Aidan broke down to his knees, gritting his teeth to ease the pain and wiping the blood from his wounds. He slowly turned to his head; the paralysis was still in effect. Despite his condition, he lifted himself to his feet and hobbled over to Aria. He knelt down next to her, lying his paw on her side.

"Come on, Aria…"

The tiny sheep still remained as still as a post.

Maybe the curse is still in effect…

He had no other choice. The only thing he could do to save his friends , and the rest of the Pokémon world, was to take his own life. Bravely, yet reluctantly, he brought his claws up to his throat and gently placed them on the soft flesh…

"Aidan! What are you doing?"

The words echoed in his ears for a short while. It was squeaky, curious and sounded very feminine. He couldn't believe it; the voice he had awaited was finally speaking to him.

"Aria…"

He turned around and ran towards the voice, wrapping the sheep in a warm embrace. "Thank God you're alive."

"I felt really odd, Aidan- wait! You're hurt!"

"Aria, it's fine. Don't worry," he said softly.

She observed the many cuts and wounds he'd sustained in battle, and then her attention turned to the huge fire.

"What's that?"

"It's the leftovers of that bitch Maude," Aidan growled. "It's okay now. She's gone."

Aria heard the soft calls of her mother, who had dissolved into tears. Mary waddled up to her and picked her up, spinning her around in circles. Aidan felt a tear come to his eye as he watched the tiny smile on Aria's lips, and listened to her carefree laughter.

"Oh my Gosh!" they gasped, in awe at the large blaze.

"Everyone, don't worry about the fire, alright? Anyway, everyone will be fine. The curse is gone. Maude is gone," he explained. The other pokémon gazed at him for a while, and then gave Aidan their thanks.

"Sorry about all of the accusations, Charmeleon."

"Thank you so much for everything you've done for my daughter, Aidan…" Mary said, patting him on the shoulder.

"Thanks for everything you two did for me. If it weren't for you two, I'd be dead by now," Aidan chuckled.

Aria tapped her feet on the ground impatiently. "Do you want to live with me and my mum?"

Both Aidan and Mary exchanged confused looks. "Seriously? You haven't even asked her yet," Aidan laughed.

"Go on, it'll be fun! Can he, Mum? Can he?"

Aria jumped up and down. Her tail light glowed brightly. All of a sudden, Aidan felt a fizzing feeling in his body. He noticed that yellow glowing orbs seemed to be surrounding him. He blinked a couple of times, not believing his surroundings; he had entered the Pokémon world thanks to a curse lay on him by a Ninetales, and finally, now that the curse has been broken, he was about to be transported back home.

"What's going on?"

"Aria…" Aidan took a breath. "I think I have to go back to the human world now. It's been fun, but the curse is gone now, so...I have to go too. I have to restore the balance, Aria. The legend says that the balance of the word is upset when the human becomes a Pokémon. Now that I'm going back, everything will be back to normal. I have to go, Aria. It's the only way you and your Pokémon friends will ever return to your normal lives."

Aria began to cry. "But…I'll never see you again. And you were my only friend…We won't be friends anymore…"

Aidan laid his paw on Aria's shoulder. "Even though it's unlikely we'll ever meet again, we'll always be friends, Aria. Don't worry about that, okay?"

The orbs began to grow larger.

"Aidan! Don't go!"

"I have to. But don't worry, because I'm sure that you'll never forget about me, and I won't forget about you."

Aidan was unsure of whether or not he'd remember Aria once he became human again, but he decided to tell her that so he would to prevent her from getting even more upset than she already was.

"Goodbye, Aria."

The charmeleon materialised into yellow light and floated gently towards the sky. Aria jumped as high as she could, trying to catch it.

"No!" she yelled, breaking to the floor in tears. Mary hugged her tightly.

"Aria, don't be too upset. You'll always have the memories that you too shared, right?"

Aria stared into the yellow light again, wishing she could have her friend back for even a few more minutes. "Yeah…"

She and her mother looked up into the skies, watching the stars twinkle. They pondered about what life must have been like in the human world, and they wished to Arceus that Aidan would have a safe journey back home.

Aidan felt as if he were nothing, just a soul wafting through the air and up into a dark void. He wondered what would await him when he returned to the human world. Would his mother yell at him for not doing the chores? Or would his sister bug him to help her train her minun? Either way, he felt excited to finally see his real family again. He couldn't wait to return to home-sweet-home once again.

AUTHOR NOTE: Thank you so much for reading the story! I appreciate it, and I hope you enjoyed the read!

Self Evaluation of PMD: TUC

Now that I look back on this story, I notice that there is much that could have been improved. A reader said to me that more development of the Zangoose and Seviper arc, and of the characters, would have been a lot better, and I definitely agree with that entirely. I also looked back on the ending and realised that Maude being overcome by an attack she should be resistant to probably wasn't as good an ending, or as brutal a battle, as people were hoping for. The intention was to show the extreme intensity of Aidan's fire attack, but now, I don't see it as being effective. I may consider re-writing the fight chapter, but part of me is telling me to just leave it as is, rather than change the plot of an old story. I am unsure. :) Aria also seemed rather irrelevant, and I feel her character could have had some more personality quirks or flaws, or more backstory behind her.

Personally, I preferred that Aidan and Aria shared a platonic relationship, since I normally see male-female platonic relationships as being closer and more special in stories. Then again, since Aria was portrayed as being quite a bit younger than Aidan, that wouldn't have been a brilliant subplot anyway. :P I enjoyed writing Aidan's character as he was a lot different to most of the characters that I wrote, only I do now wish I had developed him some more.

Thank you for reading. :)