Fiery Sapphire

by Flameboo

A disgruntled girl named Ellen is pulled into a huge conflict between Team Rocket and the mysterious opposing team, leading her into a massive adventure complete with hairy disco men, poisonings, and perhaps a chance to glue back together her life. THIS IS BEING REWRITTEN. AS SUCH, THIS VERSION IS PRETTY BAD.

37. The War for Life and Death

Well, Ellen battles Giovanni for the final badge in order to gain entrance into the Pokémon League. IF YOU AS THE READER ARE DSITURBED BY CURSING, VIOLENCE, GORE, OR MINOR EXPLICIT THEMES, PLEASE DON'T YELL AT ME.

Enjoy, I spent a while toiling over this, and remember to leave a REVIEW.

OoO

F.S 37

The War for Life and Death

The Viridian City Gym Badge was notoriously hard to win.

This statement was true, of course, but in a sense much deeper than what the text implied. It was obviously hard to win, due to the fact of it being the Last Badge, but what was most challenging about the gym was the leader, whose identity remained unseen and unquestioned.

It was true that Gym Leaders are hesitant about handing out badges here and there, but the Last Gym Leader was not fond of even challenging trainers. It was more of a legal job to him, a sort of shell that was useful but generally unneeded. Although once in a while, he found the Gym to be of use, particularly when it favored his own personal gain, such as using it as a hideout. Sometimes, though, he cursed himself for using the Gym as a hideaway. Gyms were so damn public. It was unintelligent to choose the Gym as a reclusive spot.

However, Giovanni could fix that problem quite simply if taken in good perception. For instance, Anti-Trainers could be disposed of with a simple method called strangulation, which was what Ellen Adler was going through right at that very second.

Charles suddenly realized the scenario and seized the Boss's arms with his claws, wrenching it backward with a terrifying roar. The Charizard would have ripped Giovanni's throat out and been done, but the Boss's one-handed grip on Ellen's throat jerked away and the Anti-Trainer sunk to the ground, retching.

"WHY ARE YOU HERE?" Giovanni screamed; his face contorted into a look of incensed brutality. He ignored the huge dragon holding him captive and made a blind lunge forward. With a twist of Charles's wrist, the man unleashed a cry of pain as his arm almost tore from its socket. "Why…can't…you…just…die?"

Ellen was going through a spasm of shock and confusion, the world around her clouded by a surreal blur which soothed her a bit…and then she realized what was really happening and gasped for air, pushing herself up from the floor on her gloved palms. Her mind went hazy for a split second, and suddenly everything was in visible again.

The girl tested out her shaky limbs and arose from the ground, breathing heavily. "What did you do to the Gym Leader?" Ellen's voice was shaking, whether from fear or anger she would not decide.

Giovanni did not answer.

"Ellen, we should-" the feline began.

The Charizard looked Ellen's way, interrupting Kyoshi. "Ellen, I can kill him right now. I can-"

"What did you do to the Gym Leader?" Ellen yelled, her voice now high and staccato with panic. Something vicious triggered in her mind, and she had the strange urge to batter the man with punches.

She was vaguely aware that the Boss could notice the wide-eyed, trembling terror that was obvious on her face, but she never expected him to laugh. It was as if he could read her mind. It was more of a low chuckle, and his lips curled into a tauntingly demure smile. Though daunting, Giovanni ceased to appear the way he had in Celadon, or even in Silph Co. His sharp, almost predatory features did not appear as vigilant as before, and the black suit did not fit him- he seemed thinner.

Giovanni chuckled again and growled through the dim light, "I am the Gym Leader."

For a split second, Ellen could see the twisted truth in his answer, but she quickly dispelled the idea. Her feet felt heavy as she stepped forward; a knot curled in her stomach. "No you're not. No. You're lying."

"Now why would I do that?" He suddenly jerked his arms wildly and Charles roared, digging his jagged claws into the Boss's arms. "Now why would I do that?" he questioned again. His teeth clenched in rage, his next lines came forth in a hissing snarl. "It really is possible, Fiery Sapphire. Imagine. You've been searching for months for all eight badges, and it comes down to me. I use this Gym as a permissible career." He paused, furrowing his dark brows and slowly grinned. "There's no Earth Badge for you, Anti-Trainer."

Ellen's throat closed with the poignant fear that she would break down into tears. In her Pokémon's eyes, she found the same horrified understanding; Feolan flicked his wild, pallid tail and uttered a small whine, staring up at the Anti-Trainer with knowledge that the Mightyena was devoid of in previous situations.

Without warning, the girl unleashed a high cry of anger and with her fist hit Giovanni on the side of his jaw. She watched with bitter conceit as the man's jaw muscles contracted, bracing for impact and how he stumbled back, catching himself on the heel of his shoe. The Boss slowly tilted his head around to face her again, gingerly snapping his jaw back into position. He said nothing, understanding his position in the standoff, but stared at Ellen with such dark hatred that she stumbled back a bit.

"Bitch," he hissed.

Charles's eyes widened and with it, his large pupils shrunk into pinpoints. No one called Ellen that. He snarled, baring his yellowish teeth and without thinking released a claw from Giovanni's arms.

"Charles!" Feolan howled. "Idiot! Dumbass!"

Both the Boss and Kyoshi immediately sprung into action, the man pulling a Pokéball from his pocket and tossing it onto the ground just as Kyoshi pounced from her tense standing point. Charles made a lunge at the Boss just as he narrowly avoided having a giant gash put through his shoulder. A bright white flash of energy and matter instantly enveloped the Pokéball that Giovanni had just thrown to the ground. Even before the giant Nidoking appeared, the group could already hear its guttural roar as the wispy matter-stuff morphed into the hulking purple behemoth.

"Look who's at a disadvantage now!" Giovanni boomed from across the room. As the Nidoking had materialized, the Boss had reached the safety of keeping close quarters with the Pokémon. "I have to say, Fiery Sapphire, when I first met you I thought you had some spirit about you." He chuckled, but his face quickly changed to a severe look of fury. "Of course, after I had heard you murdered Mr. Kyler with my handgun I decided differently. NIDOKING, EARTHQUAKE!"

It began with slight tremors in the Gym floor, as if anticipating, and the first split appeared in the ground, a jagged line cracking from Nidoking's claw to the other side of the Gym. As multiple cracks appeared in the floor, the black tiles shoved from their places and thrust up as the entire floor began to tear into enormous crevices. The room became a shifting world of earth. On instinct Feolan, Kyoshi, and Phil grabbed onto Charles. The Charizard grabbed Ellen's arm and pushed off from the ground hard, roaring with surprise as the ground crumbled below him. His lift off was weak, but his clumsy, frantic wing beats brought them into the air.

Kyoshi released a breath when she finally got her bearings, but furrowed her brow. Phil was clinging onto the Charizard's neck and crying silently, uttering small hiccups occasionally. The Persian's face fell as she proceeded to console the little Marshtomp. She had realized that this was his first time face to face with Giovanni. When he arrived at Silph Co, the battle was nearly over. Now, of course…it was just beginning.

"Phil…" Kyoshi sighed, nuzzling him despite Charles's jerky flying motions. "Everything will be alright."

"I'm scared!" the Marshtomp wailed. He stuck one of his fins into his mouth to prevent himself from crying, but that only made him gag. "I…I remember when Mewtwo transmitted Ellen's thoughts to me…" he broke into sobs, but quickly pulled himself together. "I…remember hearing about Giovanni…he did really…really mean things…"

The Persian grimaced when she saw the ground. The Boss did not look peeved at all that they were above the attack- in fact, he looked happy. "It'll be alright, Phil. I promise."

"Okay," he sniffed quietly, turning away.

Charles suddenly bucked and turned directly upright in the air as the group released cries of surprise. A giant stalactite crashed to the ground, directly the spot where the Charizard had been hovering just before he moved. "HEADS UP!" he bellowed, and suddenly the sky was falling.

Because the building was underground, not only had the ground been effected but the walls and ceiling. Ellen whimpered as she saw the scene above her. Although beautiful and with a delicate glass-like structure, the crystalline stalactites dripping from the ceiling crumbled under seismic reverberations.

Giovanni grinned when he saw the look of dread on the Anti-Trainer's face. He longed for her head to be split open by a stalactite, although he would have more pleasure in killing her himself. He momentarily cursed himself for not brining his handgun; it would have made things much easier, and the two Grunts guarding the Gym were obviously inadequate. I SHOULD have armed myself with more Grunts, he thought acidly. A transitory blankness on his part. Damn.

"Nidoking, knock them out of the air and kill the Pokémon. Bring Fiery Sapphire to me. I will kill her myself," Giovanni said with a hint of satisfaction in his voice.

A hulking mass slowly trampled through the collapsing arena, ignoring the glass-like stalactites that fell through the air and pounded the ground in deranged beauty. Nidoking looked upwards at the swooping, dodging Charizard. The group was clung to his back, as the remaining small stalactites would pelt down onto them, showering crystal bits that mimicked a warm, colorful glow in the dim lighting.

It was the most beautiful thing Nidoking had ever seen.

The behemoth twisted his jagged body around and with some strain lifted his heavy tail from the ground. He let it waver in the air as if it was the weight of a feather, an undulating whip. Nerves taut and muscles tense with concentration. Eyes focused on his target. Tail quavering. A bloodthirsty look in Giovanni's eyes.

And he attacked.

The dragon and tail collided- Nidoking's tail acted like a mace as it caught Charles in the stomach and threw him across the room, pounding him into the wall. The Charizard's passengers fell to the ground, and Charles's world paused for a moment when he found himself crushed between the nail and the wall. Even as the Nidoking regained his original stance and let the dragon fall to the ground in a sort of slow motion, Charles felt chest scream with pain. He could feel his ribs crack- one, two, three…digging into his skin. His throat felt like it split to pieces, and indeed, when he held his mangled claw up to his throat it seemed the gleaming orange scales had been ruptured by small bones and blood.

'I'd like to die now,' he concluded, but wanted to tear his heart out after saying it. Even as his life was slipping away, he still needed to protect his Anti-Trainer…the one who had chosen and raised him as a little Charmander.

Blood was entering his eye sockets, and he blinked wearily. His eyes were stinging.

The others were not as severely hurt as Charles was, but still battered and broken. All of them had suffered bruises and cuts, but Feolan's hind leg was useless and dragged along the ground as the albino Mightyena winced in pain. Phil was crying for his parents as blood tricked from his head to the mouth and made him gag.

"Charles…? Charles…CHARLES!" Ellen's screams became hysterical as she rose to her knees in the broken, cracked ground and dug through dirt and stones to reach the dying Charizard. When she found him there came a multitude of choked sobs. Charles really wished she would not cry but instead help him out a bit, but from the looks of Ellen, it seemed she would not be going anywhere.

Kyoshi shook the dust from her fur and padded over to Charles and Ellen. Her eyes roamed over Charles, unchanging and blank. If one looked closely, there might have been a certain glimmer of sorrow in the Persian's eyes, and if divulged even deeper one might have found certain affection for the Charizard.

Charles was now very irritated that no one had done anything besides mourn. This was not a time to be sappy. He opened his mouth halfway and uttered a weak growl which faded into a whine.

"Wha-what do we do now?" Ellen whipped her eyes on her tattered sleeve, and faded into tears again.

Kyoshi blinked.

"Dad would know what to do," Phil whispered quietly, desperately. "Dad's big and strong."

"Shut up," Feolan growled tiredly, shooting a glare at the Marshtomp. "Can't you function without talkin' about your parents for once?"

The Persian hit the Mightyena with her paw. "He's just a little Marshtomp! I-" Kyoshi paused, and the group was suddenly aware of a rumbling in the ground, and above them rose the Nidoking, staring down at Ellen.

"Ack," Feolan said.

Giovanni's far off voice sounded almost musical, although 'musical' implied death, pain, and humiliation. "Fiery Sapphire…either you come or I kill all of you right now…"

The behemoth looked at her with almost an overcast sympathy. Sorry, he seemed to say, but I have been chronically and physically brainwashed by Team Rocket so that I have no inner thoughts, morals, or decisions of my own.

Yeah right.

"Go," Kyoshi said in a monotone, her back facing the Anti-Trainer. "He doesn't have any of his Pokémon with him…right now. It's human against human."

Ellen stared at Kyoshi, her mouth agape. "Huh- you want me to get killed?"

"No." The Persian breathed an annoyed sigh. "I want you to…um…kill that bastard Giovanni Kill him like the Tauros killed all those Meowths. Have him die like Jefferson died. A broken mass."

"Whoa," the Mightyena said, stepping back.

"He did this to Charles, he gets the same treatment!" Kyoshi hissed. "Now go."

"Oh…okay…" The Anti-Trainer said a silent goodbye to the dying Charles and looked up at the Nidoking, nodding slightly.

Feolan tried to bring the spirits up with something even the least bit cheery. "Hey! At least he hates you so much that he won't rape you! Hahahaha…ha…ahhh…okay…"

Phil continued to cry.

Feolan winced.

Charles throbbed in pain.

Kyoshi blinked.

OoO

When Giovanni came into view, her resembled some sort of demonic god amongst the chaos. While almost the entire Gym floor was a disaster of ruble, a small circle of perfection ran around the Boss's standing place; black tiles on the ground matching his overall dark appearance. Anger flamed up inside of the Anti-Trainer. She was both terrified and violent all at once, and with every jagged step across mounds of earth thoughts of both her own death and Giovanni's death contorted in her mind, weighing out the options. Die a martyr? Or run and become a coward? What would the other Anti-Trainers done if they were in her place? Russell certainly would have a bit of a score to settle- even the mere mention of Giovanni's name sent the man into a temper.

"Excellent decision," Giovanni purred just as Ellen stepped into the godly circle. "Now your Pokémon won't see you're limbs being ripped apart."

"Bastard," she hissed, and without warning caught the Boss on the nose with her fist. There was a sharp crack, and blood spurted from his nose, soaking down into his no longer perfect suit. It seemed that Giovanni was surprised, but he unexpectedly wiped the blood from his nose and mouth with his sleeve and flicked his wrist to send a shower of blood flecks onto Ellen's shoes. The Boss's face twisted to anger, and he reached his hand back to strike the Anti-Trainer across the face, allowing a streak of blood to stain her cheek. She stumbled backward, bumping into the Nidoking standing behind her.

"Never-" Giovanni struck her again. "-will you live to see the day-" Nidoking suddenly pushed her down onto the ground with a simple flick of his lethal claw. "-that you harm me…AGAIN. Apologize."

"What?"

"APOLOGIZE," he screamed, "GET DOWN ON YOUR KNEES AND BEG FOR MERCY!"

Ellen shook her head furiously and gave the Boss an obscene finger gesture. With that, Giovanni stepped down on her hand, crushing it beneath his heel. The Anti-Trainer unleashed a gasp of pain when her finger bones snapped- one by one. The man grinned viciously down at her.

"That is sufficient for an apology," he snarled. Giovanni then stomped down on her head, pushing her face into the tiles. Ellen protested by screaming curses furiously, calling the Boss several curses only known to Hitmonchan. Her teeth were digging into the side of her mouth, and if the pressure continued to press down on her nose, something serious would occur. There was a very, very faint popping noise, and blood pooled around her nose. A nose for a nose, I guess, she thought solemnly.

"HA!" the Boss kicked the Anti-Trainer sharply in the neck. The girl, jolted awake by the sudden, sharp pain, coughed and rolled over, stumbling and scrabbling to regain her stance. "Dog! Bitch! You Anti-Trainers are nothing but scum! I'LL BEAT YOU TO DEATH, DOG!" He kicked her again, in the stomach, causing her to roll back onto the ground and retch. Now- again in the shoulder, again on the arm, again on the leg, and the flurry of kicking continued even when the man began hearing snaps of broken bones.

Kick. Kick. Snap. Kick. Snap. Snap.

Giovanni soon rounded away from Ellen as if nothing had happened, circling the Anti-Trainer in a remotely casual way. "I don't even know why you try," he commented, and paused to spit a mixture of saliva and blood on her. "Do you know the price of being an Anti-Trainer? More than death. Prolonged torture and humiliation. Beatings. Choking. Would you like to experience these things?"

The man gave her almost no time to answer. "I guarantee that you will." He regarded the Anti-Trainer with deranged curiosity, eyes roving over Ellen's bruised face, her tattered sleeves soaked with blood. Her left arm was at an odd angle, it seemed to jerk to the complete left, normally impossible. "I don't understand why you even come here," he continued, looking away in thought. "You shouldn't be collecting badges. You should have already traveled to my Headquarters…"

Despite the ferocious pain of her broken body, Ellen managed a small smirk. Giovanni seemed so stupid not to understand what she was trying to achieve. The Rayquaza Document was even written by a certified Team Rocket scientist. The Anti-Trainers had stolen it from them! How could they not realize?

She could not grasp words correctly with so much pain, but she managed to conjure up an explanation. "You know why I'm…collectin' badges?" She had some unexplainable feeling of joy. She wanted to laugh. How odd. "You know why? When…I become the freakin' Champion…Rayquaza will kill all of Team Rocket. Every single bastard is gonna die."

He smirked. "Unless I kill you."

This was highly possible.

"Now," Giovanni said, "would you like me to continue beating you, or should we move on to death?"

"I-," began Ellen.

"Death sounds pleasing. But before that, I think your Pokémon need to die." Without a second thought, he jerked his index finger to point across the room, and immediately the Nidoking grunted and followed orders to leave.

The Anti-Trainer scrabbled painfully to stand again, but Giovanni aimed a sharp kick at her chin and sent her reeling back. Her jaw screamed with pain. The Boss calmly removed two Pokéballs from his pocket and smiled, tossing them onto the ground.

The matter-stuff rose once again, but one Pokéball grew too much greater proportions than the Nidoking did. A Nidoqueen formed from one; a blue, bipedal creature with jagged needles running down its back to curve onto the thick tail. From the other Pokéball, though, rose a great, stone gray, bipedal creature with a huge drill on the end of its snout. Its body was heavily armored by what seemed like extra layers of thick hide, and from its scaly arms grew stumpy claws.

Rhydon opened its mouth to snarl, revealing rows of carnassials; jagged teeth ideal for tearing meat. Giovanni mimicked the cruel grin and impersonated the rhinoceros quite well. And even as Ellen froze up with fright to see the carnivorous mascot of Giovanni, and as the Boss held his steady glare, revulsion seeming to radiate off of him, the Anti-Trainer still held her spirit and with a certain sorrow, whispered, "Oh fuh-"

OoO

"-uck," Feolan finished just as Kyoshi finished delicately probing one of Charles's broken ribs. The Charizard did not utter a sound, but he winced as the rib bone moved slightly.

"Do something," Phil wailed pathetically, blood spattering onto the Persian's face as he waved his fins at her in a desperate attempt to be acknowledged. Hastily, Phil looked over his shoulder at Giovanni, Ellen, and the Nidoking. "PPPlllleeeaaasssseee! Charles is dying! And…Giovanni is kicking Ellen!"

"I'm trying, for Mew's sake," hissed Kyoshi in a wobbly voice. "I…I…don't think this isn't hard for me!"

"Does that mean Charles is gonna die?" the Marshtomp whimpered.

Kyoshi furrowed her furry brow and turned back to her patient. The wounds were so contorted and tangled in muscle and flesh that it was hard to see what was exactly wrong with the dragon, besides the obvious occurrence of bones sticking up in the air. The feline was vaguely aware that Phil had just vomited behind her, and from the warm, soupy substance matted in her fur, she guess that the Marshtomp's target unfortunately was herself.

Working furiously with her mind, the Persian composed a sort of ethereal image of the scene before her, and Kyoshi's world slowly sunk into a state of mental capability, a sort of second world that existed when using Physic powers. The Gym was now tinted a dark purple, and she gingerly held one of her paws up in the air and with a snap of her mind took hold of one of the rib bones. Charles must have been in pain, because automatic guilt jolted through her body. Ignore it. The Persian began to work in a quicker fashion, forming the bones together, sealing them with a bit of Physic energy until she could find a more substantial glue, such as muscle or tissue. Almost half of the rib cage was fashioned together when a dull voice rose behind her.

'Are you trying to put that Charizard back together.' the tedious voice came from a dark-skinned, squat Physic trainer wavering above her. Apparently another Physic had entered the second world the same time as her, although this Physic seemed different. He seemed…dead, almost. 'I wouldn't try that. You don't seem to be doing it right.'

Immediately after the Physic uttered this, the bones tumbled from Kyoshi's mental grasp and back into their original place. Apart from the thousands of disjointed voices echoing throughout the dimension, a roar of pain erupted from the Reality of Kanto.

"Charles!" gasped the feline, reaching out.

'Why can't you understand.' he asked. 'The bones in this dimension are different from the ones in reality. You can't fix people here. We're already dead. I'm already dead, Giovanni got me a little while ago when I broke into his Gym. Trying to mend in this dimension,' he waved his transparent hands about, 'just makes it worse. Why not heal the Charizard. That shouldn't be too hard.'

"Heal? But…I can't heal living creatures. Only elite Physics can heal creatures…can you?" she cocked her head at him.

The Physic's expression turned skeptical. 'If I could heal things, I wouldn't be dead. But you seem like the material to heal. All you need is to love.'

Kyoshi held her breath. "Really…?" she asked eagerly, her heart swelling to immense sizes.

'NO. Love doesn't conquer all. It's a huge lie. What you need is concentration, physical, and mental strength. Go back to reality. It's the only way to heal people. Goodbye. I'm going to go curse Giovanni.'

"Wait!" The Persian's face brightened in hope. "Do all dead things have freedom like this?"

'Yes. Each has his own level. Although Physics and Ghosts only have the ability to interact with reality. Every corpse has a home.'

"Restored to their former selves?"

'We can't have piles of digested bones floating around. Yes, in some cases.'

"Well…if you see a group of Meowths floating around, tell them that Kyoshi says 'hello' and that I'm doing well and I haven't committed suicide, so they don't need to worry about me at all, except for now. Oh, and-"

'Maybe.' The Physic was gone.

Kyoshi shrugged as the Physic Dimension faded away; the shadowy light of the Gym returned, and like a balloon bursting, the immense sound of reality thudded in the feline's sensitive ears. Roars, cries, thumps, snaps- none of the dull murmurings of…the dead? The Physic? Whoever those voices were.

"-and that's why I'm gonna help Ellen." Feolan had apparently just finished a lengthy speech, as Phil was curled up in the mixture of dirt and vomit. The Mightyena flicked his gaze to Kyoshi and rolled his eyes. "Jeezus. You're back. Listen, while you were in your little Happy-Place, I decided I need to help Ellen. There's, like, three freaking Pokémon over there! And Giovanni!"

"What about Charles?" Phil asked.

"I'll worry about him," commented the Persian offhandedly, waving the wolf away. "Feolan- you go. Phil, stay with me."

Feolan nodded briskly and sprung off the ground in a full burst of speed. The lithe, white Mightyena disappeared into the dim light as Kyoshi turned back to Charles, inhaling a sharp gasp. The fire on his tail was merely more than a flickering, spitting flame that seemed to be slowly fizzling out. Kyoshi dearly wished her dead yet cynical Physic friend was there to help her, but he was on the other end of the Gym. He could have at least stayed around to explain…but there was no time. She needed to find out how to heal creatures. Give life to them. A quick, easy, smooth way of healing-

It just hit her.

Strangely enough, it suddenly just appeared in her knowledge. She knew how to heal. Kyoshi looked around, tensing her muscles. Suppose her dead Physic friend had helped her? Or did she have the knowledge for sometime…or did she just learn it? If so, she must have learned it quiet recently, perhaps in the last month when she had numerous chances to polish her Physic powers. But why had it come to her just now?

She was not it the presence of anything special. No legendaries, no Gods, no-

Dark Types.

Shaking her head, Kyoshi smiled. Feolan had accidentally prevented her from using the healing powers. Being too near him was preventing certain Physic ambiance to enter her mind. Poor guy. He would not take it that well.

Kyoshi shook her head again. Never mind that! Turing back to Charles, she once again fused his bones together, which was much easier this time, and constructed a basic covering of muscle tissue to hold the rib cage together. The effects were miraculous as the Persian continued the healing- the gore seemed to almost shrivel up and decompose as new flesh, muscle, and bone began to form over the rib cage again, taut and new. Orange scales grew- although the Charizard experienced discomfort through this, and in fact seemed to be experiencing discomfort throughout the whole thing.

Once Charles's stomach was reconstructed and fairly normal looking, Kyoshi moved up to his throat, which to her disgust looked as if a melon had been smashed open, spattered pieces lain about the area. Creating almost a new bone structure was harder, as the small, delicate bones in the throat could not be handled roughly- physically or mentally. But the bones rose up like steeples and curved, intertwining themselves with each other under her watchful eye.

And when it was finished, slight scars running between Charles's scales the only remnant of the healing, the Persian felt a heavy sense of weariness and stepped back as the dragon suddenly sat up and gasped for air, falling back down again when he realized his limbs were too weak.

"Thank you, Mew," Charles murmured in such a weak voice that even Kyoshi had trouble hearing, "for killing me."

"You're not dead, silly!" Phil cried exuberantly, rapping his fins around the dragon's neck and giving him a heartfelt hug. "HORRAY!"

Charles blinked, confused, and shook his head to clear his thoughts. He positioned himself in a sitting position. "But…but I just went through this…pain…so cold…" he shivered and unleashed a ribbon of smoke from his nostrils. "And…the water…ice cold water…and something tore my ribs apart…does anyone believe me?"

"Charles, I healed you with my Physic powers," Kyoshi explained slowly. Perhaps something had happened to his mind. "You've been lying here the entire time."

"Really…?" He smiled and rubbed his throat, a glazed look of amazement crossing his draconian face. "That's incredible! I'm alive! I'm really alive! Kyoshi!" The Charizard grabbed the Persian and pulled her into a hug. Phil clapped his fins exuberantly and babbled on about the power of love, just as a sudden earthquake ripped through the floor, almost killing all three of them.

How apropos.

It literally ripped through the ground, pushing up broken tiles, rocks, and jagged stalactites. Dust immediately swept through the area and Kyoshi instinctively grabbed Phil in her teeth before Charles swept them up under his arm.

"Charles," the Persian cried as the dragon unfurled his wings and began to beat them furiously, clearing away wisps of dust, "the healing might not be stable yet! You- you might fall in midair!"

The Charizard ignored her and pushed off the ground, swooping into the air. His wings acted as a parachute-like device and jerked them to a halt in the air as Charles quickly began to rise in altitude. "I feel great, actually. Great as I can be right now. I'll be fine."

Kyoshi mewed and felt a great weakness sweep over her body. "But-"

"Do you want to die?" Charles snapped.

"No, but-"

"Then I'd appreciate if you'd stop worrying about me."

Phil pointed at something. "Guys! Guys…it's the Nidoking!"

As the two older Pokémon looked over to see the behemoth coming towards them, away from the Rhydon and Nidoqueen, the earthquake reached terrifying proportions until the stalactites were pouring down like rain- a torrent of daggers.

"I HOPE THE GYM DOESN'T COLAPSE!" the Marshtomp yelled over the roars of the Nidoking and the pelting down of stalactites. A stalactite suddenly impaled itself in Phil's fin, and the mudfish screamed with not only pain but with fright, as he toppled off Charles's back and into the hell below.

"PHIL!" the Persian cried as she saw the Pokémon tumbling to the ground below. The Nidoking instantly sought out his prey and began snarling and spitting, the deadly pins on his back prickling outwards. "Oh my Mew, Charles! Fly down! Fly down!"

"I CAN'T!" From above, Charles circled around Nidoking's head, sending futile slashes at the beast's thick hide, although it did not do much. A quick tongue of flame here, a slash there- nothing seemed to affect him at all. Nidoking was becoming more and more agitated by the interruptions that he paused to lunge his head at Charles. The dragon took his moment to counter back and exhale a terrific burst of flames, lashing out at the behemoth with a demented glow around Nidoking's face. And suddenly, one of the dancing wisps ignited on Nidoking's eye…and there was sickening, wet, popping noise as the eye ruptured and eye-liquid sprayed across the fire. The behemoth's scream became high and shrill and it pawed at its eye-socket, allowing the two Pokémon a glimpse of the black, empty socket surrounded by a thick rim of yellowish gunk.

"Oh," Kyoshi said softly.

Charles turned a bit green. "Urgh…stupid queasiness," he whispered furiously to himself. Far out of Nidoking's reach, the Charizard dove down closer to the ground in order to seek out the Marshtomp. The mounds of debris undulated and curved in a puzzling maze, but Charles's claws barely skimmed the earth as he kept a low train of flight.

The dragon perked his non-existent ears up. "Charles? CHARLES!" The childish voice came from below in the receding earthquake; Phil suddenly erupted from the rocks and shook his head, scattering clouds of dust. "Help!"

Kyoshi breathed a large sigh of relief as they touched down next to Phil, who quickly scampered on Charles's back and gave each of them a hug. "Thank Mew…," she whispered.

"Mew abandoned us in the Berry Forest," Charles muttered. "I don't think we should be saying: 'Thank Mew' anymore."

With a quick jerk, the Persian tugged the stalactite from Phil's moist fin and tossed it aside. Her paw hovered over the wound again, but this time a smaller wound was surprisingly harder and closed up slowly. The Marshtomp rubbed his fin when Kyoshi was finished and frowned- but a smile appeared on his face and he gave her another hug. "We'll just have to make up a new phrase," he giggled.

"Maybe later. Right now, I think we should help Ellen while we still have a chance." They rose into the air once again, wings beating mightily, and circled the area. Charles nodded across the Gym after a few minutes of scouting. "There. The Rhydon and Nidoqueen."

"Are Ellen and Feolan okay?" Phil asked.

Kyoshi craned her next to see and inhaled sharply when she saw the huddled body on the floor, shivering with pain. Giovanni appeared to be taunting her as Feolan lashed out against the Nidoqueen. Suddenly, the bipedal creature caught Feolan in her jaws and shook the Mightyena. She let go and he dropped to the floor, howling hysterically before Nidoqueen picked him up and slammed him into the wall. "Mmm…not that I want to worry you, but Ellen and Feolan are a bit hurt…"

"You can heal them," Charles added quickly.

"It's getting harder…" the Persian admitted. "I…maybe I'm just worn out."

"THEY'RE GOING TO DIE!" he wailed, shedding tears.

Charles snorted. "No they are not."

"WE'RE GOING TO DIE!" Phil cried again.

The mudfish pointed to Nidoking. The behemoth hunched over and darted its beady eye around when suddenly it locked onto the hovering dragon. In one quick movement, he lashed his tail back again and swung it out like a mace, narrowly avoiding Charles. The Charizard went through a moment of terror as he remembered his mutilated body after the first collision with Nidoking's tail. Charles positioned himself in a standing position in the air and began to beat his wings. For some time, all it did was collect small particles of dust, but it seemed that two small tornadoes were being created in the wind patterns, and before the ground-Pokémon could react, two mini-tornados were sent at him.

Both hit him on the snout- he made a particular whining sound of displeasure and snorted. And when they expected him to erupt into fury…it seemed the Pokémon was almost grinning now with a display of brown-tinted incisors. With a look of deranged excitement, Nidoking began oozing purple goop from the mouth, occasionally opening his mouth and gagging a large chunk of a pulpy carcass onto the floor.

"The hell?" Charles asked.

"Huh?" Phil responded.

Kyoshi's answer was barely above of whisper. "Oh…it's toxic…its poison…oh my Mew…"

Nidoking retched up more and more poison from the bowels of who-knows-where like a grotesque, bubbling geyser.

Suddenly, he stopped.

Although neither Charles nor Nidoking had studied any sort of chemical reactions in Kanto, the outcome of two attacks seemed to decide the fate of Ellen and co. Nidoking ceased gathering poison and just stood amongst the rubble, letting the venom drip onto basically everything. Then suddenly, like a bullet, the behemoth spat a blob of poison up at Charles.

Just as the Ground-type proceeded to shoot the poison, the Charizard inhaled deeply and drew his neck forward to unleash a blast of flame that lit up the Gym with an intense burst of luminosity. Fire and Poison- the flamethrower sped towards the Nidoking as the look on its face turned grave. When the fire and Nidoking met, there was a quick, almost whispering noise, and there was a great explosion.

It was a horrible sight. Fire burst up into the air in a churning mass of white-hot energy and soon caught onto the poison, quickly boiling to the point where it ate through the Nidoking's jaw. The fire ravaged the behemoth, sparking, as Nidoking writhed with agony, a burning effigy, and unleashed a multitude of roars. The pinpoints charred and shriveled to nothingness, the ash sweeping away as the flames devoured the armored hide, taking no time to pause for a moment and let the Pokémon have relief. The skin began to peel back from the face as the other eyeball popped open. Some of the bones in the chest cavity crumbled up; the body could not hold its own weight and collapsed within itself, spewing out smoldering entrails and various half-digested things such as human corpses with some of the skin peeled off and Pokémon cadavers horribly mutilated. It seemed everything was deteriorating and now the heart could be seen smoldering, the lungs ruptured, scorched, and…

Satisfied with their revenge, the flames slowly left only a pile of black bones, billowing smoke. In the middle was the dementedly snarling skull of Nidoking, eye sockets shadowy holes. Dead.

Phil vomited over the side of Charles, but the Charizard did not notice.

The dragon only burped up a small wisp of flame and sheepishly said, "Excuse me."

OoO

It was a pity that Giovanni had not noticed Phil falling off Charles before, because the Boss might have been able to stop the unfortunate incidents that would occur in the near future. Yet, instead of keeping an eye on the clever Pokémon, he watched with delight the heroic (yet futile) tries of Feolan as he pitted against Nidoqueen.

Ellen lay quietly on the ground. She could have moved if she wanted despite her broken arm and ankle, but it was much safer to stay where she was. Besides, the Anti-Trainer could not have helped Feolan even if she tried. The Nidoqueen would destroy her in only seconds flat. It seemed the only figure in the room she could really fight against was Giovanni, but her strength was greatly outmatched compared to his.

Another component of Ellen's uncomfortable position was the presence of the Rhydon, who leaned its head down to her eye-level and peered at her curiously. The Rhydon's eyes were large, slightly slanted, like that of a hawk's eyes, and the maroon irises slowly disappeared as the pupils dilated when the scent of blood caught the air. Ellen winced as the rhinoceros parted its jaws a bit and uttered a low-pitched whine, but for reasons unknown to the girl. Despite her having Pokémon Speech Disorder, this sort of whine was simply a vocal expression of curiosity or whatever feelings the Rhydon expressed.

Rhydon slowly stood up again, casting her a fleeting expression before turning its head to Giovanni and whining again. The Boss did not seem to notice and continued to watch the fight with mild amusement.

"Damn," Ellen whispered under her breath as Giovanni turned to acknowledge Rhydon finally.

Although he accredited the Pokémon, the Boss still had no clue as to what it wanted. "What's that? I am not a freak like the Anti-Trainer. I can't understand you…" the Rhydon barred its teeth. "Oh, of course. You're hungry. Well, we can't ignore that." With a smile directed at the girl, he said haughtily, "I suppose this is your hour, Fiery Sapphire. It's would have been nicer with a slower death, but one needs to take advantage of things like this. I just hope you're not squeamish. Goodby-"

"YYYEEEEEEOOOOWWWWCCCCCHHHH!"

Both Ellen and Giovanni's heads snapped up to identify where the sound came from, and soon realized that Feolan had made the shriek of pain. The albino Mightyena was twitching on the ground, emitting howls of displeasure. The Nidoqueen standing above him seemed to be gnawing on something white and bushy.

Feolan threw his head back and yelled, "SHE BIT MY TAIL OFF!" As he got to his feet, brushing a tear from his eye, there indeed was a lack of tail, for all that was left was a stout, bloody stump. "This is so humiliating…this is so humiliating…this is so hum- ACK!" Nidoqueen swept Feolan up in her claw and slammed him against the wall, letting his body drop where it lay limp.

The Anti-Trainer tried to leap to her feet, only to experience a jolt of pain through her body. Giovanni laughed darkly. "It's been too long, Fiery Sapphire. More than a month, I've been deprived of seeing you suffer. In years gone by, it's been the other Anti-Trainers I've seen suffer- Red…Crystal…Gold…Silver…" he paused.

Ellen resisted the urge to shout out her parents names, for it most likely would be the death of her.

"Seeing you dogs in pain brings me pleasure. In the past, the Anti-Trainers of my generation, and now you. To see your enemies writhe at your feet…that is the ultimate triumph." He smiled and closed his eyes for a moment. "And I have achieved it."

"All you've 'achieved' is tormenting a bunch of people," Ellen fired back viciously, positioning her good elbow on the ground so that she was facing Giovanni. "You just prey on weaker people."

"It's your fault for being so incompetent," he spat. "Think of it as this. I protect Kanto from the overpopulation of rebels like you."

Ellen snarled, "Rebels that're stopping you! You're the one who should be killed! Greedy bastard…" she beat her fist on the ground.

Giovanni's dark eyes shone with malice as he commented his next lines. "You, by far, are one of the most unintelligent Anti-Trainers I have ever fought against. I should have snapped your neck when I had the chance."

"But you didn't," the Anti-Trainer taunted.

"Well…I will NOW!"

Just before the Boss reacted there was a burst of light from across the Gym, and an intense heat swept over the area.

Nidoqueen was the first to see. Her eyes popped open to extreme proportions and opened her mouth to roar, but nothing came out. It was hard to decipher, but there was something terribly sad in her eyes as the Nidoking was slowly roasted in the blazing fire. Even through both Nidos were ruthlessly vicious, it seemed that their brainwashed state gave a certain sympathetic quality to them, as opposed to the naturally virulent Rhydon.

"NO!" Giovanni screamed in a furious passion. "NO! GODAMNIT! MY NIDOKING!"

"Go…Charles…" Feolan mumbled as he realized his right leg had crumbled into tiny fragments of bone.

The Boss wheeling around on his heel and pointed at Ellen, his expression a vast hell. He screamed, "YOU! You BITCH! I'LL KILL YOU! I'LL KILL YOU! RHYDON, HORN DRILL!"

Rhydon snapped to attention and could almost be seen grinning viciously, anticipating whatever brutal act in could commit. The giant drill-horn on its head suddenly began to whirl rapidly until it was only a blur. With a jerk of its head, Rhydon plunged its drill downwards…

…and drove it into Ellen's stomach.

The drill immediately stabbed through the Anti-Trainers ribs and stomach with ease, and the hellish screams began. The ribs could not resist in any way and snapped all at once before the rib bones contorted and pieced through Ellen's side as blood seeped against the bright white of the cartilage. The spleen ruptured first, the mottled purple and gray organ burst like a balloon and sent a fresh wave of blood pouring out onto to the floor, on which the Rhydon paused to lap up. Next, the drill pierced the stomach and caused acid to eat away flesh around the huge wounds, devouring sinew and muscle. The drill continued to expand the gaping hole until all that was left of Ellen's lower torso was a pulpy, blood-soaked hole of pink, raw tissue and spattered entrails, the occasional bone sticking outwards.

Ellen no longer thought correctly, she no longer had any sense of time or space. No vision, no sound – only deep, raw pain that punctured every nerve in her body. The Anti-Trainer no longer felt any emotion. The hate for the Boss dissipated, the sadness of seeing Charles dying was wiped away, the anger she had experienced throughout her entire life, the small bouts of happiness that had come about occasionally. Gone. They were replaced by a new, ferocious emotion. Pain.

Giovanni could be seen roaring with laughter, a thing that he did not do too often. He found Ellen's anguished face and her painful shrieks extremely enjoyable to watch, and with it, he felt that not only was he torturing one Anti-Trainer, but also soon would be torturing many once they found of the girl's death. Blood spattered onto his expensive shoes, dark and crimson. The Boss of Team Rocket scoffed loudly. Pig's blood.

Finally, Rhydon bellowed with complainant and flattened its small ears back against its head when the girl's tortured screams became irritating. It yanked its horn from the body, tearing out several other innards including the liver. The Anti-Trainer's face was devoid of any color, ghostly white, and she lay on her back with both arms tangled out in inhuman positions. Her right hand, the only good hand, was digging into the cement between the black tiles and peeling holes in her ripped-up gloves, which eventually fell away from her hands. The screams had subsided and all that was heard was ragged breathing, ragged breathing, and the low chuckle of Giovanni.

"Fiery Sapphire…" he began, pitiless, "how much pain you've experienced. It will be over soon, you know. All over. It didn't have to come down to this; you could have given up in the Game Corner. But…I suppose you had so much vigor in you. You were…so excited to meet Rayquaza." The Boss broke into a wide grin, but as he glared at Ellen and stooped down beside her, the grin turned into a scowl. His voice became cold and quiet. "I'm going to tell you something. Something that will break you even more than what just happened…Your 'quest', implied by a scientific paper titled The Rayquaza Document: to collect the badges and become the Champion…to find Rayquaza atop the Sky Tower…" he smiled, "was created by Team Rocket as a buyer of time. It is a fake document, make especially for people like you. Rayquaza does not exist. Your journey had absolutely no point whatsoever."

Far into the recesses of Ellen's decaying mind, the Anti-Trainer was screaming. She knew it was true- the look on Giovanni's face was pure triumph- pure malevolence as he watched the realization appear. Waves of memories came back to her…all the Gym battles…all the fights…WORTHLESS! There was no hope for the Anti-Trainers. Without Rayquaza, they were nothing…there was no use living any longer.

The Anti-Trainer began to cry, although due to the hole in her lower torso, her diaphragm was acting strangely, and the spasmodic coughs dissipated, replaced just by quiet tears. It felt as if she had been sliced in half, except in some way she was still alive.

"You finally cry. The second time, I believe…Because you're going to die, I'm sure you won't mind me taking something of yours…" Giovanni reached for her chest and Ellen froze up with fear. But there was a quiet snapping noise. The Anti-Trainer saw something golden semi-floating above her. The necklace that now the Boss was dangling in front of Ellen's face was dented and bloodstained, but still held a faint glimmer.

"Nooooo," Ellen rasped, devoid of any expression besides her tears. "Kay…kade…en…Kade…en…Ka-" she paused to turn her head to the side and cough blood. "-den."

There seemed to be a pause; Giovanni stared at her for what seemed like hours. His face was severe. Ellen was vaguely aware that her eyeballs were beginning to roll back into her skull, and she quickly focused them again. Finally, Giovanni murmured, "So the dogs spawned. Kaden is your father."

"Emm-hmm…" she answered dully.

Suddenly, the Boss unleashed a cry of anger and slapped her across the face. "Kaden…what a goddamn BASTARD! Now I see why you're so stupid, so ugly, so pathetic. Imagine. Completely and utterly full of shit. Ah…what resemblance! How cute," he snarled, bringing his face closer. He paused to draw a thin line of blood across Ellen's forehead and paused for a moment. "Wait…what's this? Gray eyes? So Fredia is the bitch! You must be wonder how I could distinguish Fredia's features, correct? Well, I'll tell you. Did you know I once tried to rape her? It didn't work, though. Yes, I had already immobilized Kaden by breaking his leg and piecing his side with a shard of glass…and he had to watch me from the ground, bleeding. Bleeding and cursing me- and crying Fredia's name. I thought she was very nice-looking. Kaden really loved her, it seemed. And then they decided to hitch and reproduce AND THEY GOT YOU. Such an image of your father, hmm? Your daddy must have been so proud of you. So proud. You're very much like him, really. Why, both of you have seen people suffer, both of you have been in pain, both of you have been hunted down like animals, BOTH OF YOU HAVE MURDERED!"

By now, Giovanni had grabbed Ellen's shoulder and were shaking them furiously, screaming his words at the Anti-Trainers face. He cursed the Anti-Trainers rapidly, in both Italian and English, tormenting the poor girl.

Ellen felt herself slipping away from life.

What happened next was purely a twist of fate, although when it seemed that even when things looked bright and it seemed that the chapter would end up in a boring state, it turns out it does not.

It seemed that absolutely everything was dark for the Anti-Trainer, despite her eyes being wide open and glassy. The air smelled thick and musty, clogged with blood to create a heavy stench wavering about the Gym. And although her sight was impaired, her hearing was as sharp as ever, and hearing through Giovanni's curses she could hear something else…was it wing beats?

The noise got louder, and louder, and louder, and louder, and abruptly she realized that it was wing beats. In fact, there were practically in front of her as the air slashed and ripped against the giant wings, sending small puffs to stir up the dust floating about. Giovanni suddenly screamed — and his hands tore away from her shoulders. There was slight reverberation as something landed very near Ellen, and a burst of hot air blew her face. Although she did not realize it, Charles and the other two Pokémon were crowded around her, while Feolan groaned and rose from his bed of dirt, shaking the grime off his fur and mumbling furiously.

"Is she…dead?" Charles asked quietly, ignoring Giovanni's enraged screams as the Charizard dug his claws into one of the Boss's arms.

Kyoshi slunk around Ellen and bit, narrowing her eyes carefully as she tested out a bit of healing, snapping the Anti-Trainer's nose back into place with a twist of her wrist (and a bit of Physic powers). "No, but she's a vegetable."

"Vegetable?" Charles cried, terrified. He whipped his head around to face Giovanni. The Charizard snarled wildly. "You, sir, deserve to die a long and slow death."

"A vegetable for now," the Persian said, shrugging, "until I heal her, at least."

Phil tapped both Charles and Kyoshi. "Guys…have you noticed that there's a Nidoqueen and a Rhydon staring at us?"

True to his words, both Ground-types were looming over them; deranged expressions on their faces, and Giovanni took this moment to cry, "Rhydon, body slam the Charizard!" Like a pile of bricks, the Rhydon slammed into Charles with a force unable to be withstood, and both Pokémon tumbled across the floor. Giovanni fell to the ground and ducked next to Nidoqueen before realizing Feolan was standing behind him.

The Mightyena looked up at the Boss and frowned, his mind still foggy from the head-on collision. "Hey…what happened?"

Nidoqueen turned around to glare at him.

"Damn!" Feolan shouted, a wave of memories washing back into him. The behemoth swung her claw around to catch him but he quickly backed against the wall. Feolan whipped his head around, mind frozen with worry. What's a Mightyena to do in this situation? "Umm…" he paused to think of some stereotypical phrase that usually make an attack hit with deadly accuracy and conjured up something to the effect of, "THIS IS FOR ADORA," despite his Mightyena girlfriend being well and alive. Feolan paused to collect dark matter from around him, which usually can be found in old cigarette butts, and fired a large, shadowy sphere at Nidoqueen with a shrill victory cry.

The Shadow Ball paused in mid-air and fizzled on the ground, finally sputtering out with a small burping sound.

"Oh shit," Feolan muttered.

Just as it seemed that the Mightyena would reach his untimely and fairly disappointing demise, a blast of water came streaming at the Nidoqueen's face and hit her square in the eye as her piecing shriek filled the air. Giovanni backed away from the behemoth as she stumbled around for a bit, bellowing.

"WHO DID THAT?" the Boss howled.

"I did!" a voice cried, and Phil appeared, standing on a large mound of rocks triumphantly. "You're no match for me, Philip of Silph Co! Now you can meet your doom, Giov- MEEP!" Nidoqueen simply lunged her head down and snapped her jaws, tearing off Phil's large fin that attached to his head. Blood instantly spurted from the flat shelf of bone, and Phil began to cry loudly, tumbling off the mound.

Feolan groaned.

OoO

Meanwhile, Kyoshi sucked in her breath and exhaled slowly, tensions wracked with anxiety. Bile entered her throat, but she ignored it. The worst thing I can do right now is be sick, she thought furiously, her paw hovering hesitantly over the bloody hole that was Ellen's lower torso. Slowly she constructed the fragments of backbone that were jammed into the gore, the fragments eerily levitating in the air before rushing down to resume their original place. She breathed a sigh of relief.

Of course, this time it was not just repairing skin and bones. Ellen's wrecked lower torso did not only hold blood, but ruptured organs as well. Kyoshi clenched her teeth together. Ew. She started up on the ribs, finding stray bones, discovering that the Rhydon had eaten some bones in the process and that her ribs did not fit together all that correctly. It was a puzzle with jagged pieces – she forced the ribs to close with an outer protection of tissue despite the fragileness of the frame.

All three battles continued. It was a flurry of excitement in the Gym. Roars and screams of aggravation, slashes and bites, the snap of a bone forming back into place. All of these sounds mixed in a hellish haze of chaos, reverberating from the glistening stalactites to the dark Earth below.

OoO

Dust kicked op into the air as Rhydon grunted with stress to pick up a large boulder from the ground, only to heave in at Charles seconds later. The Charizard parried the attack with a blast of flame, although the fire did nothing to stop the boulder and it collided into him with a thud.

This could take a while.

OoO

Both Feolan and Phil backed up against the jagged, earthen wall, emitting nervous gulping noises. Nidoqueen advanced on them, almost grinning. Nidoqueen seemed to contract some sort of energy from above, as she was staring upwards in a fit of concentration. There was an eerie glow about her, and light was radiating around her claws.

OoO

Kyoshi's breath became ragged as she checked her surroundings to make sure Feolan was not getting to close to her. No – the Mightyena was standing afar. Good.

Ellen was almost healed, and the feline's paws in shaking in fear that she would cause something horrible to happen. There were a few minor alterations to the Anti-Trainer's anatomy, such as she no longer had a spleen, as Kyoshi could not afford the time or strength to recreate and reshape all the organs. Chips of bone were missing from her backbone, and several other abnormal Physic surgery mishaps were present. At last, tissue began to construct itself over the bloody tear and finally sealed up, leaving several scars and odd incisions in the Anti-Trainer's torso.

"Ellen, wake up!" Kyoshi exclaimed.

Instead of the simply sitting up, smiling, and giving and receiving hugs from Kyoshi, Ellen's dead eyes slowly faded into focus again and she blinked rapidly, clearing the dust from her eyes. She had not gotten up from the ground yet, and after looking at Kyoshi, flicked her eyes around the room, speechless.

Suddenly, thoughts of the recent past pounded her brain, and her face contorted into a mask of sorrow before curling up into a ball and dissolving into tears.

OoO

Charles had left Rhydon behind with a push off the ground and a beat of his wings. The Charizard soared above the battle, picking out the various figures below. He saw many things, many things passing in hazy eyesight. Two of those things disturbed him greatly, one being a blurry lump that was Ellen. Charles grinned when he realized that Kyoshi had healed the Anti-Trainer. He swept down to them and landed with a thud next to the Persian, who regarded him with a mix of joy and uncertainty.

"Good job," Charles said, patting Kyoshi awkwardly on the back. "I...um…good job."

The feline also patted his arm (awkwardly, of course) in return. "Thank you." She then slowly removed her paw from his arm and huddled beside Ellen, saying gently, "I…I know this is hard, but we should keep moving, as Giovanni will notice soon that you're healed…"

Charles sidled up next to Kyoshi. "Maybe we should retreat."

"We er' not runnin' awhay," Ellen finally slurred. Her voice and body were considerably weak, but she managed to sit up. "That bashtard Giovaaannii. I got uh freeching bone ta pichik wif him. I-" her hand suddenly reached her neck. "Wha…where's my necklashce? Giovanni!" Her voice became stronger, more defined. "Giovanni!"

She began to rise on her shaky legs when Charles tugged on her arm, his face expressionless. "I suggest you zip up your jacket. You shirt is sort of…barely there."

Ellen did so and rose again, examining several of aspects of the healing process such as scars and punctures. "Whoa…I…but…something happened to me…"

"The Rhydon drilled a giant hole through your stomach and in the process ate several of your internal organs. But Kyoshi healed you," Charles explained as-a-matter-of-factly. "I can understand why you can't remember…much to excruciating. You probably passed out half-way through."

The Anti-Trainer shook her head. "No I didn't. I remember. Believe me…GIOVANNI!"

For a moment, the Boss did not respond, and then it hit him. He whipped around, although they could not see his expression. The giant glow surrounding the Nidoqueen's claws had brightened considerably, and the light that surrounded Giovanni gave him a demonic appearance, all while turning him into a unclear, shadowy figure.

"GIOVANNI!" she roared again. Ellen began to walk forward, followed by her two Pokémon as they traveled through the barren ground-desert just as they had traveled through so many difficulties in their journey. All for nothing. Absolutely nothing. There was no end, nor was there a beginning, as the Anti-Trainers had begun long before Ellen existed. There was a middle, of course, but it was a corrupted sort of something. Through toils and fights, from scientists to Meowths to the vulgar Mew, it was winding down to the end, although that was not possible. As stated before, it seemed there would be no end.

AND THEN IT ENDED.

Not the journey, per say, but as Ellen advanced on Giovanni, both enemy's faces full of hatred for one another, the Boss did not say anything directly to the Anti-Trainer but simply turned to Nidoqueen and remarked, "Superpower. The Anti-Trainer."

The glow from the Nidoqueen's claws flickered a moment and accumulated a faint, metallic humming noise that reverberated against the stalactites, creating a multitude of that very sound. The smell of blood in the air – the eerie humming – the glow was becoming brighter. And that phrase, 'AND THEN IT ENDED,' occurred only a few seconds afterwards as a huge glowing orb erupted from the Nidoqueen's claws and continued to grow in size until it imploded within itself. And there was a huge rush of light as Feolan jumped forward and slammed into Nidoqueen. She stumbled back only a little, and the imploded orb suddenly grew to an immense size and exploded with a fantastic booming noise that consumed the whole Gym with a bath of light and small fiery particles. The stalactites held their piecing ring and it seemed they were screaming as if in horrible pain, as the surging mounds of earth churned and rumbled across the barren Gym floor.

Immediately the Nidoqueen was incinerated by her own attack, the fiery blast ripping away layers of tissue and scorching her bones until the behemoth was nothing but a pile of ash.

Ellen waited for the searing pain to rip through her body when the explosion reached them, just as the Rhydon's drill mangled her with pain as her nerves seemed to tear apart. The Gym had erupted into a fiery hell, and when it seemed her whole being would dissipated by the heat, two strong claws picked her up and flew both her and Kyoshi straight up in the air.

As the Charizard spiraled into the air, the blistering explosion licking his scales almost sensually, the scorching wind tore at their endurance as if it wanted nothing more than to envelop them. Charles flew across the Gym to where the pile of ash that once was the Nidoqueen lay. Although the reverberations of the explosion left violent phenomena, the Nidoqueen's attack had misfired onto to have it rebound on herself.

Kyoshi sniffed the ashes and wrinkled up her nose. "Ugh…I…wait. Where is everyone? Where's Phil and Feolan? Oh my-"

"Present," a trembling voice said, and from a large pile of rubble came Phil, his amphibious body covered by soot and several burns, not to mention the chopped-off cranial fin. The Marshtomp looked horribly distressed and as he stumbled towards them, it was plain that he was trembling. "I- I-" he paused and waddled over to Kyoshi before the Persian wrapped him in a hug.

Feolan appeared moments later and he too seemed shaken, but the oddest thing about him was that some of the fire had burned through some of his thick fur and left the Mightyena with patches of furless, white, skin. "H-holy shit," he muttered.

"Well," Charles said, sighing, "let's just be thankful that we're all alive."

Interrupting the seemingly heartwarming moment, Ellen suddenly whipped her head around and asked loudly, "Where'd Giovanni go? Where'd Giovanni go?" She did a complete twirl and then looked up at the ceiling, crying, "HOT DAMN!"

The Superpower attack was powerful enough so that a gigantic hole had bored through the layers of earth above, which was not that much, and through it, they could see the faint outline of a pterodactyl creature swooping away.

"HE FLED!" Ellen screamed again, a piecing shriek. "HE RAN WAY! Damn coward…mothe-" she paused, not only taking back her last curse, but to remember something else. "Wait…he has my necklace!"

"It doesn't matter," Charles said hotly, "we need to get you home, pronto."

The Anti-Trainer glared. "But we should follow him! He- he…this might be our chance to win!"

"Are you out of your mind?" Kyoshi gestured to Phil behind his back. "Do you recall? Think about Phil. He's just a Marshtomp. He's terrified."

"No!" Phil suddenly burst out. "Don't let me slow you down! I'm grown-up now, honestly!"

Kyoshi shook her head in dismay and made several choked attempts of disapproval, but before she could even begin speaking, everyone assembled on the dragon and he launched into rapid flight with a burst of speed. The Gym passed by in a blur as the group left the destroyed building behind. As Pallet Town, the 'dreaded' hometown residing on the cliffs of the Kanto Sea, the churning, gray waves broke against the jagged cliffs, violently tumbling the Shellder that clung to the rocks into the sea below. The sky was dank and overcast, just as the morning dawn broke across the horizon in a flurry of muted grays, yellows, and pinks. The cliffs gave way to a huge, open space of air where the Kanto Sea ravaged and crashed, and a distant shape of gray and black nightmarishly floated through the sky.

The rocky crags below were far behind them in no time at all. Now, below them was a vast, gray, sea, waves whipping across the current. The Kanto Sea was so dark, so devoid of life that it looked as if the water killed anything that entered it. A few Wingulls wheeled in the strong air currents, circling the Charizard curiously but never daring to glide any closer. Giovanni and his Aerodactyl were getting clearer now- they could see the outline of the ancient pterodactyl and its master fly smoothly through the skies.

"Should we stay invisible, if you catch my drift?" Charles asked over the screaming winds, turning his head around to face them. He winced when he turned his neck, but quickly regained control.

"Yes," Kyoshi answered curtly, obviously no longer concerned with revenge. She pawed at her fur that was plastered back. "I don't want to get into another situation in the Gym. It was…painful."

Ellen averted her eyes and looked down at the sea. "For me."

"For Charles, too," the Persian added, patting her close companion awkwardly on the wing. "Um, do you need me to check your injuries for you? Because, you know, you can't be too careful…"

"Oh, right. Uh, the right crest on my head sort of hurts," the dragon lied (awkwardly) and turned back to the direction they were flying. "Now…where'd Giovanni go?" The Charizard inspected the stormy ocean below, musing over the proposition that the Boss fell to his death, and looked up in the air, wondering if he had somehow teleported away.

Something incredibly large and powerful suddenly tore for Charles's throat, and the Charizard felt the same sense of dread when the Nidoking had crushed him against the wall. As its jaw clamped around his neck, the Charizard snapped his neck back to do a complete flip in the air, both detaching himself from the something and almost throwing his passengers off his back. There were several cries of protest, but they quickly silenced as the passengers saw their attackers, Giovanni and his Aerodactyl, circling them around them slowly, the Wingulls scattering with shrill squawks of alarm.

"You should have known you couldn't just follow me without getting caught," Giovanni smirked in the same arrogant way, obviously ignoring the fact that his nose was broken and blood had dried over almost over his chin, his scalp had bloody puncture wounds, and his arms had large gashes in them. "You had a drill impaled through you, you're healed, and you come back for more. Are you trying to prove that you're superior to me? Do you still want the badge? Would you like to try and find Rayquaza again?" He roared with icy laughter. "No – you want me to tell you more about the Anti-Trainers, correct? Would you like to hear more of what I told you before? Really, it's no problem at all."

"I want the necklace," the Anti-Trainer spat brusquely. It then came to her that even if she did follow Giovanni, she would have no chance of even getting close to her goal. The Team Rocket Headquarters doubtlessly was filled with Grunts and Executives, Grunts with their sinister, drawn look about them and their sexually suggestive uniforms reeking of fresh leather and some sort of expensive fragrance. And the Executives of affluence, of power, the embodiment of Team Rocket with crisp black suits, skimpy dresses, and fine wine.

The gray Aerodactyl slowly came to a hover in front of the group and observed the Charizard with piecing red eyes as the Boss fumbled for something in his pocket and produced the infamous necklace, smiling as he saw Ellen's eyes go wide. "Fine. You can take it, you know. Just hold out your hand."

Ellen slowly extended her arm, keeping her eyes focused on the gleaming necklace. Feolan grabbed her arm and tugged it back painfully just as Giovanni jolted to seize her arm and drop her into the water below. The Boss glared fiercely at her before throwing the necklace at her. She scrabbled greedily to catch it and placed it around her neck again.

"I don't see why you want it," he announced carelessly, smoothing back his ebony hair. "You know I'll just remove it from your dismembered corpse soon." He paused, and without warning roared, "AERODACTYL, ANCIENTPOWER!"

"FLY!" Ellen screamed to Charles, beating her fist against his back, and the dragon shot off like a bullet just as the pterodactyl materialized a large, glowing fossil and rammed it forward. The floating boulder sailed through the air and struck Charles in the hind leg, giving him a large welt.

From behind them, the Anti-Trainer could hear Giovanni's spiteful laughter as they soared across the blank sky, twisting and turning through the air, swooping and plunging. The Boss followed in a deranged game of Cat and Mouse, the Fossil Pokémon mimicking Charles's every move. Sometimes, Aerodactyl would fly ahead and suddenly appear in front of the Charizard, causing him to roar in fury and do a complete back flip in the air, a graceful attempt for a normally clumsy Pokémon. Other times the enemies would follow close behind, or Giovanni would fly up beside them and shout cruel words, many of which had to do with Ellen and the Anti-Trainers.

Ellen would shut her eyes and cling tightly to Charles's neck, often shedding confused, troubled tears. For all those times she had battled Team Rocket, this was the most frightening. Something in her mind split. Perhaps it was the truth of Rayquaza, or perhaps almost dying under the drill of Rhydon, but the girl was terrified now. Looking deep inside her mind, it was truthfully the journey all together- the toil and struggle she went through entirely for no reason.

She was so distraught that she did not notice Charles tilting his flight pattern upwards and ascending into the dense, murky clouds, the wispy air swathing them in cool mist. All of Kanto became silent in the haze. The sea was no longer visible; an entire kingdom of clouds spanned the world, a heaven of soft fog.

"Uh…Ellen?" Feolan asked, gently shaking her with his furless paw. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah," she murmured, loosening her grip from the Charizard's neck and sitting up, wiping the tears from her eyes and observing their surroundings. She sucked in her breath with awe, reaching out to touch one of the clouds only to have it dissipate in her hand. "Whoa…"

Kyoshi looked around uneasily. "Um, I'm sorry to say that this is no time to be admiring clouds when were being hunted down. We don't even know where we are."

The Mightyena scoffed at her. "Well, you're the Physic one. You should know."

"For the last time. Just because I'm Physic doesn't mean I have a GOOD SENSE OF DIRECTION!" The Persian yowled, and clamped both paws over her mouth, a regretful look creeping into her feline face. "Oh, Ellen…I'm so sorry…oh no…oh no…"

There was a faint disturbance of the clouds below as Aerodactyl and Giovanni slithered through the fog, cutting through it with ease with a sweep of the Fossil Pokémon's lithe wings. It was obvious they did not notice them, though, as the Boss was sitting high upon his Pokémon, looking about casually.

"Fiery Sapphire…" he crooned in a sing-song voice. "Fiery Sapphire…come out…wouldn't it be nice to end this? I promise it will be quick if you surrender now…I want to kill you. Kill you as a warning to all Anti-Trainers. Kill you so I may be content."

"Frickin' bastard…has to go torment people mumble mumble does he think up these in his spare time mumble mumble," Feolan garbled under his breath.

"Watch this," Charles whispered, and dove downwards. A pillar of flame erupted from his open mouth and instantly set fire to the Rocket and his Pokémon; Giovanni began to scream when he held up his arm to eye level only to see the dried gashes burst open and rupture simmering blood. Aerodactyl stiffed in the air and without warning dropped like a stone, disappearing out of the clouds and falling, falling, completely still even as the flaming Boss thrashed about on her back. There was a distant splashing noise, and no more.

Phil asked, "Is he dead?"

"I don't care. Let's just get out of here. This was stupid." Ellen averted Phil and the rest of the group from peering downwards, but spared a moment to gaze through the clouds and into the sea. Through the murky depths, something splashed softly.

Like a drill, the giant pterodactyl emerged and shot up past the water, past the fluttering Wingulls, past the void of air until she whipped into the clouds, her wings literally billowing steam from the recent inferno.

"YOU BITCH!" Giovanni howled, shivering and soaking wet as he pointing a shaking finger at Ellen. "BITCH, SLUT, BITCH! FILTH! PIG-DOG! Trying to cremate me?" he snarled in a voice shaking with fury. "Kill me? Burn me like my other two Pokémon? Oh, but I've survived, as you can see. I am invincible."

Ellen cursed at him swiftly in return, giving him an obscene gesture. "You think you're so damn powerful…" Although she knew it true. Giovanni could be hurt physically, but Team Rocket supported him so much that he was indeed 'invincible'. "You think you're so dominant, but you have a huge army while we're only a group of…of…"

"Rebels?" Giovanni smirked, leering at her. His sneer trembled and morphed into a cruel grin. "Pigs? Scum? Bastards?"

Both Ellen and Charles lashed out at the Boss with claws and fists. The man flinched despite the safe distance between the two and shot out his hand to grasp the Anti-Trainer's wrist. He gave it a sharp twist, there was a snap, and with his great strength pulled her over the side of the Charizard. Feolan desperately jumped forward to grab her sneaker with his teeth, but to his comrades' and his horror toppled over and fell through the air, his mutilated lupine form twisting and screaming until he disappeared under the clouds.

"FEOLAN!" Charles roared. He turned to dive down and catch the Mightyena; Aerodactyl pulled back her muscular hind legs and with a spring-like motion kicked the dragon in the stomach, sending him reeling back. Aerodactyl then lunged at the Charizard, ignoring the screaming girl dangling over her side. The Fossil Pokémon relentlessly snapped and slashed at Charles, drawing thin lines of red down his stomach and arms.

For the first time, Aerodactyl actually expressed emotion and snickered as her fangs punctured the throat of Charles. "Well, aren't you a delectable Charizard!" she cackled in a smooth voice spiked with both craving and malice as she drew her head back, licking her chops eagerly. "I could just tear into you, big boy…mmmMMM! Rip into your chest cavity…tear out your throat…hehehehe…," she giggled feverishly. "Lovely tail you've got there." A horrified Charles sheepishly drew his tail behind his back. "You wouldn't mind if I took a little nibble, would you?"

Her speed was unmatched, as she almost materialized behind Charles and nipped playfully at the flaming end of his tail. The Charizard yelped and lashed his tail at her furiously. Aerodactyl flinched when her snout, composed of her flinty, rock-type scales, glowed hot red and left a deep layer of crimson, sizzling flesh as a reminder of her imprudence. "Ohh, so that's how you want to play! You son of a bitch…"

"I'll show you," Charles growled menacingly, brandishing his claws. He narrowed his piecing green eyes as Aerodactyl actually smirked at him, displaying her curved fangs.

"Please do," she purred, and attacked him.

The dragon splayed his wings up in order to protect the Pokémon on his back, but in a scene of horrific shock, the Fossil Pokémon simply punctured his right wing and tore through the thin, leathery film, ravishing and snapping the small bones, cackling with glee as she swallowed layers of skin. In an almost frozen time, Charles watched her mutilate him when suddenly reality set in, if there was any reality left in Kanto, and plunged through the sky, uttering not but a whine of failure.

Ellen watched as the last of her Pokémon advanced on the twisting sea below, Charles staring up at her with a look of complete sympathy — not for his noble self, but for the Anti-Trainer. Kyoshi appeared gracefully in the face of death, examining it with a hint of interest. Phil, of course, would have the most chance of living. Being a mudfish Pokémon, he could glide in the water with ease, but there was always the chance of ominous Pokémon lurking in the depths. These were Pokémon were a common knowledge of their fate, whether it was good or bad.

Giovanni leered into the Anti-Trainer's distraught eyes and shifted his weight on Aerodactyl so that he was able to pull her up to almost eye-level. "Well, well, well. All this fighting, all this fleeing has come down to Fiery Sapphire being suspended far above the Kanto Sea, awaiting her death. How does it feel to be so terrified? How does it feel that I have saved you from falling, when in fact I have the power to both let you drop into the sea and kill you with my own hands?"

"I HATE YOU!" Ellen screamed at the Boss, thrashing wildly in his one-handed grasp. "I HATE YOU, I HATE TROY, I HATE DONOVAN, I HATE MIROR B., I HATE VIOLA AND THE SCIENTISTS AND RALPH AND NATALIE AND THE GRUNTS AND THE EXECUTIVES AND…" the girl paused to scream in frustration. "I…I hate…my mom for keeping secrets…" something fierce was boiling in Ellen's caustic mind, and without warning she shrieked, "I HATE MY DAD!"

The Boss began to laugh with glee, a cruel, cold roar, but Ellen did not notice him either laughing or removing the necklace from her neck.

"I HATE HIM FOR LEAVING! I HATE HIM FOR NEVER TELLING ME ANYTHING! I HATE HIM FOR BEING SO GODAMN LOVING WHEN HE JUST UP AND LEAVES!" Her entirely train of thought collapsed with these last words, a mass of through crumbling under her very words of such power. Ellen's eyes welled with tears. She was a terrible daughter!

"Those are sufficient last words. Goodbye." Giovanni suppressed his chuckles finally and slowly, very slowly, let go of her wrist—

She fell.

OoO

Kyoshi could already imagine her notice of death as the Persian sank beneath the waves:

To Michigan, Houston, and Elder Alden-

The ghost of Kyoshi regrets to inform you that she has drowned in the Kanto Sea because of a violent Gym battle. Among this battle, she learned how to heal various creatures, two being Ellen Adler and Charles. She understands that Ellen might not forgive her for this, although she's become a very changed person, but she hopes that Charles will certainly understand as to why his torso is being ripped apart as he thrashes wildly in the water, a cloud of blood surrounding him.

Indeed, Charles was writhing in the seawater, a giant, gory hole splitting open in his throat and torso.

It has come to Kyoshi's attention that her healing powers were not what they seemed to be. Her hypothesis is that if the healed wounds purveyed under too much stress, they would rupture and resume their normal gory aspect. As she looks through the water, she can already see Charles – wonderful, compassionate, handsome Charles – being engulfed in a wave of close death.

Kyoshi sighed mentally. 'Charles…just thinking his name makes me…happy…I guess…it's so cold. I hope Charles isn't it too much pain. Of course, the wounds on his stomach and throat opened up, so I'm just kidding myself. I just wish we had more time together…sigh…I really love him.'

The Persian meowed bitterly, water instantly pouring into her mouth and down her throat, and reached for Charles's claw, batting at it and then trying to grasp it tightly in her own paw. Unfortunately, she failed to do so and the dragon was swept away in the waves.

OoO

There was a moment in which Ellen lost track of all time, space, and the general void of things. Even as the man released his crushing hand from her wrist, in seemed the Anti-Trainer levitated in the air, and suddenly was plummeting through the clouds, through the mist and cold, cruel winds, through the crowds of Wingulls and air stinking of blood and Giovanni was screaming with laughter, and she too was screaming, her face contorted into a look of disparity as she smelled death below and-

Frigid water washed over her, both tearing and caressing, snarling and whispering. Instantly the salt water stung her eyes and the raw cold of November pierced her flesh. Even thing snapped into perspective, and without hesitation, Ellen broke the surface of the water and began gagging and hacking up water. The girl's hands roamed over the waves, groping for any of her Pokémon in sight; her stomach began to tighten with anxiety. For a reason unbeknownst to her, her fingers ached with a long, heavy pain. What was happening?

OoO

Phil was happy.

'I'm swimming really well,' he thought giddily, shivering with pride. 'Now I can help out the others! Ohh…they'll be surprised when they see ME!' He gingerly touched a fin to the odd, tawny colored gills on the side of his arm. 'Weird. I hope they still like me…I look a different…'

The Pokémon swam smoothly through the murky water, admiring how clearly he could see the small fish flitting around, the Corsola slumbering, floating through the ocean…and then his snout bumped into something quite odd.

'Oh my…huh, this is weird…it's all tangly…eww,' he wrinkled his snout up at it and inspected the thing more closely. 'I…ugh, gross! It's all slimy! 'Couse, I'm slimy, but…I-" he paused, his eyes widening. "I…Ellen? ELLEN? Nuh- NO! Ohh, I'll help you out! Just wait! Hold on…ah! Charles?" Phil turned around to see the dragon, a large trail of blood flowing behind him, floating towards the depths of the sea, and Phil quickly swam over, supporting the stiff, cold Charizard on his arm. 'Gee, you're heavy…I swear, it'll be okay…oh no…what about the rest? I…I don't know what to do!"

The Swampert looked again at Ellen and Charles and sunk his head. He evolved, but he was still the little Mudkip he was long before.

OoO

The Anti-Trainer found herself mumbling incoherently, not noticing her insides literally churning. "No…I don' wanna…nononnooooo…Pfffffhhhil? Oww…owww…nonono…" she began sobbing as a wave enveloped her. "Muh- mom…Feolan…Kyoshi…Charles…K'-kaden…ddddaaaaaadddddd…

A small bursting noise issued from the water, and the Wingulls flying above her cocked their heads curiously at the muffled screams beneath the water. Something long, red, and slightly meaty submerged on the surface, and one of the small seagulls fluttered down and pecked at it.

The screams had subsided.

Another jolt of pain ripped through Ellen's body. Purple bruises suddenly spotted her arms and legs, and her nose wrenched into a strange position again, blood gushing forth. Pain snapped the Anti-Trainer's backbone, tore out her entrails, cracked her bones. Death became her friend. Ellen would have shrieked in fury if not for her slowly dying body. No more badges…no more destinations…no more life…the Rayquaza Document was only a ploy to stop the Anti-Trainers from rising again…and they were stupid enough to fall for it.

She fought bitterly within herself, two sides raging a violent war: life, and death.

Life was the small hope that somehow, somewhere, another young person would chance upon the Anti-Trainers and fulfill their duty to stop Team Rocket. Life was the Anti-Trainers remembering Ellen after her demise, remembering that she had lost her life in fighting for them. There was no hope for her; she had given up long ago when Giovanni spat cruel words at her, grinning at her pain. In retrospect, the Anti-Trainer could say she gave up in Silph Co. Just before she had punched the Boss's face, there was the sickening moment in which he had caught sight of her necklace. That was enough. His face twisted into confusion, then rage. Of course.

And death…death was…failure. All of her friends, family, and mentors. Dead. Would Giovanni hunt them out and aim a gun at their foreheads, laughing as he displayed Ellen's blood-splattered necklace in some grotesque trophy? Would he somehow find Fredia and…succeed? All the people she knew — would they die because of her? Would Kanto be ruled under Giovanni's iron fist, while the Kanto Police Force just sat back and watched?

No. No, that couldn't happen! Giovanni would die before her! It couldn't end like this. It couldn't. It coul-

Before she could finish thinking, Ellen froze up, her mind disjointed from her body.

Dead, she thought, and there was no more.

Giovanni had won.

OoO

…

Finally. The chapter is finished. This is the longest chapter I've ever written.

If you have time and are kind enough to do so, please drop by a REVIEW, as I spent a while working on this chapter. I would really appreciate it, and it doesn't even have to be long. THANKS!

Notes:

YOU THERE! Yes, you! That writer over there! The writer with Latias by his side and Mewgle sitting on his head! Ri2, you are officially the most intelligent person to question the Rayquaza scheme. That's why I didn't want to answer any more questions.

It wasn't that gory to me. I'm just paranoid.

Oh, and tune in next time for another chapter.