The Path of Destiny

Chapter 50 - Revisiting

The following morning, Damian told Justin, Katie, and their pokémon everything that they had missed the previous night. Snowcrystal hadn't been happy to see Justin return, but she was glad to see Spark, who, despite the drama of the previous day, seemed happier than she'd seen him in a long time. Ever since he had reunited with Justin, the jolteon hadn't left the human's side.

The wild pokémon were relieved that Damian had been right; no trainers had ventured their way, but they were near enough to the city that the humans didn't have much trouble going back and forth between their resting place and the buildings. All of Damian's pokémon, minus Scytheclaw, were out of their poké balls; Snowcrystal noticed that they all looked intensely interested whenever someone mentioned the Forbidden Attacks.

Now, Snowcrystal realized, they were going to be discussing how they were going to search the library. Snowcrystal couldn't help feeling a bit frustrated that she would be sitting out here with most of the other pokémon, unable to help. Sure enough, a little while later, Damian, Justin, and Katie had all decided they would go together, taking only their own pokémon.

"It's not fair," Alex muttered. "I could help. I'm sure I could help!"

"Can you read?" Blazefang replied sarcastically.

"No," Alex replied, "but I could help them look for book covers that had pictures of pokémon attacks on them…"

"I just wish we didn't have to stay here," Snowcrystal sighed. She stayed silent for a moment, watching the dancing light patterns that filtered down to the ground through the tree over her head, then sat bolt upright, a thought coming to her. "Do you think we could ask the humans if we could visit Nightshade or…or Stormblade?"

"You mean walk right into a city full of humans, with no trainer?" Blazefang replied, looking at her like she was crazy.

Before she could answer, Alex leaped up in excitement. "Yes!" she cried. "I mean, why not?"

"Well…" Snowcrystal began. Now that she thought about it, Blazefang was right. Even with the protection of the humans and their pokémon, it would be very risky to just waltz right into the city. She began to wish that she hadn't spoken her sudden thought aloud.

Before she could try and get her to reconsider, Alex had run over to Arien and began pleading with him to ask Damian to persuade the other trainers to let them go. Reluctantly, Arien nodded, leading Alex to cry out in delight.

"That heracross I brought to the pokémon center…" Snowcrystal heard Damian say suddenly to the other two humans after a few moments. "He was friends with these pokémon. I think we should take them to see him. The scyther, too."

"Huh?" Katie replied, still regarding Damian and his pokémon with the same uncertain look she had shown before.

"We don't have time for that," Justin muttered. "We have work to do."

"Actually," Katie said louder, before Damian could say anything, "I think it's a great idea." From the look of surprise on Justin's face, Snowcrystal was certain he hadn't been expecting that, though whether Katie was simply disagreeing with him on purpose or wanted a distraction from having to make a certain decision about the Forbidden Attacks, she didn't know.

"You're going to walk through the city with several wild pokémon who obviously aren't yours?" Justin scoffed.

"If the three of us go," Damian suggested, "and keep our pokémon in their poké balls, people will just assume the group of pokémon belong to us. They won't be trying to catch them or anything. Of course, we have to be careful about Snowcrystal…" He thought for a moment, and then went over to his backpack, which lay beside the tent, and emptied all of its supplies onto the ground. "Maybe she can ride in here," he said. "It looks big enough."

'And cramped…' Snowcrystal thought to herself, but she didn't try to argue.

"We can go visit the pokémon and then head straight for the library," Damian stated. "They might even let the pokémon in there, so if we find anything, we can tell them right then." He looked over his own pokémon, his gaze resting on Todd the elekid and Inferno the flareon. "I want you two to stay here," he told them. "Watch the camp for me."

Todd immediately threw up his arm in a salute, but Inferno looked disappointed. "I want to go too…" Snowcrystal heard him whisper.

Either Arien was sending Damian a translation or the trainer had guessed what his flareon was thinking, because he replied, "I'm sorry, but if you came, you'd have to stay in your poké ball anyway. Only the wild pokémon can stay out, I'm afraid. But don't worry; you can come next time." Looking slightly happier, Inferno nodded.

"Er…I'm going to head off to the library and wait for you there," Justin muttered. "I'm not interested in visiting any sick bug types." Snowcrystal glared at him; she knew from what Stormblade had told her that he was terrified of scyther, and didn't want to go to see Nightshade in case the others dragged him along to the long term pokémon hospital too.

"Fine by me," Katie said. "Uh…Damian? Are you sure these pokémon will behave?"

"They will," Damian replied with absolute certainty. The doubtful look on Katie's face told Snowcrystal she was still remembering the Scytheclaw incident.

"They better," Katie muttered, "unless they want to be taken away by the police." She sighed. "Well, if we're going to take them, let's hurry and go."

Snowcrystal was placed carefully into the backpack, which wasn't as uncomfortable as she'd thought it would be, but there was still very little space. Damian left part of the top of the backpack open so she could peer out of it.

She was very grateful that Damian and Katie seemed to want to take an early morning walk to the city rather than ride on Damian's tropius. It was probably because of the pokémon following them, she realized, and she was grateful that they were coming. Redclaw seemed happier than Snowcrystal had seen him lately; he would often run on ahead, then double back to circle the trainers. She didn't blame him; they were just finally starting to gain real hope of finding the answers they needed, and they were, compared to what they'd just been through, safe. Alex plodded happily along behind them with Wildflame and a rather reluctant Rosie and Blazefang.

Blazefang had merely come along because he hadn't wanted to stay back at the camp with two pokémon who were practically strangers, and Rosie had finally been persuaded both by the desire to see her friends and the assurance that Damian wouldn't let any other humans near her.

The walk to the city was surprisingly pleasant; there were almost no signs that the area had once been ravaged by poachers. Bird pokémon fluttered from tree to tree and small pokémon scurried through the undergrowth just out of sight. A pleasant breeze picked up, ruffling Snowcrystal's white tuft of fur as she peered further out of the backpack.

Upon reaching Stonedust City, the mood of the pokémon changed. Each of them, even the confident ones, were eying the strange buildings warily. "Now remember," Damian told them, "don't stop, don't run on ahead. Just follow Katie and I. Don't wander into the street, don't bother other humans or pokémon, and don't eat anything out of the garbage."

The trainers and pokémon started to head into the city's outskirts; Snowcrystal immediately pulled her head back into Damian's backpack. As they walked further and further through the unnatural forest of tall, metallic buildings, Snowcrystal watched through the opening in the backpack, remembering the time she and Wildflame had snuck through the city's streets. It had been raining then, and the place had seemed terrifying. While the city was still intimidating, at least now she had protection, and it helped that the skies were clear. There were lots of other humans around, from what she could see, and pokémon too. Though she saw a few people give Damian and Katie strange looks, most of them didn't seem to find anything odd about the number of pokémon following them.

Suddenly Damian stopped. "Taking your pokémon out for a walk?" asked a human voice Snowcrystal did not recognize. "Seems like an odd place to do it."

"They like to walk places with us," Damian replied cheerfully. Snowcrystal tried to peer further out of the backpack but only saw Damian's hand as he shoved her back down.

"It's so noisy around here!" she heard Rosie complain as Damian and the other human were talking. "How far is this pokémon center place anyway?"

Snowcrystal wished Arien was around to ask Damian that very thing, but he was inside his poké ball, and Snowcrystal knew that the trainers probably didn't want more than five – excluding Snowcrystal – pokémon following them at once.

Damian had stopped talking with the human; they were moving again. Snowcrystal peered upward at the towering buildings around them. She didn't know what part of the city they were in, but these buildings were bigger than the ones around the library had been. She could hear several strange noises and see some of the large metallic machines Spark had called cars rumble past along the black ground that the trainers were, wisely, not walking on.

When they had passed a few streets, each more overwhelming than the last, Snowcrystal heard footsteps – human footsteps –behind her and turned her body around inside the backpack to look. A young human child was running toward Katie, Damian, and the pokémon with an excited look on its face. "Ninetales!" she shouted, reaching out her arms. "Mommy, he has a ninetales!"

Snowcrystal saw Rosie freeze as if someone had paralyzed her. The small human was coming closer, and Rosie looked too panicked to do anything. Snowcrystal couldn't tell which, if any, of the humans were this little one's parents. Damian seemed to notice too, because he stopped and turned, and Snowcrystal got a glimpse of a sudden change coming over Rosie before she was turned around and her view blocked. Rosie then let out a battle cry that made Snowcrystal's blood run cold. They couldn't attack the humans! Before she could think to say anything, Damian had run in front of Rosie, standing between her and the human girl. From what Snowcrystal could now see, Rosie looked like cornered prey; every hair on her body was standing up straight and her mouth was wide open, a glow forming in the back of her throat.

"Rosie," Wildflame hissed. "Quit it!" The other pokémon just watched silently, not looking like they wanted to intervene and risk, as Katie had said, the police taking them away.

But Rosie didn't seem to have any intention of 'quitting it.' She leaned to the side to be able to peer around Damian's leg, her snarling face pointing straight at the small human.

"Careful!" Damian told the human, sounding, Snowcrystal thought, a bit worried himself. "You shouldn't approach strange pokémon like that…I mean, my ninetales…she's not used to, um…"

Snowcrystal peered down at Rosie, trying to catch her eye, but Rosie wasn't looking. Instead, she tried to lunge toward the little human, but Damian pushed her back with his leg. Rosie replied by biting it.

"Ahhh!" Damian cried out, but quickly silenced his scream, focusing instead on talking to the girl. "Uh…just run along now…my pokémon…want to be left alone, it seems." He seemed like he was trying to sound cheerful, but he sounded in pain.

Snowcrystal hoped that the little human would decide to wander off before Damian's pants caught on fire, but it didn't seem like she wanted to move. "Damian…" she heard Katie say from somewhere ahead of them. "You said they were going to behave."

Damian took no notice, for another set of footsteps was approaching, the little human's mother or father, Snowcrystal guessed. She quickly realized that she was right.

"Abigail, what do you think you're doing?" The sound of an adult human, a female, came toward her. "I've told you, you can't go running off-"

"He has a ninetales!" the little human shouted excitedly.

When the adult human spoke again, her voice didn't sound pleasant. "What do you think you're doing?" she yelled at Damian, loud enough to make Snowcrystal wince. "You can't just let unfriendly pokémon walk outside their poké balls in the middle of the city! If your pokémon is dangerous, I could report you to the police…"

"Sorry!" Damian replied as he finally managed to dislodge Rosie. "It won't happen again. She's not dangerous…just…nervous around strangers. She'd never hurt anyone…I mean…" Snowcrystal wasn't sure how Damian was going to sound convincing after Rosie had just bitten his leg, and the other human seemed to think the same thing, because Damian replied, "She was only playing! I mean, she does that all the time!"

Snowcrystal didn't hear what the human said in reply, but afterwards they started walking away briskly, ignoring the still excited squeals of the little girl. "Rosie," Snowcrystal hissed, "don't do that! You almost got us all in trouble!"

"Well if that human had just stayed away from me-"

"Rosie, please," Wildflame replied. "Try to act like you've seen a human before! If you don't threaten them, they won't harm you, but if you DO threaten them, they probably will." Rosie didn't answer, but didn't try to argue either.

"This was a horrible idea," Katie muttered to Damian. "I don't want to get questioned by the police because 'your' wild pokémon can't keep from trying to attack someone. They'd better behave around the injured pokémon in the center, because I'm not going to help you if the police come to investigate."

"Right…" Damian replied, sounding less sure of himself than before. Snowcrystal wished she could reassure him that Rosie wouldn't act like that again; she didn't want the trainers to turn around and go back without seeing Stormblade and Nightshade.

On the way to their first stop, which Snowcrystal soon learned was where Nightshade was staying, the rest of the journey went uneventfully. A couple times, humans would stop to pet Wildflame or Redclaw, a few of them noticing Redclaw's scars and asking Damian if he had gotten him from a pokémon rescue organization, whatever that was, but Rosie stayed by Damian's side and didn't try to start any more trouble.

"There it is," Damian finally said as they rounded a corner of the sidewalk and came across a new jumble of buildings. Damian was pointing to a tall, wide building in the center of the next street. Snowcrystal peered a little further out of the backpack to get a look. The building looked pretty plain, she thought, being the same dull brown color as several of the other buildings on its street, and with rows of dark, dreary looking windows. A large cloth had been put up just above the front doors. There were human markings across it and a larger red marking in the center. She thought that the markings must mean 'the pokémon center,' to tell humans where the new one was. The cloth fluttered in the wind, revealing some other human markings underneath, which Snowcrystal assumed told what the building used to be used for.

"It doesn't look much like a pokémon center," Alex muttered.

"It's the temporary one," Redclaw whispered back. He did not elaborate on why a temporary center was necessary.

Carefully, they crossed the street over to the other side (it took a while to persuade Rosie that it was safe) and walked along the sidewalk, which was much busier than any they had been on before. It made it difficult for the larger pokémon to maneuver, but they reached the building's entrance without incident.

Katie and Damian stepped inside, and Snowcrystal realized instantly that the building's interior was not nearly as bleak as it had looked from the outside. They had entered a large white room that looked spotlessly clean, maybe a bit too clean, even, with several chairs around the walls where humans sat. Around many of them were pokémon, some of them sitting patiently by their trainers and others, mainly very young pokémon, occupying themselves with strange looking human made toys that were scattered across one section of the floor.

"Stormblade's not here, is he?" Snowcrystal asked the others. "It's just Nightshade?"

"Yes," Wildflame replied. "Stormblade's in some other building. I just hope it's not far from here. I don't like this city much." That, Snowcrystal could tell, was an understatement.

Damian handed the backpack to Katie, who held it carefully, and approached a human at a counter on the other side of the room, while Snowcrystal looked longingly at the pokémon playing with toys. She almost wished she could join them, but she knew she couldn't leave the backpack until she was safely wherever Nightshade was.

"I'd like to see the heracross I dropped off here before…" Snowcrystal heard Damian say faintly from across the room. "Well, me, my friend, and my pokémon…"

The noise in the room grew loud enough to drown out Damian's words, and Snowcrystal turned towards the pokémon playing with the toys again.

"Oh, come on, Blazefang!" Alex cried happily, nudging the annoyed houndour. "Let's join them!" The floatzel reached out and grabbed a short piece of rope with two knots at the end. "I know this game! You grab one end, I'll grab the other, and we'll pull, and then whoever lets go-"

"Get out of my face," Blazefang hissed between his teeth as Alex dangled the rope in front of his eyes.

"Quiet, everyone," Redclaw whispered. "He's coming back."

Sure enough, Damian was walking back towards them. "This way," he said. Everyone quickly followed him as he walked to the other side of the room, where they were led by a nurse through a door and down a hallway.

Reaching an odd looking door that Snowcrystal realized was made out of…not wood, but metal, the nurse suddenly stopped. "It would be better if you recalled your pokémon," she told the trainers.

Snowcrystal made sure to keep as hidden in the darkness of the backpack as possible, but she could still see as Katie gave Damian a worried glance.

"Can they stay out?" Katie asked. "They won't be much trouble; they're well trained. They know the heracross…and well…they don't like poké balls too much, and…"

"Fine," the nurse's voice said grudgingly, and Snowcrystal heard a few odd sounds and then they stepped into what she realized must be the metal door. Suddenly she felt a horrifying sensation, like the floor itself was moving. She had no clue what kind of room they were in or if something was going horribly wrong, but she had the sense not to move or make any sounds.

Soon the odd motion sensation stopped, and they stepped out into what Snowcrystal realized was another hallway. Katie handed the backpack to Damian again and he put it back on his shoulders; now Snowcrystal could only really see the other side of the hallway as they walked further and further down it. Soon they turned into a smaller room. Snowcrystal couldn't see much of this room, but she wanted to get a better look. Not knowing if it was safe, however, she stayed put.

"Blissey, will you stay here, please?" the voice of the nurse asked. A pokémon agreed happily, and Snowcrystal heard footsteps again, which faded quickly.

"All right," Damian whispered. "The nurse is gone. There are just pokémon here. But we have to make this quick." He set the backpack down and opened it, and Snowcrystal gladly stepped out.

If any of the helper pokémon working at the center stared at her odd fur color, Snowcrystal didn't notice. She was too busy looking around at the room. It had an odd smell to it that Snowcrystal didn't like, but it was very clean. It was a long room with a lower ceiling than the first room they had walked into upon entering the building. There were several beds lined up near the opposite wall, most of them occupied by various pokémon. On the beds nearest to her, she saw a beat-up looking raichu with a bloodied bandage on its head, a victreebel with what she was pretty sure were burn injuries, and on the nearest bed, Nightshade.

The pokémon working at the center paid no notice as the visiting pokémon, minus Blazefang, approached Nightshade's bed. Snowcrystal felt herself being lifted up by Damian and placed on the edge of the bed, where she could see the heracross up close. With the humans' bandages all over him now, she couldn't tell how bad her friend's injuries were. However, she could see that there were a lot of bandages. Nightshade's eyes were closed and he wasn't moving.

"Is he asleep?" Snowcrystal asked. Before anyone could answer, Alex reached up and shoved Nightshade – a bit too hard, Snowcrystal thought – and he opened his eyes wearily.

"Alex!" Snowcrystal hissed.

Nightshade blinked a few times as his eyes focused on the pokémon around him. He tried to push himself up off the bed a little, but quickly abandoned the attempt.

"Nightshade…" Snowcrystal began. When the heracross didn't reply, she glanced at the others, who simply looked back at her.

After a moment, Blazefang sighed and turned away. "Hurry it up," he muttered. "We need to get back to looking for a way to stop the Forbidden Attacks."

At Blazefang's words, Nightshade began to speak. "I am glad that you have all found help," he said in a weak voice, making the pokémon surrounding his bed turn their heads toward him. Even Damian and Katie leaned closer, though they wouldn't be able to understand his words. "Listen, Snowcrystal," he began, still sounding dazed but looking steadily into the growlithe's eyes. "I know that Blazefang is right and that we don't have a lot of time to speak to each other. I also know that these humans can help in your search more than any pokémon can. Don't wait for me to recover to keep searching, even if you have to leave the city, and don't spend too much time coming to visit me. You need to do all you can to find a way to help the legendaries."

"I…all right," Snowcrystal replied. She didn't like the idea of possibly having to leave behind the oldest and wisest pokémon in their group, but she knew that Nightshade wouldn't want them to delay for his sake.

"Will it take a long time for you to heal?" Alex asked.

"I believe so," Nightshade sighed. "I'm not sure how long. The nurses and pokémon haven't told me. It may be a long time."

Rosie growled. "If Thunder ever shows her face near one of us again, I'll tear it off!"

"Rosie…" Nightshade said wearily.

"Um, guys, you might want to stop chatting now," Wildflame began, and suddenly Snowcrystal felt Katie snatch her away from the bed and she was shoved rather unceremoniously back into the backpack.

From a small opening she could peer through, she saw a human nurse walk in just before Katie zipped the backpack almost closed and blocked her sight.

Standing beside Nightshade's bed, Damian turned to face the nurse, trying to act as if nothing unusual had happened, though not doing a very good job of it. The nurse gave him a funny look and walked over to the victreebel's bed.

"We'd better go," Katie said, watching the nurse and the wild pokémon standing around the bed nervously.

"Yeah, you're right…" Damian replied as he looked at Nightshade. "We still have to see Stormblade."

"Right…" Katie replied, giving the wild pokémon another worried glance.

"Well, goodbye," Damian told the heracross, reaching out to stroke his head. Nightshade looked up at him with what he was sure was a grateful look.

"Her-crroh!" the heracross told him in a weak but calm voice. Damian couldn't understand him without Arien's translation, but he was sure he understood what he meant.

He turned and followed Katie as she moved toward the door, checking to make sure that all the pokémon were following them. "Now remember," she said. "Behave yourselves…" Behind Damian, Rosie snorted. Turning away from the room one last time, Damian followed Katie out of the door.

-ooo-

This was the forest where the scyther swarm was…the same place she and the others had traveled through before. Was Master going toward Articuno? She hoped he was. She hoped the bird pokémon guarding the mountain would kill him. But it didn't seem like that was going to happen. Master was only interested in the forest and the strong pokémon in it. She was, for the first time since being recaptured, allowed out of her poké ball for more than just a few minutes. Yet there was no escape.

Every time Thunder had been sent out of her poké ball so that Master could treat her wounds, he had ordered his magneton to paralyze her. Now was no different, and with Volco watching her closely and waiting for any excuse to get revenge on her for his lost eye and other past injuries, there was no way she could do anything in her weakened state even if the paralysis wore off early. As she lie on the forest floor, looking up at the leaves of the tree above her, she desperately wished the paralysis could wear off, not so that she could attack Volco, but because she wanted something, even if it was just the tree she was lying next to, to vent her frustration on. Everything had gone wrong. Everything. She had made a mistake in trying to attack Master and lost everything she had to live for.

She thought of the group of pokémon she had followed during her freedom. For just a short, short while when she had first been returned to the poké ball, she had expected them to come looking for her. Yet they hadn't, of course. They hated her more than she hated them. That much had been clear.

She also thought of the moment in which she had attacked Nightshade. She wasn't even sure why she had done it. She had simply reached a breaking point, a point when she couldn't take it anymore – the pain, the hunger, the sickness, the exhaustion, the stress of being around all those pokémon she didn't like, learning that they planned to go near a human city and she had to follow them or starve in the wild, the sheer frustration of everything – and lost control, or simply lost the ability to care. Looking back, however, she wished it had been someone else that she attacked. Not Nightshade.

In the days after heading back from Articuno's mountain, she had tried so hard to figure out why he would ever be so willing to help her that she had started to believe he was only using her for some purpose of his own. It wasn't until her capture that she really allowed herself to think about it, more so than she had before, and had begun to believe that maybe Nightshade wasn't there to manipulate her at all. She had started to believe she had been wrong.

Maybe Nightshade really did just want to help her. Maybe there really were pokémon out there that naive, or stupid, or whatever it was, to invest so much time in caring for another pokémon. She hadn't seen much point in it at first. She often remembered the pokémon she had befriended as a young scyther, only to watch them die at the hands of Master and his training methods. She had long thought that was a lesson taught to her not to rely on others, and that was why she had been so reluctant to tell anything to Stormblade or Nightshade at first. When she'd discovered that she liked talking about her plans to kill Master and Volco and about how horrible they were and how they deserved to die to someone who wouldn't tell her to be quiet about it, she had kept doing it, but she never realized what it meant to her until now, when she had no one.

She remembered Nightshade's insistence that he understood how she felt, or at least a little bit, he had said. She had thought he was crazy or just really stupid. When he'd told her why, she'd told him she didn't feel sorry for him and that he was an idiot. Now, she wondered if maybe he did understand in some way…but how could she ever know? It was too late. She was far away from Nightshade now, and his injuries had seemed very severe. He might not even be alive anymore. Thunder felt a sudden feeling of hopelessness as she realized that she had probably killed her only friend.

She heard Volco calling something to one of Master's other pokémon who was a little ways away. It was something about the forest and the pokémon in it. Thunder didn't know how many of the forest pokémon Master had captured so far, but she knew he wouldn't be pleased if he hadn't captured many. From what she'd heard Volco say, he had tried to catch pokémon in the canyon and did capture some – others he killed – but most of them had gotten away. She knew that the forest pokémon he did acquire would mostly likely be used as Redclaw had, not as actual fighting ring pokémon, but pokémon used to train those who would be. Though their job was mainly to be little more than a target that could fight back for Master's stronger pokémon, they didn't have to go through the type of hellish training that she had. They simply had to be strong enough to be able to dodge and fire a few powerful attacks. Some of them got killed during the practice battles, but even that was preferable to what the fighting ring pokémon had to go through…what she was going to have to keep going through. And she still had no idea how Master was going to punish her for running away.

Master was strange for a human, even among the other humans Thunder had seen and heard in the fighting arenas where Master earned much of his money. Most of the others were afraid to go near their pokémon. Most would never even dream of trying to hit them with a whip. But Master did, and he did it for no other reason than because he could, because he could get away with it. He loved to defy the stories humans talked about that told of masters trying to hurt their pokémon only to be killed when the pokémon found a way to turn on them. He loved being in control, and he controlled his pokémon well. The image of a cruel human with a whip was, as Volco had said, the image that came to most humans' minds when they thought about the ones like Master. Volco had said that he was simply living up to it. Why this was important to him, Thunder had never known nor cared to try to understand.

From what she could hear, Master's magneton was hovering near him, no doubt ready to paralyze her again if she showed any sign of movement. It was pointless, she thought, knowing that she couldn't go anywhere. When she had been recaptured and let out of her poké ball for the first time, she had been fitted with a new type of collar that the rest of Master's pokémon now had. Not only would this strange new collar electrocute her with the press of a button on the device that Master used to control them, but it would kill her if she moved too far away from him, or if she somehow managed to badly damage it. Master also needed to activate a certain button on the device that controlled the collars each day to prevent them from detonating. Even if she could run away, there was no hope of survival. The only time the collars would be taken off was in an actual arena battle, when there was a risk of an unusually powerful attack setting them off, and she couldn't escape the arenas. She had tried many times.

She wasn't sure what she was going to do now. Master and Volco were not alone against her. Some of Master's pokémon…even some of the ones who had been abused as badly as she had, were fiercely loyal to him. Master's pokémon did not work together. There was a hierarchy among them, and each and every pokémon was as vicious as they could be to those below them in the hierarchy. This behavior was highly encouraged and those who cooperated with Master and were vicious toward those ranking lower than them earned more food, more rest, and better sleeping places. Any pokémon stupid enough to try and make friends with another pokémon was punished and quickly abandoned the habit. Those who were the most vicious were awarded higher ranks, and better treatment as well as more power to do as they pleased to the lower ranking pokémon. They could take out their anger on them and get rewarded for it. Those at the top got there by not only being excellent fighters, but by keeping the other pokémon in line. Master's pokémon always sought to move up in rank or get more rewards, or simply keep from losing their rank.

It was easier for them to earn more rewards and keep from being the victim of the cruelty of the higher ranks than to try to fight back against Master and his other loyal pokémon, impossible odds. If one of the pokémon turned on Master, another pokémon looking for a reward would jump at the chance to put them in their place and earn Master's respect. That is, if the attacking pokémon even got far enough with their attempt. Some of the pokémon at the top of the hierarchy were even twisted enough to like Master and agree with his ways. These pokémon saw newcomers as simply new pokémon to break. They never thought of running away, nor did any of Master's fighting ring pokémon, who had been raised by him since they were very small, because they had no idea how to hunt or forage or survive at all in the wild, and running away would lead to them losing everything they had in the hierarchy.

Thunder had never had any place in the hierarchy. She was of the lowest rank in Master's group of stronger pokémon because she refused to play his game. In the past she had often openly defied Master, but after that had been beaten out of her, she obeyed him, but still refused to try to gain a place in his hierarchy. She didn't care about hurting the other pokémon; her hate was for Master alone. She did not want to please him any more than she had to. She had always chosen to forgo rewards and let the other pokémon abuse and insult her rather than do what Master wanted when she didn't absolutely have to. She knew that Master found this endlessly amusing, which infuriated her, but it did not infuriate her as much as his pleasure of having even more control over her would. But she wasn't going to concern herself with how she would escape again. That opportunity was gone. Escape was no longer possible.

As she was thinking this, she heard Master mutter something to himself. She caught the words 'white growlithe' and listened, but couldn't hear much more. If Master was going to go after Snowcrystal, there was nothing she could do, but she hoped he wouldn't find her. She didn't want Master to be happy with having a rare pokémon, and as much as she didn't like Snowcrystal, she didn't want Master to capture her either.

-ooo-

After they were done resting and Master's other pokémon had been returned, Volco waited eagerly to see what Master would decide to do next. He had managed to capture quite a few forest pokémon, many of them strong ones. The typhlosion wasn't sure whether they were going to stay to find more or if they were going to move on.

"We're heading back to town, Volco," Master stated, answering the fire type's silent question almost immediately.

Volco watched Master turn to look back at the forest. Though the typhlosion could smell the scents of many dangerous pokémon that had passed through the area, he knew Master wasn't afraid, and he had no reason to be.

"Come on," Master told him after a moment. The typhlosion got up and followed his trainer and partner as they began walking back toward a forest clearing they had passed through earlier. From there, they could easily fly back to the town where Master had kept one of his old training facilities. He could no longer use it, now that the police had discovered it, but he needed to retrieve his other pokémon from the trainer he had left them with. If the trainer had any sense, or wanted to live, all the pokémon would be there in the condition Master had left them in. Enough time had passed since the police had investigated that Master thought it was safe to sneak back to the abandoned town, retrieve the pokémon, and leave.

What they would do after that, Volco wasn't sure. The next big fighting ring competition was a couple months away. As Volco watched Master release his drifblim – one of the few pokémon he trusted enough to ride on – into the clearing, he thought back to the white growlithe. That strange boy, who couldn't have been much older than twenty, had taken her with him. Volco promised himself that if he could find that boy, he would tear him and his pokémon apart until he found the poké ball he was keeping the growlithe in. That boy had taken what belonged to his master. Volco was going to make him pay.

-ooo-

Compared to the other buildings in Stonedust City, the long term pokémon hospital the trainers had been talking about looked actually friendly, at least at first glance. It was a massive white building with many windows and several large outside enclosures surrounding it. Snowcrystal saw a pond with a small waterfall, a rocky area with large boulders, and a place with several tall trees she thought must be there to represent a forest. There were others behind the building that she could not see well, but what she could see with her limited vision from Damian's backpack looked peaceful and serene.

Yet as they got closer, there seemed to be a sense of foreboding and dread about the place that made Snowcrystal shudder. The pokémon in the enclosures were not playing happily, but limping slowly around their small spaces or lying unmoving. Several of them had recently lost limbs and many had bandages around their legs or heads and moved very slowly as they went for a drink of water from one of the pools or to the food bowls set out. Most looked too tired to move much at all. And these, she knew, were the healthier pokémon that were being kept there. The whole place had such a strong air of despairing misery about it that it made Snowcrystal feel depressed just looking at it. She could almost sense the pain and sickness and hopelessness coming from the pokémon unlucky enough to end up here.

As they passed the gate to the steps leading up to the front doors, an absol wobbled toward them on three legs from inside one of the enclosures. It had bandages around its head and looked unsteady, peering at them through glazed eyes. Damian stopped to look at it, but Snowcrystal couldn't see his face. He looked at it for what felt like quite a while before Katie pulled him away and they walked up to the building's front doors. The rest of Snowcrystal's friends followed in subdued silence, looking around nervously.

Katie pulled open the door and walked inside, while Damian held it open for the pokémon. "I don't like this place," Alex said loudly as she shuffled inside.

"Quiet!" Blazefang growled her.

Katie walked up to the human near the front desk, and Snowcrystal ducked down further into the backpack – or as far as she could in such a small space – as another human walked over.

"Excuse me?" the human said rather rudely.

"Uh…what?" Damian replied, sounding startled.

"If you're going to bring pokémon in here, keep them in their pokéballs! If you want to visit a pokémon here…since I'm sure that's what you're here for…then you must realize that there are many sick and injured pokémon here and they do not need any illnesses brought in by yours."

"Oh…sorry…I'll just…take them…back outside." Damian hurriedly went back through the doors and the pokémon followed him, looking a bit confused.

"What do we do now?" Wildflame asked.

"I guess Katie will have to go see Stormblade herself," Redclaw muttered. "Though Rosie, you might want to think about letting these humans help you with your leg…"

"Are you crazy?" Rosie shouted. "I'm not letting a human lock me up in a place like this! And I don't need to be. I'm not ready to drop down dead like the rest of the pokémon in here!"

At Rosie's words, Snowcrystal felt like she had been stabbed with sharp claws. Stormblade was one of the pokémon in there, and now that she thought of it, he could very well end up like she was sure some of the pokémon in this building did and would…die…in spite of all the help the humans tried to give him. She realized, for the first time, that this could be her last opportunity to see Stormblade at all.

"I have to get into that building," she said in a determined voice, forcing open a large enough hole in the backpack's zipper to stick her head out. "I need to see Stormblade…to tell him what happened." She didn't emphasize further than that.

"You really want to see him, don't you?"

Snowcrystal was surprised to hear Damian's voice. She knew he couldn't understand her, but her eagerness was obvious. She stared back at him, hoping he'd somehow understand how much it meant to her.

"I'm going to go back in," he told the other pokémon, zipping the backpack mostly shut again. "Stay out here and wait, and don't cause any trouble or bother the pokémon in the enclosures, all right?"

Redclaw looked back at him and made a happy barking noise, then sat down on his haunches by the rest of the pokémon, who after a moment's hesitation gathered around him.

"We won't be long," Damian replied. "No one should bother you. I'll be right back."

He stepped into the doors again, and Snowcrystal caught a glimpse of her friends, Rosie, Wildflame, and Redclaw in particular, looking through the glass at her and wondered if they had wanted to see Stormblade as much as she had. She realized quickly that they had opted to stay behind and wait, without Damian's protection, so she could have a chance. Even Blazefang looked calm and not at all aggressive as he peered back at her.

The glass door which her friends were peering through vanished as Damian walked out of view of it and toward Katie, who was waiting for him uncertainly. "You sure this is a good idea?" she asked as they followed the human now leading them to Stormblade's room. "Leaving the pokémon out there?"

"No one will bother them," he replied. "Plenty of pokémon run errands for their trainers. People will think that they're doing that and waiting for us."

"I think I've already learned that I can't trust you when you say everything's going to be fine, you know," Katie muttered back. Damian didn't reply.

For a moment, it was silent until movement caught Snowcrystal's eye and she peered out to see a young eevee racing down the hall excitedly. The eevee bumped into Damian's leg and came to a halt. Snowcrystal looked down to see the little pokémon staring up at her, or what little he could see of her, with brown eyes.

"Hi!" he said happily, wagging his tail. Snowcrystal could see that he had what was once a very nasty wound on his forehead as well as his shoulder, but they both looked nearly healed now.

Snowcrystal didn't want to reply in case it gave her away. Luckily the eevee was distracted when Damian reached down to pet it. "I like your trainer!" he cried happily, giving a little bounce.

"Jake! What are you doing?" a human voice shouted from the other end of the hallway. A female human about Katie's age, presumably there to help out with some of the simpler tasks for the pokémon, appeared around a corner and ran past the startled nurse and trainers and scooped the eevee up in her arms. "You aren't well yet!" she cried. "You need to rest more!"

"I don't want to rest!" the eevee protested, struggling in the human's arms.

Snowcrystal didn't hear what the human said in response, for she was now carrying him back the way she'd come. Snowcrystal wondered if that was her eevee, or just one belonging to another trainer that she had decided to help out. It made her feel a bit better about the place, for now she knew that for some pokémon, there was hope for healing. That eevee, apart from a few scars, would be a perfectly normal and happy, healthy pokémon once he was completely well and able to leave. However, she knew that there were many others who weren't going to be so lucky.

They continued walking, not seeing any other humans and pokémon, just rows and rows of doors. "Here we are," the nurse leading them said, and opened one of the doors. They walked into another hallway, but unlike the one they had just come through, this one was much wider, and along the walls were little rooms with big windows taking the place of the doors that would have separated them from the hallway. In several of the small rooms were pokémon, each lying on a warm bed on the soft floor. Also in the rooms were food and water bowls and a small tray that Snowcrystal realized must be a place for the pokémon to relieve itself, seeing as they couldn't go outside. They passed a vileplume that was obviously badly burned, with very little remaining of its petals, a mightyena whose back and hind legs were also severely burned, and several other pokémon with the same types of injuries. Snowcrystal even saw a forlorn looking growlithe, its back turned away from the window, also with severe burns. Looking at its orange shape, Snowcrystal wondered how a fire type like herself had gotten in that state. She thought, for one horrible fleeting moment, that it might have gotten injured when Shadowflare had burned the forest down, but as they passed it, she got a closer look. From what she could see, the more minor burns that were almost healed and weren't covered by bandages were not Shadowflare wounds.

Snowcrystal understood that this was the place where the humans kept all the burned pokémon. None of them stirred as they walked by. Snowcrystal kept looking in each of the windows for Stormblade, but he didn't seem to be in any of them. They reached the end of the hallway and Snowcrystal finally saw the room that was Stormblade's. It was right near a pair of large doors leading to some other place, which Snowcrystal thought might be where the humans kept their supplies, whatever they were, that would help the injured pokémon. Stormblade's room was larger than most of the others, but he only occupied a small corner of it, the corner with the bed. He looked far too weak to move, and Snowcrystal wasn't sure he could. His food and water had been placed right next to his head, but they looked untouched. 'What's wrong with him?' She thought. Hadn't Katie mentioned he'd been doing better?

"Can we go inside?" she heard Damian ask the strange human.

"Yes," Katie answered for him, and Snowcrystal remembered that she had been there before.

Snowcrystal watched as the human who had led them there walked up to a place in the wall next to the room and pressed some buttons on an odd looking device, and the window – or what Snowcrystal had thought was a window – flickered and vanished.

Snowcrystal could see the nurse human watching them as they walked inside, and she didn't seem like she was going to leave. She saw Katie kneel down beside the bed, which was very low to the ground, and heard footsteps walking away. For some reason or other, the nurse had left.

Damian set down the backpack and opened it before kneeling down as well. Snowcrystal freed herself from it and walked over to Stormblade. She noticed some strange tendrils of human-made stuff going into parts of Stormblade's upper arm. She wondered if they were hurting him, but not knowing what they were for, she didn't try to remove them, as much as she wanted to.

As soon as he realized the humans were there, Stormblade opened his eyes and looked up at Snowcrystal, a look of disbelief on his face. "S-Snowcrystal?" he whispered. "How did you get here?"

She could tell that it took him some effort to speak, and that he would have asked her more questions if he could. She looked at him and then glanced nervously back in the direction the nurse had been standing. Seeing her do this, Damian sat behind her, blocking her from view of the hallway. Not knowing how much time she had, she quickly told Stormblade some of the things that had happened since he'd left the group, about how she had found Articuno and what he had said, and what she had decided to do afterward. She also told him about how she and the others had met up with Damian, and how he was going to help them.

Stormblade listened but did not react much. Snowcrystal hoped that he believed her without finding everything too surprising, and that he wasn't simply too exhausted and weak for it to come as a shock to him. When she had finished telling him the vastly shortened version of the story, he asked her a question.

"What about Thunder?" he whispered. "Is she okay? With the humans? Is she getting better?"

Snowcrystal fell silent and avoided Stormblade's gaze. She hadn't wanted to talk about Thunder, but she knew as soon as he'd asked that he had a right to know. "Thunder…" she replied, thinking of what to say for a moment before realizing the human could come back at any minute, and she needed to tell him quickly. "Thunder got captured again…by her old master," she said quietly.

"What?" Stormblade's reply was weak but shocked. "What do you mean?"

"He found us by the canyon where…where Moonlight lived…she tried to attack him, but before she got a chance, he returned her…he still had her pokéball. We haven't seen her since." She didn't say anything else. She couldn't bring herself to look at the expression of alarm and horror on Stormblade's face any longer. She knew how he felt about Thunder. He knew more than anyone, apart from possibly Nightshade, what her life with her old trainer was like. What her life was going to be like again. Snowcrystal looked back at Stormblade, and seeing the hurt and disbelief in his eyes, she didn't have the heart to tell him what Thunder had done before she had been captured.

After a moment Stormblade looked away from her and closed his eyes. "Stormblade?" she whispered, but he didn't try to reply. Somehow she knew that he wasn't going to try and talk any longer.

"I think so," she heard Katie say. She had just barely noticed that Katie and Damian had been talking. "The nurses were saying that the infection's getting stronger and that's why…well, he's worse now. I did what I could when I was away from the cities, and it seemed like it was working for a while, but I guess the medicine wasn't strong enough…"

Damian didn't reply, but kept looking at Stormblade. He slowly moved the bowl of water toward Stormblade's mouth, but the scyther didn't attempt to drink out of it. After a moment, Damian gave up and set the bowl back down, looking helpless. Snowcrystal thought he looked just as sad as she felt, even though he didn't even know Stormblade. Maybe it wasn't just Stormblade, but all the injured pokémon he was thinking about, she thought. The whole place seemed enough to make anyone – human or pokémon – depressed. Katie, however, didn't seem nearly as affected by it. She regarded Stormblade with concern, but didn't seem overly worried about him. 'Of course…' Snowcrystal thought. 'She still thinks he's a murderer…'

Snowcrystal's ears pricked as she heard the sound of footsteps approaching. Quickly she got back into the backpack and Damian closed it as the human approached. This time, as they walked back through the hallways, Snowcrystal did not try to look through the opening in the backpack at her surroundings. She did not want to see the place anymore.

When they reached the doors that led outside and to the other pokémon, Snowcrystal was surprised when no one asked her questions. She figured that someone, maybe Redclaw, had told them not to until they got back to the camp the trainers had set up.

To her relief, there were no incidents with humans during the journey back through the city. They made it to their camp safely, and Damian told Todd and Inferno to watch the camp and left with Katie to go to the library, promising the two once again that they would get a turn to go next time.

"Shouldn't we…have stayed with them?" Alex asked. "So we can hear any news faster?"

"No…" Wildflame replied. "I've had enough of that human city for one day."

"What did Stormblade say to you?" Rosie asked Snowcrystal, who really did not want to answer.

"She'll tell us later," Redclaw interrupted. "Now get some rest. You could use some after all that traveling. We all could."

Grateful not to have to answer questions for the moment, Snowcrystal wandered to just outside the camp, alone but not too far from the others. She couldn't help but feel that she was partially responsible for what had happened to Stormblade. If she hadn't agreed to join up with him and Spark…if she hadn't met him at all, it wouldn't have happened. He would be healthy and probably would have found a better home by now. And it wasn't just him. Other pokémon had suffered because they had wanted to help her. Nightshade and Rosie…even Thunder, though whether she had ever wanted to help or not, Snowcrystal wasn't sure. They had all been in danger many times because of the mess she'd brought them into, willingly or not. And now she wasn't even sure if this was something they could really make a difference in or not. They were just ordinary pokémon, searching for something the legendary Articuno did not even know. And how many more pokémon would suffer trying to find it? Cyclone wanted Blazefang's Forbidden Attack, and even though he had to be far away by now and there was little chance he knew where Blazefang was, she couldn't shake the feeling of terror she got when she thought of him. It was like she was prey hiding in a forest, desperately hoping not to be scented, followed, and found. She didn't think Cyclone would simply give up. He was out there, undoubtedly searching for other Forbidden Attacks, other attacks that would affect the lives of many pokémon, near and far.

She now understood, really understood, why Scytheclaw had refused to try and heal Stormblade. He wanted no part in all this, and she couldn't blame him. But despite that, she still wanted to try and convince him, for Stormblade's sake, because no matter how Scytheclaw, or she, felt about it, Stormblade deserved some sort of hope. And this was the only possible hope he had. She just hoped that somehow, she would be able to help make things right…not just for Stormblade, but for everyone whose lives her quest had changed.

To be continued...


Author's Note:

Wow, the 50th chapter. When I started this story, I had no idea The Path of Destiny would turn out this long. And there's still such a long way to go.

Also, Jake the eevee was another reference to one of my old stories. An eevee named Jake was a character in a story I wrote in November 2006.