How do we grow relationships?
Well, the primary way is simple.
There's something called the mere exposure effect.
It's a simple enough concept. The mere exposure effect occurs when two people are in close proximity for any length of time. The more time you are exposed to another person, the more familiar and comfortable you are with them. This can be seen with family members, who you likely trust with just about everything. It can also be seen with friends. You trust your longtime friends more than new friends, regardless of their actual moral quality.
It makes sense, though. After spending more time with someone, you get to know them better. Even just being in the same general vicinity is enough to grow more familiar with another person.
The secondary way we grow relationships is through the sharing of interests.
Two people who both like the same books or both browse the same social media are far more likely to become friends than two people whose interests do not overlap at all.
But relationships are nigh impossible to break. They can weaken, but you will almost always remember them, and in this way we create a web of connections around the world.
While there were a great many things that could easily irritate people, Finn considered that the absolute highest thing on that list would probably be Bastion and Crai arguing.
And they argued over everything.
Just that morning, Crai and Bastion had argued about manners, which was fairly understandable. Bastion was usually rude and crude, while Crai was intellectual and cynical, quite the contrast between the two.
Then they had argued about the weather. Bastion liked when it was gloomy, damp, and chilly. He got sunburned quite easily, although it still healed within hours. Crai, on the other hand, preferred sunlight, warmth, and dryer air. Apparently his skin became sticky in the damp.
Then - the stupidest thing they had argued over by far – they had argued over the color of a flower. A simple little white daisy. And the stupidest part was that they were both wrong.
"I'm telling you, it was a red rose! A red rose!" Bastion ranted.
"You have, what, three brain cells?" Crai retorted. "You wouldn't know a rose if it bit you. It was clearly a tulip."
Finn groaned and threw his head back. He had a great deal of patience for his Pokémon, and he loved them like family, but this was just excruciating. "Stop. It really doesn't matter."
"I must concur with Finnegan on this point. A petty argument over a flower is not worth spending energy on."
Crai was immediately on his guard, releasing a pulse of psychic energy towards the source of the telepathic message. Almost immediately there was a retaliatory pulse of psychic power that Finn could feel bouncing off of him. It was extraordinarily unnerving for him to feel an intangible force hitting his mind and deflecting.
"You are young, yet, Craitarot. You are talented and quite good at finding weak points, but not as skilled as you need to be to catch me off-guard." A tall figure walked out of the nearby foliage, brushing itself off.
"How do you know my name?" Crai raised his arms into a battle stance, his eyes lighting up with psychic energy.
"A simple matter of telepathy. Your defenses are lacking quite a lot." Rath turned to Finn. "Greetings, Finnegan, Athena, and Jitters. I see you have evolved, Athena. That is good."
"Hello Rath," Finn greeted, "What brings you this way?"
"I was looking for you, in fact. I have found something of great personal importance to you." Rath spoke gravely, his red eyes meeting Finn's hazel. "But first, you need to know some things"
O-O-O
"The most important part of fighting with two weapons is to remember that one of them is your primary and the other is your secondary," Master began, "Eventually you will learn how to use both equally, but first you must learn to use one blade primarily and the other one for defense."
"But Master, how should I decide which to be my primary?" he asked, unsure.
"It's quite simple Ratherian. You are right handed, correct?" Master raised an eyebrow.
"Yes, Master," He answered.
"Then use your right hand."
O-O-O
"With that out of the way, we can get to business." Rath's mental voice grew grave. "I found Harvest."
"Who's Harvest?" Bastion asked, shooting a curious glance at Finn.
But he wasn't listening. Rath had found Harvest? How? Where was he? He stepped forwards and placed his hands on the gallade's shoulders. His voice hoarse, Finn spoke. "Where? Where is he?"
"In a plasma outpost situated about twenty minutes' walk that direction." Rath pointed out into the forest with one hand, gently removing Finn's hands with his other. "I believe that, with your team by your side, we can raid the outpost and rescue the Pokémon trapped there, Harvest included."
"Let's go." Finn turned towards where Rath had pointed and began to walk.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Crai interrupted, teleporting in front of Finn. "Why are you trusting this guy? Who's Harvest?"
"I'm trusting Rath because without him I'd probably be dead. He taught me how to survive in a deadly situation, and how to take my attacker down at the same time. So far he's been nothing but helpful, which is a bit more than I can say about you. Now we're going to go rescue Harvest because he was the first Pokémon I caught, and he trusted me. I let him down, and I'm not going to do it again."
Finn's voice was cold, emotionless, yet Crai flinched. With a start, Finn remembered that kirlia could sense emotions. The emotional turmoil that Finn was experiencing was probably painful for the psychic type. Looking at Rath, the gallade was also wearing a somewhat strained expression. Both of the emotion-sensing Pokémon could feel Finn's bubbling anger and pain.
Taking a deep breath to calm himself, Finn closed his eyes. "I'm sorry. It just… hurts."
"Look, I get it. Losing someone hurts. I've never experienced it firsthand, but your pain is real. I'm sorry," Crai said shamefully.
"It's not your fault. You couldn't have known." Finn took another deep breath and opened his eyes. Crai was looking at the ground in shame. He placed a hand on the diminutive Pokemon's shoulder and crouched, looking Crai in the eye. "I appreciate your attempts to keep me from making the same stupid decisions I've told you about, but I've learned my lesson. I trust Rath because he's given me reason to trust him."
Crai looked up at Finn, his eyes emotional for just a fraction of a second before hardening to his normal cynical glare. "Right. Whatever. Let's go then."
Finn rose, his brow furrowed. Shaking it off, he turned back to his Pokémon. "Nyx, I need you to carry Bastion and follow through the air. Belle, Crai, you two follow on foot. Jitters and Athena are with me. Rath-,"
"I shall be ahead." The gallade bowed, and when he was standing at full height once more he was a blur through the forest.
Finn immediately ran off after Rath, Athena attached to his bag-strap and Jitters clinging to his shoulder. Nyx swooped down from her circling glide, snatching Bastion up with her tail as she flew off over the forest. Belle started into the forest as well, her long loping strides covering ground with surprising speed, while Crai was running as fast as his legs could take him, periodically teleporting forwards to keep up.
Before his adventure began, Finn wasn't the kind of person who could run for more than five minutes top speed without collapsing in exhaustion. Over the past year, though, he had gotten a great deal more endurance and strength. Running for twenty minutes at top speed was not only possible now, but actually easy. Spending a year where he had to walk miles on a daily basis really did quite good for his physical fitness.
The minutes flew by as he dashed through the forest, the undergrowth slapping at his shins. He wasn't able to keep up with Belle's sheer power, or Rath's incredible speed, but at the same time he was keeping just ahead of Crai's teleport-skip.
Before Finn knew it, he came out of the treeline to see a clearing. It seemed like some sort of Plasma tradition to put their bases in forest clearings. Geistom, Vernac, and now this one. There were a surprising amount of grunts surrounding the building, most of them with actual firearms at their disposal.
On the fringes of the forest Finn saw a white and green shape poking out of the bushes. Rath looked over at Finn and nodded. Then the gallade was off in a blur of movement.
Finn looked at Crai. "Tell Nyx to use Bastion for a distraction."
Crai nodded then looked up at the circling gliscor, transmitting the psychic message. Finn knew when Nyx had started the distraction when Bastion fell from the sky, the mareanie screaming out a war cry. As humans do, the grunts looked around for the noise, none of them looking up. Their confusion was alleviated quickly, though, when the water type landed on the head of one grunt, causing him to scream in pain when Bastion sunk his spines in. Finn winced, hoping that the man wasn't poisoned too badly, but that was all he could hope for.
Now that Bastion had drawn their attention, Finn ran out of the forest. He quickly unsheathed Athena's blades, a battle strategy coming to him as if by instinct. Once he was close enough to the grunts, he slammed Athena's blades together, releasing a pulse of sound that caused the humans – and Bastion – to cry out in pain. Many of the plasmas dropped their weapons in order to cover their ears from the high-pitched noise. When they did so, Crai used his psychic powers to pick the firearms up and yank them out of reach.
Some of the more intelligent grunts hadn't dropped their weapons, though. One of them raised the assault rifle in his hands and pointed it at Finn, his finger compressing the trigger. Finn didn't even have to command Athena, simply vanishing into a shadow on the ground. The black blob of shadows on the ground shot across the ground, sliding through the grass like a serpent. In a moment, Finn rose from the ground and sliced upwards, destroying the gun. With a twirling motion, Finn's sword was at the grunt's neck.
Finn hesitated. He could, and logically should, end the grunt right here. It would lessen Plasma's resources, put this criminal out of his misery, and make life easier for many people. Logically, he should follow through.
But he couldn't. He couldn't kill someone, even if they were a Plasma. Taking a deep breath, he pulled his blade away and glared at the grunt. "Get out of here."
The grunt just ran, not looking back or even dropping the remnants of his gun. Finn turned his attention to the other plasma grunts, noting with some satisfaction that the others were already disarmed by his Pokémon's skill and Rath's lightning movements. Guns were on the ground in tatters, and more than one Plasma grunt was slashed across the hamstring by Rath's newly-bloodied blades.
Finn hesitated at the sight of the blood and injured Plasmas, then shook it off. He turned his attention to the outpost. "Let's go."
He could almost sense the trepidation of his Pokémon, but Rath stepped up next to Finn. "Good fighting. Your skill is growing quite quickly. But don't let your guard down. I sense something powerful inside the building. Powerful and angry."
Finn nodded, then walked towards the outpost. His Pokémon followed after a moment, trailing Finn faithfully.
Rath looked at the locked doors and raised one arm, the skin changing shape and turning amorphous. With a jab, he pushed his now-amorphous arm into the gap between the doors. Grunting with the effort, Rath's arm turned into a blade, slicing the doors apart. The job complete, Rath's arm returned to its normal shape.
Gesturing for Finn to follow, Rath walked into the building. Almost immediately they reached a T-intersection, and Rath pointed down one corridor. "Go that way. I'll go this way. Make as little noise as possible."
Then the gallade was gone, not making a sound as he vanished. Finn turned to go down the other path, pausing for a moment to look at his Pokémon. Bastion and Nyx seemed to have remained outside, but Crai and Belle were here with him. Jitters was still in his hair, and of course Athena was in his hands. His worries assayed, he walked down the corridor with stealth he didn't realize he had. It seemed that Belle and Crai got the message, because the former was padding silently while the latter was walking on feet that seemed to absorb sound.
Finn continued until he found a corridor lined with containment cells. He glanced at the glass viewing windows and almost shouted at what he saw inside. Pokémon, wild Pokémon, stuck in these cages with no chance of escape.
"Crai, tell them to remain calm. I'm getting them out." Finn walked to the master control panel, tapping on the touchscreen. After a moment, he shook his head. "Jitters, I need you to fry the locks. Belle, start forcing doors. I'll keep any Plasmas away."
Jitters leaped off of Finn's head to land on one of the doors, letting out a jolt of electricity to destroy the lock. On the other side of the corridor, Belle ripped the lock straight out of the door. Finn quickly walked past them to the other end of the corridor.
It seemed as though his worries about Plasmas were founded, as almost immediately a Plasma grunt walked around the corner at the end of the corridor. The Plasma let out a shout of surprise and immediately released a Pokémon, a massive houndoom. The hellhound bayed and darted towards Finn, smoke pouring from its nostrils.
In a moment Finn calculated his options. Crai was too worried with keeping the wild Pokémon from panicking. Jitters was running out of electrical charge by using it on the locks. Belle was stuck behind the horde of fleeing Pokémon. With other options ruled out, Finn ran towards the houndoom.
At the last second, Finn dropped onto his back and skidded under an incoming fire blast and thrust his right hand upwards, blade in hand. With his left hand, he placed his sword between his face and the houndoom's jaws. There was a frozen moment of silence.
"Recall your houndoom," Finn said calmly.
"Why should I do that?" The grunt asked tauntingly. "You're stuck."
"Yes, if I move I'll get my throat ripped out," Finn reasoned, "But on the other hand, if I move my right hand up just a little more…" here he shifted Athena's blade, causing a slight trickle of warm blood to drip on his hand. "Your houndoom's spinal cord will be severed, and it will never recover. So recall your houndoom, or it will not only have its hind legs paralyzed forever, but it will never be able to fight again."
There was a moment in which the grunt was thinking almost audibly, then the houndoom vanished in a flash of red light. Finn climbed to his feet and flicked the houndoom's blood off of Athena's blade, the red liquid flowing smoothly off of the steel of her blade and crossbar. He couldn't help but notice that the red didn't properly come off of his hand, but he couldn't worry about it now.
When Finn glanced up, the grunt ran past him, the man shoving his way through the wild Pokémon and dashing to the exit.
Glancing back, Finn checked to make sure that his Pokémon were fine. When he was sure that they were, he turned back. "I'm going to look ahead. When you're done, catch up."
"Finn, you're being awfully… cold. It kind of-," Crai began.
"We don't have time to chat," Finn interrupted.
"Hurts."
Finn stopped. "What?"
"Finn, it hurts to even be near you. It's worse than depression. That was just, well, depressing. Now, though, you're like a different person."
At that Finn turned around to look at his Pokémon. Crai had walked up to him, the wild Pokémon having escaped in the time that Finn had stood there. "I…"
"Don't tell me that it's because of the mission, or some crap like that. You weren't like this before that gallade showed up. There wasn't this… malignancy. I can feel it radiating off of both you and that gallade, and it scares me." Crai tilted his head. "He's given you his memories, hasn't he? He's making you into him."
Finn opened his mouth, then hesitated. He was sure before, but now he wasn't. Rath was giving him memories, memories of training and combat.
"What do you really know about Ratherian?" Crai asked, "From what little I've seen, he's trained to kill. He can disarm and cripple a human in less than a second, he has mastered his amorphous anatomy for the purpose of breaking into inaccessible locations, and he's cold and calculating. That doesn't sound like someone you should trust."
"I…" Finn took a deep breath. "I understand where you're coming from. I really do. Rath has given me skills that have saved my life. But…" Finn paused for a moment. "at the same time, I trust you. Aspen raised you from an egg, and you've been nothing but helpful. I…" Finn paused in thought again. "I'll ask Rath where he learned his skills. I'll ask him why he's trained to kill. If he doesn't answer, I'll stay well away from him."
"I suppose that's as good as it'll get." Crai shrugged. "In any case, I can sense only a couple more Pokémon in the building. One's Rath, one's impossible to identify, and the last one is… troubled."
Finn took a deep breath. He looked at his Pokémon. Crai was there, but Belle had joined him, and Jitters was sitting on her shoulder. "Let's go."
Finn walked down the corridor and glanced over his shoulder. The others were following, which brought a feeling of happiness to him that he wasn't expecting. His Pokémon trusted him.
Turning his attention back to the corridor, Finn continued on. The corridors were eerily silent, but that at least meant that there weren't any Plasmas.
Finn and his Pokémon passed through laboratories filled with strange machines. Crackling electricity arced over the machines, keeping Finn wary that they could turn on at any moment. Hopefully they wouldn't, but there was a chance that they could.
It was in the tenth laboratory that they passed through that Finn stopped in his tracks. This room was… horrible. There were mangled Pokémon corpses in cages, twisted beyond recognition. Two machines dominated the room. The first sparked with electricity, made out of a glass tube with a metal bowl set just over the top. The other was composed of two huge glass chambers, wires and tubes connecting them, sparks flying off of the poorly constructed device.
Finn hesitantly walked towards the second machine, looking closely at it. The thing was monstrous and unwieldy, and even his lackluster knowledge of electronics was enough to know that it was in horrible disrepair.
"F-F-Fiiiiinnn"
Finn whirled, looking for the source of the cry. It hadn't sounded like any of his Pokémon, but for some reason he felt like it was familiar.
"F-Fiiiiiiinnn"
The stuttering and broken voice cried out again, and this time Finn thought he saw where it came from. He quickly walked towards one corner of the room, looking at the cages arrayed against the wall. After a moment, he picked out movement in one of the cages and stepped closer, peering in.
The creature inside was twisted and mutilated, but it was clearly a Pokémon. It was bipedal in form, with a face that peered out of a hood made out of leaves. Its skin was an ugly blotchy mix of yellow and brown, with a wooden quality in some places, especially on the arms. Its eyes were sunken and shadowed, not even mentioning that they were different colors. One was red and the other yellow. Ragged antennae poked out of the top of its head, twitching periodically. The creature's body was segmented like an insect, with a leafy covering shrouding its back. Its legs ended in three-pronged feet that looked like they were designed without balance in mind. The creature's arms ended in three-fingered hands, yet the fingers were curved into leaf-sickles. Clearly its sickle-fingers were sharp, as the scratches on the bars of the cage would attest.
Yet there was something about this strange hybrid creature that Finn recognized.
"…Harvest?" Finn asked warily.
"Fiiiinnn!" The twisted creature lurched across the cage, leaning against the bars and reaching out for him. It apparently didn't realize how sharp its fingers were, as they nearly brushed against his skin.
"Hold on, buddy. I'll get you out of there." Now he was certain. Finn stepped around Harvest's clawed hands and looked at the lock on the cage. He raised Athena's blade, then brought it down as hard as he could. Athena's blade lit up with ethereal blue light, then sliced cleanly through the metal lock.
As soon as the cage was unlocked, Harvest lurched forwards unsteadily. The oddly-transformed Pokémon wrapped his arms around Finn and lowered its head, nuzzling Finn. "Fiiiiiiinn."
"Finn, that… thing. I can't sense its thoughts. It's like its dark type." Crai said with trepidation. "But its emotions are broadcasting, and it's just… simple. It only experiences one thing at a time. It's happy to see you."
"That's because this is Harvest," Finn replied, knowing that Crai wouldn't have sent the transmission to Harvest even if the mutated Pokémon wasn't dark type. He let go of Athena's blades, not even noticing as she sheathed herself. With a gentle touch, Finn wrapped his arms around Harvest. "What happened to you…?"
"F-Fiiiiinnn," Harvest trilled, pushing closer.
"It's okay Harvest, I'm here now. We're going to get you out of here." Finn gently pulled away. Now that he looked closer, he thought he could see traits in the Pokemon that he could identify. There were of course the antennae and body shape of a leavanny, but also tufts of white hair that were characteristic of shiftry. Which meant that Plasma had invented something that could combine two Pokémon into one.
Shooting a glance at the large, poorly constructed device, he shook his head. "Alright Belle, I want you to help Harvest walk. I'm going to make sure the way is clear."
Belle nodded and walked over to Harvest, raising her hands to show that she meant no harm. She carefully reached over and grabbed Harvest, lifting the hybrid Pokémon off of the ground.
Finn glanced at Crai. "Crai, you said that there are two other Pokemon in the building besides Harvest, right?"
"Yes. Rath and something entirely feral," Crai confirmed, nodding.
"Alright, Rath can take care of that himself. Let's get out of this place." Finn nodded to his Pokémon, and the group set off.
As the group walked, Crai glanced at Finn. "Alrighty Finn. Got a question for you and Athena."
"Shoot."
"Why haven't you spoken a word to one another all day? You haven't opened your mouth, but at the same time both of you coordinate like nothing I've ever seen." Crai glanced at Athena. "Like when you dodged those bullets by shadow sneaking. Athena couldn't have seen it because her eyes were pointing the wrong way, and you couldn't use shadow sneak without her help."
"We just… think as one," Athena answered. "I know what Finn wants right when he wants it. Kind of like telepathy, but… not really. I'm not psychic type, after all."
"It's so strange," Crai commented, shrugging.
Finn and his Pokémon continued through the outpost, heading outside. There really wasn't anything to note on the way out, as the building was emptied. Jitters absorbed some of the sparking electricity for later use, and in the process destroyed one or two of the machines, but otherwise nothing happened.
Once outside, Finn took a Pokéball out of his bag and began to fiddle with it, trying to remember how to transfer a Pokémon to another Pokéball. Nyx landed nearby, having gathered the crippled grunts around the base of a tree. She looked at Harvest with interest. "Who's this?"
"Nyx, this is Harvest. You remember, back in Teret, when I told you about him?" Finn continued to fiddle with the Pokéball, not even looking up.
"Hello Harvest. I'm happy to finally meet you!" Nyx hopped forwards to greet the hybrid Pokémon.
Harvest trilled in greeting, a garbled noise that sounded partially like vocalization and partially like a simple Pokémon cry. Finn furrowed his brow at that. Before he had clearly been speaking, but it seemed as though he could only say one thing.
Finn had just finished recalibrating the Pokéball when there was an unpleasant thud, followed by the ground shaking. Finn carefully stood, slid the Pokéball into his pocket, and unsheathed Athena's blades, looking at the Plasma outpost. The sound had come from there. There was something big. Something strong.
Just as Finn thought this, there was another thud, and then one of the walls of the building exploded outwards.
A small humanoid shape flew through the air, trailing dust and streaming shadow energy. The shape twisted in the air, then landed on its feet. The gallade launched back towards the cloud of dust, launching pulses of psychic energy at a massive shadowy shape within.
A horrific roar filled the clearing, an ephemeral echoing quality causing it to have even more effect. From within the cloud of dust came a huge draconic shape, massive horns framing the head. Its whole body was covered in shadows, hiding the armor-like plating that made up its hide. It thrashed its head, smashing the building apart further, and roared again. Then it hurtled forwards, its wingless body was roughly bipedal, with spikes running down the back. As Rath got back up to attack it, the dragon sank into the ground, becoming nothing more than a serpentine shadow that darted over the ground until it reached the gallade. Then the massive dragon shot out of the ground, its bladed horns bashing against Rath's hastily raised guard.
Finn jumped forwards, running towards the creature. This was the feral mind that Crai had talked about. The messed up creature tortured beyond thought. Athena pulled Finn into the shadows, coursing through the darkness until he reached the dragon. With a twirl and a double shadow claw, Finn slashed at the dragon.
With terrifying speed, the dragon whirled. Its bladed tail and horns slashed at Finn, only inches away from him before there was a wrenching sensation, and Finn was suddenly all the way across the field.
"Do. Not. Interfere. In. My. Kills," Rath snarled. The gallade turned back to the shadowy monster and vanished again, teleporting back into the fray.
Yet in that instant that Rath was distracted, Harvest had acted. While before Harvest was probably not even slightly capable of combat, the hybrid moved with grace and speed now. With an ear-piercing shriek, Harvest had launched to his feet and blitzed across the field, his bladed fingers releasing twisting blades of shadow.
When Harvest's sickle-clawed hand sliced at the dragon, the monstrous creature roared in pain. It let out a plume of noxious gas to fend off its attacker, forcing Harvest to back off.
Then Rath returned to the battle. With two vicious slashes, the gallade launched pulses of psychic power into the cloud that caused the fumes to disperse. Leaping forwards, Rath drew his arms back and locked eyes with the dragon, both humanoid and dragon lighting up with psychic energy.
Without a sound, the dragon fell to the ground, dead.
Rath didn't stop, though. He turned towards Harvest and rearmed himself, his elbow blades elongating once more. The gallade hurtled towards Harvest, drawing his arm back to slash.
Finn ran forwards, sinking into the ground as he did so. When he emerged from the shadowy void, Finn raised both blades defensively. Rath's blade slammed into Athena with incredible force, nearly causing Finn to drop her.
A sound caused Finn to turn, Rath's rage-fueled assault forgotten, and Finn saw Harvest swaying unsteadily. Finn ran to Harvest, catching him before he hit the ground.
"Finnegan, back away from that abomination." Rath's blade was leveled at Harvest.
Finn didn't bother to acknowledge Rath's statement. "I've got you, buddy. I've got you."
Harvest turned his head to look at Finn. "F-F-Fiiiiiinnnn."
"You did really good. Return." Finn dropped one of Athena's blades and dug around in his pocket, pulling out the Pokéball from before. He tapped the ball to Harvest's forehead, recalling the hybrid in a flash of red light.
"Finnegan, you do not know what kind of monster you have just spared," Rath warned, lowering his blade.
"I don't? Last I checked you were the one to tell me Harvest was in there. You wanted me to raid this plasma base with you." Finn put the Pokeball back in his pocket and stood, sheathing one of Athena's blades and picking up the other to return it to its sheath.
"That wasn't Harvest. Harvest must be dead. That thing-," Rath spat. "Was a creature born of evil technology and cruelty. It was waiting to kill you."
"No, I don't think so. He could barely walk." Finn shook his head. "He spoke, just like every one of my Pokémon. I understood him, and he understood me. That was Harvest, all right." Finn put his hands on his hips. "I think you didn't actually know Harvest was there. I think it was coincidence. I think you were after that shadow-dragon."
"Eliminating the gengar-haxorus mutant was secondary." Rath returned his blades to normal. "It was important to remove this Plasma outpost anyways. It does not matter what reason we used."
"Except that you manipulated me. You used me to destroy this base without telling me why." Finn paused, growing angrier. "And what's worse is that you're changing me. You're making me into you."
Rath flinched at Finn's anger, reminding Finn that gallade were sensitive to emotion. "I assure you, that was not my intent."
"Who are you, Rath? From what memories I have from you, you were a virtuous, honorable duelist. But at the same time, your memories alter my emotions and personality to make me cold and calculating." Finn's voice was filled with scorn and anger now, causing the gallade to nearly shrink back. "Crai put it best. Malignancy. Not only that, but you weren't trained to fight, you were trained to kill. Who are you?"
Rath was hesitant, looking around. "I… I will tell you. But not here. Not now. Meet me after you have seven badges. History tunnel. I will reveal all."
With that, Rath vanished in a flash of light, teleporting away.
Sighing to himself, Finn let his anger drain away. He didn't hate Rath, but he did hate how the gallade avoided questions. Turning back to his Pokémon, Finn pulled Harvest's Pokéball out of his pocket.
"It doesn't matter why we were here, really. What does matter is that Harvest is saved."
Finn gathered his Pokémon, and together they set off. All the while Finn could almost hear Crai's cynical tone.
"I told you."
A/N:
Rath isn't quite what he seems, is he?
In any event, Harvest is back! Ta-da! I'm pretty sure some of you called this. But now he's a hybrid, an artificially created fusion of two different Pokemon. In his case, leavanny and shiftry.
The shadow-dragon was a hybrid too: gengar and haxorus. Wonder what they were trying to make with a ghost-type dragon...
In any case, please leave a review to let me know what you think!
Now read on!
