on." He walked over to the side of the clearing with his Absol and sat on a log.

"You won't get it for weeks, I imagine," Aaron said. "So don't you lose faith."

Saxen looked at his Absol, and then looked over at the cloaked group of death worshippers.

Did he really want to become one of them? Just to become powerful like them?

God, what would his father think if he knew what he was about to do?

You are no son of mine.

He felt his hands ball into fists, and screwed his eyes shut.

"You know what to do, Lithi?" he asked, and then gritted his teeth.

"Absol," his pokemon replied hesitantly, then closed its own eyes and sat down, laying his head down gently on his master's lap.

"Renounce your goodness, just for a moment," Aaron said from across the clearing. He spoke quietly but Saxen could still hear him perfectly. It was as though this place was devoid of noise or life of any form. "Shut down the barrier between good and bad, and let the darkness creep in."

"Whatever," Saxen muttered to himself. "Let's just do this." He wanted power, there was no denying that. He tried to force the image of his father out of his mind, and felt the anger coursing through him. "Let me have it," he said to his Absol.

Lithium took a deep breath.

And then he felt it. Pain, searing pain, ripping right through him. He lifted his head and roared. Startled, bird pokemon loudly took to the skies, and he could hear the chattering of bug pokemon as they scuttled away from his cries

It was as though the very core of his being was being torn apart. What was this? His Absol possessed this kind of power? Was this an attack? Or was he just trying to connect with him? He felt as though some other consciousness was forcing its way through to share his body.

All he had to do was relinquish control, become another minion to the darkness. Then he could be powerful. Then he could get the respect back. Then he could get anything he-

The pain stopped. Saxen opened his eyes and looked down at his Absol's head.

"Why'd you stop?" he opened his mouth to ask, but instead he was floating. He had no voice to speak. He floated up out of his body and drifted just above his own head. He could see Aaron and the others, heads bowed again. What the hell was going on? He tried to move his hands but he didn't have any. He was bodiless.

Was he dead?

He drifted higher, higher into the air. No, he thought. No, why did I do this? Power wasn't this important. Power wasn't worth his life. His Absol's darkness had killed him. This world had killed him. The evil of this place had literally crawled inside him and ripped him from the inside out.

Where was he going anyway? He realised that he had stopped travelling upwards and started to go to the left, as though something had hooked onto him and was pulling him quickly in. The trees were blurs of green now, and he hurtled liquidly back to the town.

Kitty! He tried to gesture to her as she walked, alone, along the beach. She looked out to the horizon. He slowed to a stop. Kitty, he tried to say, but he had no mouth to speak.

Suddenly, her head snapped over to him and she looked directly at him. He had no body, nothing. How could she see him? He felt something bubble through him.

"Who's there?" she whispered, but the voice she used was not her own. It was the voice of many people, all different, speaking as one. Her eyes burned, and for the first time he saw the darkness swirling beneath.

He saw right into her soul, and it was black as tar.

Just then, she reached out in an impossibly quick movement and grabbed onto his arm. It burned, oh God, it burned.

Hang on, he had an arm again?

He opened his eyes, and he was back in the clearing, sweating, panting, bent over. His Absol stepped back.

"Is there a problem?" Aaron called over as their ritual came to an end. Saxen struggled to catch his breath. His heart was hammering. What the hell had just happened?

"No, I think I … I think I fell asleep or something."

"Aaabsol," Lithium said, and then growled softly at Saxen, not aggressively, but strongly nonetheless.

"It … it can't be," Aaron said, and shook his head.

"What's happened, Aaron?" The redhead woman came over and looked at him with her large eyes.

"I don't know," Saxen said, feeling very lost, but at the same time, strangely energised. Actually, come to think of it, had he ever felt this full of life?

"You've already finished." He shook his head. "That's amazing. Fantastic. You have to stay, we have to-"

"I have to go," Saxen said. "Lithium, come here," he said. To his surprise, the Absol obeyed without question and followed him quickly through the trees and back out to the city. Was it his imagination, or was he even running faster?

His arm throbbed. He looked at it, and his eyes widened. He grabbed it, which hurt like hell, and he ran towards the beach, unsure why.

"She's not here," Saxen said to the Absol.

He looked down at his arm again, removing his hand slowly, as if that would change anything. It was blistered. He bit his lip.

"Absol," the Absol said. "Absol ab-" He gently licked it. There was nothing healing about it, and it actually hurt a hell of a lot, but when the pokemon was finished and the warm ocean breeze travelled over his damaged skin, it felt just a little bit better.

"I'm confused," he said.

"Hey!" There was some heavy breathing and pounding footsteps, and then Elliot appeared in front of him, red faced and grinning. "I was looking for you – you were gone for ages."

"Sorry, I got a bit lost," Saxen said, shoving his hands deep into his pockets to hide his injury. There was something unexpected in one of them. He pulled it out.

"Oh, did you catch something?" Elliot asked lightly. Saxen inspected the pokeball carefully. It had a black marking on it and it felt a little heavier than an empty one.

Had he not even noticed taking this? Had it really become that bad?

"Uh … yeah, I caught something," Saxen said.

"What is it?" his friend asked.

"What is it?" he repeated. "I'll show you." He threw the pokeball. "Go … pokeball, go!"

They both watched in awe as the form took shape and became a Sneasel, which looked around in confusion, and then growled throatily at both of the boys.

"Whoah," Elliot said, inching back a little. "Looks like it didn't want to be caught."

"Caught, yeah," Saxen said. Come to think of it actually, he did very vaguely remember putting something in his pocket. Was he really stealing things by accident now? That really would put the icing on it.

"Saxen?" Elliot said. Saxen cursed his friend's ability to guess what he was thinking. "You haven't started … doing it again, have you? You did catch it fair and square?"

"Yeah, I didn't take it, if that's what you mean."

"You'd tell me if you'd started again, right? Because the shrink said too much stress could start it up again, and if you can say anything about the last couple of days, you can say they've been stressful."

"I'm fine, Elliot. I caught it myself," Saxen said, and returned the Sneasel, pocketing the ball again. He could tell that he wasn't convinced, so he flashed him a huge smile. Elliot smiled back.

"Well if you ever need to talk," he said.

"Yeah," Saxen said.

Stealing things ... it wasn't evil of him, right? It had never been an evil thing for him. He barely noticed when he did it; it was like second nature for him to take things he wanted without thinking about consequences. He wasn't evil, and he wasn't mentally ill.

He was just impulsive.

"I'll see you for dinner, I guess. I'm gonna go back to the hotel for a bit. You alright here?"

"I'm fine," he said again, and smiled again for good measure. He sighed as Elliot left, and walked slowly back over to the edge of the trees.

What the hell was up with those Morbidark worshippers? Why on earth had he thought it would be a good idea to become one himself? For power? He bet he hadn't even become powerful in the slightest. Maybe it was a trick, or some kind of cult scam.

He just forced the whole Kitty thing completely out of his head. And the painful burn mark on his arm.

And the fact that his kleptomania had come back at full force.

He sighed. That was a lot of crap to force out of his mind. And it didn't help that Aaron was coming towards him through the trees.

Wait, what?

"Hey," he said, panting. "I need to talk to you."

"I don't want to talk about the whole evil thing," he said. "I don't know what happened, and I don't want to."

He held up his hands in front of him. "Ok, ok. You don't have to. How about you register me in case you have any questions?"

"Fine," Saxen said after a while, and gave Aaron his Nav. He pushed in a few numbers and handed it back.

"As impressive as it was, that wasn't what I followed you out here to say."

"Oh yeah?"

"Did you steal a Sneasel?"

Saxen felt the terrible feeling of being caught ripple over his skin. He hadn't felt like this in years. The horrible rush of doing something wrong and having people know about it. He swallowed those feelings.

No wonder it only took that long for your soul to give in to the darkness, a tiny voice in his head said. He frowned.

"Yeah, I did."

"I … I'm gonna want that back."

Aaron raised an eyebrow, and a salty ocean breeze caught his dark hair, blowing it about and then releasing it to settle against his strikingly pale face.

Saxen responded by reaching over to him, grabbing firmly onto the back of his head and kissing him long and deeply and hard. When Aaron finally managed to pull away, his pale face was bright red.

"Well I …" he began, then his shoulders relaxed, but he still looked immensely confused. "Well played."

Saxen smirked, and stuck his hands further into his pockets, feeling the cold brush of the stolen ball at the bottom.

"I-I guess … you earned some sort of reward. Just promise me you'll keep meditating with your dark pokemon. Increase your power. Look me up when judgment day comes."

"Cool," Saxen said, and, after fixing him with one last dark smile, he turned to walk away.

"You really didn't strike me as gay, Saxen," Aaron called out after a long hesitation.

Saxen turned around, pulled out the pokeball and inspected it. He raised an eyebrow. "I'm not," he replied, throwing the ball up in the air and catching it a couple of times. He wheeled around and continued walking. "Just impulsive."