A/N Hey everyone! I know that I'm technically supposed to post this on Tuesday, but I'm kind of going to be in Texas for the next four days and don't really know if I'll have time to post. Anyways, here it is!

Kat's POV

With new supplies and an egg, the three of us have been making our way through the forest on the way to Celadon for a few days now. I've been training Spearow for a bit for two reasons. One, he wants to get stronger to save his family, and two, he will be a huge help for the next gym, which is I believe a grass-type gym. While we've been travelling Jake has been getting up before anyone, even Lucario, and does who-knows-what. It's not that big of a deal; he's still my friend and it probably isn't my business.

The forest pokémon are no match for my speedy flier, and most go down with a Gust, but I can tell the repeated battles are increasing his endurance and stamina, which are very important for a quick aerial battler like him.

With Spearow lazily flying around waiting for another forest pokémon to appear, my mind wanders about what I learned from Ross yesterday. So, Champion of Arceus, huh? While that seems great, that just means that there's another tragedy looming around the corner. Would I be strong enough to handle it? What's going to happen?

Slowly I become aware of Espeon's thoughts in my head. "Hey Kat. Earth to Kat. Hellllooo?"

"Oh! Sorry Espeon. Just thinking. So what's up?"

"Don't you think that something is weird? Something missing?"

Taking a moment to observe the expansive forest around us, there is nothing that jumps out at me. Like actually nothing. Usually there is the chirping of bird pokémon or various bug pokémon slithering through the grass. But now, nothing. The forest is dead silent.

I ask Jake and Julia, "Hey guys, isn't something off? Why aren't there any pokémon around?"

We all stop and listen to the unnerving silence. The three of us and our pokémon walk a little more carefully through the quiet forest.

Suddenly a bush rustles about 10 feet from us. Instantly all of us freeze, and Raichu starts sparking. As we inch closer, suddenly a scyther bursts out of the ground and starts wildly swinging its bladed hands around.

Quickly Raichu lets loose the Thunderbolt he'd been charging, and the scyther quickly drops to the ground in pain. Still, it gets up quickly, but then fall, breathing hard and clutching her side. I know Raichu is powerful, but he's not that powerful, right? Wait, doesn't it look a lot paler than the scyther I fought back in Saffron?

Raichu is tense, but unsure of what to do. His cheeks still spark from residual electricity after his attack, but he seems to relax a bit. Nearby Jake pulls out two berries, one pink and

Slowly Jake walks over to the injured pokémon, who tries to lash out at him, but completely misses due to the pain. Carefully Jake pulls out a pink berry from his pack and offers it to him. "Here. This will help you get better." After the scyther refuses to look at him or take the berry, Jake just puts the berry on the ground and steps back slowly.

The scyther thinks for a moment, then shakes her head as she tries to stand again, this time leaning on a tree. The three of us and our pokémon just watch as she attempts to walk back into the cover of the forest, but after a few steps she completely collapses.

Jake immediately picks up the berry and brings it over to the scyther, bringing it to her mouth. Initially she turns her head away, refusing the berry, but Jake is firm and gently holds her down. "Hey. I know you're poisoned. Normally that wouldn't be too bad if it weren't for the other injuries. So eat it."

The scyther struggles for a moment, but ultimately decides to eat the berry. Immediately a bit more color returns to her cheeks and her breathing seems to have slowed down.

A Jake offers his hand out to help her up, the scyther just ignores it as she struggles to get up on her own. She nods to us in thanks and limps into the forest, leaning on trees for support.

Julia frowns. "You know, it could have been a little more grateful."

I say, "She, I think. But anyways, I don't think that she would be the reason the forest is so quiet. Jake, what do you think?"

Jake just stares in the direction that the scyther left, not acknowledging me.

"Jake?"

He looks up with surprise. "Huh? Oh, sorry, I was just wondering how she ended up so injured. What did you say?"

"I was thinking that she wasn't the one that scared away all the pokémon. But if it isn't her, what is it?"

Jake frowns. "I don't know, but I think Scyther needs our help. She's evidently not strong enough to take on whatever hurt her, but I'm worried that her pride is going to be her downfall."

"What? Pride? What makes you say that?"

"Well, if you noticed, she absolutely refused any help from me until I more or less forced her to eat the berry. Even still, she got up on her own and went to deal with her own problems. Now we just have to get to the bottom of this mess and help her out. She's still injured and I don't think that she's ready for another fight."

"So, what should we do?"

He looks around, then points to an unnatural groove on a tree. "There. Scyther was leaning on trees as she left. We can follow the trail."

"Alright, let's go. Spearow, watch from above, let us know if there's anything up ahead. Julia, you might want to return Teddiursa." The bear is slowly starting to train, but is definitely not ready for an actual fight.

After Julia returns Teddiursa, the rest of us follow Jake's lead as he finds which trees have grooves in them from Scyther's blades. Eventually they become less and less frequent, until Jake whispers, "Wait. I think we're here."

I peer out from behind the trees, and see the scyther viciously fighting multiple red and black spiders with purple and yellow legs.

Scyther seems to have recovered since collapsing in the forest, but the toll of battle is slowly gaining on her. She slows down, and dodges a purple glowing leg a split second too late. The poison-infused limb just grazes her, but it's enough to stop the bug, causing her to sway and breathe heavily again. Shoot, she's poisoned again.

Jake steps out of the trees before any of us could do anything. "Wooper, Mud Shot!" The globs of mud find their targets and repel the spiders away for the time being. Quickly the rest of my pokémon start covering Scyther as she slowly gets back up. Espeon and Raichu are working almost in perfect sync, and I even see a few lightning bolts from Raichu curving to hit other ariados. Hmm, maybe I can make that a combination move or something.

Absol seems to be at his element here. His movements are fluid, making the spiders look like fools. Parry. Sidestep. Slash. Roll. Slash again. He continues to dodge the Poison Jabs, wearing down the spiders without getting hit himself.

I notice Spearow in the air, a little unsure of what he should do with all the chaos around him. Regardless, he launches a few gusts at the spiders, who are knocked off balance and allow for the other pokémon to take them out.

I myself am hanging back a little bit, keeping an eye on my pokémon and helping out if they're in trouble. A few spiders get to me, but aren't expecting a Thunderbolt to the face from a human.

Lucario and Wooper are with Scyther, who still is refusing Jake's help. I can hear the frustration in his voice. "Come on, why don't you just let me help? Your stubbornness is going to get you killed!"

One of the ariados (yes, I can figure it out if I just listen for a second) ran forward and got past Wooper and Lucario, heading straight for the injured scyther. It's too risky for me to do anything: I might hit Jake and the scyther instead.

I can only watch in horror as Jake pushes the scyther out of the way, taking a Poison Jab himself.

"Jake!" I cry out as I run over to him. He slowly gets up with my help, and Scyther just stares in awe. Suddenly she runs towards me, and I instinctively duck. She slashes just above my head and knocks an ariados away. Whew, that was close. Just how many of these spiders are there?

Still leaning on me, Jake warns Scyther, "On your right!" Finally taking his help, she blocks the incoming attack with one blade and knocks the ariados into the tree with the other.

Thankfully, It seems as if that one was the leader, because as soon as Scyther knocks that ariados out, the rest of the spiders retreat and scramble back into the forest. I see Absol collapse in the corner of my eye; it seems that they finally hit him pretty hard with a super-effective move. Combined with exhaustion, there's only so much the dark-type can take. I quickly return him whisper "Thank you" to the pokéball. Absol will be fine as long as we get to a pokémon center soon, but right now Jake needs my help.

After the spiders leave, Jake notices Scyther swaying a little bit, and with my help makes his way over to her. Holding two more pink berries, he offers one to Scyther, who accepts it without any hesitation this time. Jake actually eats the berry himself, but unlike Scyther I don't see any immediate change. He still looks paler than usual and is sweating.

At my look of confusion he says, "Pecha berries work wonders for pokémon, but for some reason don't work as well for humans. Humans also aren't exactly designed to take Poison Jabs." He pauses to take a breath, then shakily continues. "The berry will hold off the poison for a bit, but I need to get to a pokémon center."

Julia speaks up. "Alright, you said it, we have to get to Celadon ASAP. Does anyone remember the way back to the path?"

Oh shoot. Where are we? Wait, I have a flying-type pokémon. "Spearow, can you fly up and see where we can find help?" Although fatigued, the plucky bird takes off through the trees, and returns a moment later pointing a wing.

"Alright, thanks, let's go." With Julia and I supporting Jake, we make our way through the forest as fast as we can. I have to return Spearow because he's too tired from the battle to do much, and Jake returns Wooper. Lucario, Espeon, Raichu, and surprisingly Scyther come with us, making sure more ariados don't ambush us.

Within a few minutes we leave the forest, but there's no city. Instead, we find a small cabin with some smoke coming out of the chimney. Well, I hope they don't mind, but Jake really needs some help. I just hope that they can treat the poison.

I knock on the door, and an older woman answers us. As soon as she sees our ragtag group and Jake's condition, she immediately ushers us in. "Oh dears, come in, come in." Turning towards the house, she yells, "Sam! There are trainers who've been hurt by those damn ariados. One of them looks poisoned pretty badly!"

Soon a man with graying hairs (her husband, I assume) walks down carrying bottles of some form of medicine. Handing them to her, he says, "You take care of the boy, I'll deal with their pokémon. Jake weakly hands Julia Wooper's pokéball as the two of us follow the kind stranger. Scyther opts to just wait outside, looking for berries to heal herself rather than letting the nice couple help her.

We make it to what seems like a hospital room with various medicines around. He explains, "You know, life used to be so great and quiet around here. But then somehow a whole bunch of ariados show up, and suddenly all the pokémon vanish. Now we're just here making sure nobody dies to those bugs. Release your pokémon. I promise, they'll be okay."

Lucario, Espeon, and Raichu are already out of their pokéballs and followed us in, so I think they'll be okay aside from general tiredness. They didn't seem to be hit too hard. I release Spearow and Absol while Julia releases Wooper. For Spearow and Wooper, Sam just sprays a potion on them and they perk up instantly. When he makes his way over to Absol, he just freezes. "No," he mutters. "It can't be."

Instantly scared for Absol I ask, "Is he going to be okay?"

Regaining his composure he quickly pulls a different bottle and sprays Absol with it. Absol weakly raises his head. Whew, at least he's okay.

Almost visibly shaking, Sam is still muttering to himself, "Thirty years. After all this time, I thought I would never see him again." What in the world is he talking about?

Absol's POV

I remember the battle, almost like living in the streets again. Kat and the others were counting on me, and I couldn't let them down. Relying entirely on my battle instincts, I parried, hacked, and slashed my way through the spiders.

Suddenly a huge alarm went off in my head somewhere to my left. I ran to where my sense was leading me, and managed to intercept a Poison Jab headed straight for Raichu. Unfortunately, it left me vulnerable, and a Megahorn nearly knocked me unconscious. Kat returned me to the safe blackness of my pokéball.

Suddenly I'm released from the darkness of the pokéball on some form of bed. The person who healed me is saying something, but my mind is still to groggy to understand anything.

Someone sprays some medicine on me, and I can feel some of my strength returning. I can make out the words he's saying. "Thirty years. After all this time, I thought I would never see him again." No no no no no. Not him. Anyone but him. Of all people, why him?

Ignoring the fact that my danger sense was surprisingly not going off, I try to jump off and run out of the room, but my burning muscles won't let me. I crash to the floor, and I can feel Kat's reassuring hand. "Hey, it's okay. The ariados are gone. Everyone's fine. Someone healed you. There's nothing to worry about."

Near hyperventilating, I manage to gasp out, "I- I never thought I would see… see him again"

Kat's confused voice goes, "Who? Who are you talking about?"

"The man who- who almost killed me. M- my former trainer."

A/N Dun. Dun. DUUUUUN! Sorry about the cliffhanger (totally not sorry: I do this quite often, actually) but, yeah. There are a lot of details in the early chapters of this story that will have a lot more significance later on, let's see if you can find them by the end. Thanks for reading!