Since Evangeline became the queen and the only ruler of both Neltona and Dellevis, things have certainly been interesting, though not as much as she had expected. Civil war was a constant threat, but no one dared to make a move because of Kyurem. It was pretty boring actually. She could get more or less whatever she wanted so she didn't have to work for anything anymore. Then again, that's what made this so great. After all she had to do throughout the rest of her life, people were finally treating her the way she deserved to be treated. She wasn't second best to her husband anymore. She wasn't second best to anyone. Almost, anyway. There was still the problem of Zoroark, but their interests didn't clash, so she would continue to use him for her own purposes, just as he was using her for his.
She walked to the center of the castle where it gradually got colder until the hallways themselves were completely frozen over. It had been a while since she checked on the dragon and that kid, not to mention Zoroark's new experiment. She would be going back to Neltona soon, unless he managed to find Aamira, so she might as well take one last look.
There were only a few people in the center chamber. Felix was curled up on the floor asleep near Kyurem, who was surprisingly fulfilling its duty to protect Felix pretty well, considering it didn't have a soul. Lucas was there, brushing the feathers on the back of his Honchkrow and not really paying attention to what was going on. The familiar fox pokemon wasn't there, but a familiar white haired human in black robes was.
"Well if it isn't His Majesty, King Xerxes." She said sarcastically while walking into the frozen over chamber.
He turned to face her. It was hard to believe that this human was actually a pokemon in disguise. His illusions looked so real. "I suppose I was just feeling a little nostalgic for this form. I won't be using it much longer and people tend to trust humans more than pokemon for whatever reason, so why not continue using it until then? Or is it that they trust their good king over the deceiving pokemon who led their last to monarchs to their death and chased off their current queen? It doesn't matter I suppose. So what do you want?"
"Oh just admit it, you like that form don't you? Maybe you don't like the idea of being human, but you still like the character Xerxes, don't you? Your demeanor is completely different when you're like that. Well, whatever. I was bored so I thought I'd come see what you were up to."
"Is this really how you act?" he asked. "So when you head back to Neltona, I'll have to burden myself with laying around and doing nothing all day in your stead."
"Hey, it might not kill you to relax every now and then, you know? Even when you are relaxing it's always for a reason. Don't you get tired living like that?"
"Why would I?" he turned back to his newest experiment. It was looking more frightening by the day. It was almost a mirror image of Kyurem, although the colors were a little different. Its body was darker while the gemlike piece of ice in its skull was red instead of yellow. When she first saw Kyurem, they thought its eyes were yellow and pupil, but it turned out that it didn't really have eyes. It was just that shard of ice going all the way through its head.
He reached out his hand and touched the Kyurem copy on its nose but pulled it back quickly. "It's almost ready. It's still just a hollow shell, but it's started to leak cold like the real one."
"Well it's about time. So now you just need to find Aamira, right?" she asked.
He turned back to her calmly. "No I already know where she is. Daisy brought her to where she needed to be."
"You're joking. So why are we wasting so many people searching for her if you've known where she was hiding this whole time?"
"Appearances are everything. As long as she's not found, she's in hiding and her people are left here abandoned. Who's the villain then? The queen who abandoned them, or the one who was chosen by the three legendary pokemon and one of the dragons?" he turned to Lucas, who was busy pretending that no one else was there with him and Honchkrow. "You need to get moving soon. You know what to do."
He sighed and stood up. "Right, right, I get it."
Before he could step forward, Honchkrow blocked his path and stared up at Xerxes. "Now hold on. This is potentially the most dangerous thing you've had him do so far. We know nothing about the person you're making us hunt down. You might control my partner, but you won't control me. If I don't have your guarantee that you'll let him go when this is all over, I won't allow him to move another step."
"My guarantee? Of course I'll let him go. I never planned to do otherwise. Having someone with an ability like his has been useful to me, but I'm not going to need it for much longer. In fact, if you can bring me the Dark Stone, I won't need his abilities any more. I'll just keep him under my control a little longer without him being in any danger whatsoever just to keep him out of my way. After I've done everything I need to do, I could care less what the two of you do."
Honchkrow continued to glare at him. He hadn't really lied to them before, but that might have just been because he had no reason to. What choice did she really have though? She stood aside and she and Lucas walked out of the chamber. Lucas could understand why his partner was so suspicious of Zoroark. It was hard to believe that after almost an entire lifetime of living a nightmare that he would finally be able to go back to his own life.
Aamira woke up to find herself laying on the ground in the back of a cave. Zoroark was standing near the cave entrance, not paying any attention to her. What could she do? If she tried moving towards the cave entrance, he would notice her. She would have to get up slowly enough so it wouldn't attract his attention and then attack him quickly enough to catch him off guard. Then she would run off while he was still recovering from the surprise attack and hopefully manage to outrun him.
She started to push herself up with one arm, but almost instantly let out an involuntary yelp of pain. He turned back towards her instantly. Strangely enough, he didn't look as arrogantly confident as usual or even mad that she had obviously just tried to get up to attempt an escape. He almost looked scared, though it didn't look as intense as when Staraptor's talons had cut his arm. It was still somewhat unnerving.
"What is it…?" Aamira asked, feeling a little worried herself from Zoroark's expression.
He turned back towards the cave entrance, looking around frantically for signs of movements in the trees. "They're hunting. You'd better hope for your sake that there aren't any in their pack that can see through my illusions." He spoke quietly so they wouldn't be heard.
Aamira looked at the cave entrance. She didn't see anyone, but she noticed that the entrance sort of shimmered in a way similar to heat waves, but a little slower. He must have made it so they would be able to see out of the cave entrance, but from the outside it would just look like the cliff or whatever the cave was embedded into.
"When you say 'pack' you don't mean a group of Zoroark, do you…?" Aamira asked.
"What else would they be? No other pokemon has taken to their role as well as they have. Going from being the most hated to the most hated and feared… Sorry but I haven't taken control of all of their packs yet. If they catch you, you will die."
"You're not actually that strong physically, are you? And against Zoroark they might even see through your illusions…" Aamira looked around the cave. "Wait, what happened to Daisy?"
"She distracted them while we escaped. I really wouldn't worry too much if I were you. Obviously you're supposed to survive this since I win in the end and I need you to do it, and I've never heard anything about Daisy not returning after going back to the past. Zoroark normally can't see through my illusions. There would just be one possibility. A tactic that they've been using lately. I'm not the only pokemon who opposes them who can use illusions. Hopefully mine are strong enough."
They had been too far away before for Aamira to notice, but she sensed something in the distance off to the right of the cave. Soon she could tell that there was a huge group of them. She couldn't tell exactly how many, but there must have been a lot.
"You know one of the reasons I came back in time was to find out what went wrong somewhere along the timeline. Everything's messed up now and nothing's exactly certain anymore. You might win, you might not, but the fact that you were surprised that Daisy brought me here must mean it wasn't exactly planned before. There is nothing that says we're going to get out of here in one piece."
Zoroark looked over to the right side of the cave. They were moving fast and they could hear them now. "They shouldn't be able to hear us if we speak quietly. Good illusions confuse multiple senses, not just sight. It should muffle any sounds we make, hopefully. I need to put in a lot for this one though."
Sight was obvious. The illusion would keep the other Zoroark from seeing them. Confusing their sense of smell would keep them from following their scent trails. Blocking out sound would keep them from hearing any noises they make. Touch would make it so if they touched the illusion it would feel solid or at least make them think it was solid, she wasn't sure how that worked.
"What about taste?" Aamira asked.
"These Zoroark are experts. If they find any tiny indication whatsoever that there's an illusion, they'll do whatever they need to in order to prove it to themselves. After doing that, they can counter and break through it. People never think of taste. Why would you need it? Mask the taste of poison, maybe, but other than that there's really no reason. A lot of people make that mistake, so when they think they've found an illusion, they might lick it. If it doesn't taste like anything, they'll know its fake."
It was resourceful, that's for sure. Aamira held her breath as she saw a Zoroark walk in front of their cave. She was still worried that it would be able to smell or hear them. A few more walked by. They weren't exactly trying to be quiet.
"Where are you, little human?" One called out. "I know you're here somewhere. You can't hide from us behind some fur and ears. An illusion or two. You know, humans taste just the same whether they're a human or pokemon when we catch them."
They alternated between standing on their back two legs and smelling the air and crawling around on all fours sniffing at the ground. They looked more than determined. They looked excited, like this really was a fun game to them.
One of them walked really close to the cave and sniffed at the invisible wall separating them. Zoroark crouched down, ready to attack if that Zoroark managed to figure out that it was an illusion. It got up onto its back legs and ran its claws against the illusion. It must have believed it was real, because it continued along the wall and out of sight. Zoroark didn't relax though. A while later they finally walked off and disappeared into the forest.
Aamira sighed and took deep breaths to try to calm herself down. "Well this is the second time I've been in a situation like this."
Zoroark turned away from the cave slowly in case he saw any more of them. He looked a little curious. "Really?"
"Yea I got thrown into an underground forest as part of my training. There were a lot of strong pokemon living there that attacked on sight. There was one, this Blaziken, who liked to hunt people down when they fell into the dungeon. He just did it for sport. Near the exit there was another pokemon, a Tropius who led a group of Carnivine. If she caught anyone, she would try to feed them to the Carnivine, which she referred to as her children."
"How did you get away?"
"We ended up in a three way battle and I sort of tricked them into fighting each other."
Zoroark growled in frustration and turned back to the cave entrance. "That won't help us here. Tropius and Blaziken had different goals and hadn't been working together. We wouldn't be able to do that with Zoroark. They would notice something's off if I try to create an illusion of one of them and try to entice them to fight each other. They know each other well and I've never met any of them. If we get surrounded, they won't attack each other by accident. They're skilled at hunting as a pack. They won't make mistakes like that."
"So they're not really gone? Why do they want to catch me so badly?"
"It's a tactic they use. They'll move on then circle back around to a promising looking area. In most cases, the people they're hunting would leave their hiding spots when they think they're safe. That's when they get caught. I couldn't erase our scents from this area completely. It's still a promising location. As for why they're chasing you specifically, that's a long story. There was a certain event during which some pokemon had hidden has humans in order to escape what would have been certain death. They weren't meant to survive though. The higher ups were furious when they found out. There was no way to find out for sure though, except one thing. The pokemon in hiding were able to stay hidden, but if they had children with another pokemon in hiding, that human child, a human-born pokemon, would likely turn into a pokemon later on in their life. They would most likely never know that their parents had been pokemon at one point, so it was something they didn't understand. Often the parents didn't even know if the other was also a pokemon. It was dangerous to ask or to reveal it, though I'm sure some probably did. Either way, if a human turned into a pokemon, that would reveal two pokemon who had tried to hide by becoming human and the human-born pokemon themselves was seen as just as guilty. That would often be two humans hunted for every pokemon who was once human, so they've learned to like hunting humans."
"So that's why Zoroark hunt both human and pokemon?"
"It's why they wipe out entire villages if given a chance. Though there's no proof for it, if they find one or more pokemon who are disguised as humans living in a single place, they assume there must be others. Instead of waiting for them to reveal themselves in some manner, which may never happen, they just deal with the problem right away and take out everyone in the village, human or pokemon."
"Have you ever done something like that?"
Zoroark nodded. "I said before that I haven't taken control of all of the packs, which should suggest that I've managed to take control of a few. I lead them to a promising village, impress them with my illusions and ability to lead, and I become their leader. Over time I manage to calm them down and they gradually stop hunting for sport like this. Trying to convince these Zoroark to accept me as a leader, though, wouldn't be a good idea. It's counterproductive, since I've taken their prey from them."
"So a few humans die for the sake of saving a few hundred more…"
"Do you hate me for it?"
It wasn't an idea Aamira liked at least. She couldn't have done it. She never would have let the Zoroark hurt anyone, but then if she had tried to protect those villages directly, she would have to fight hundreds of them at least with all of their illusions. She wouldn't be able to protect anyone like that. Instead of a few humans dying, they all would.
"You know in my time, you're the only Zoroark. That was because of you, wasn't it? Why did you do that?"
"Because hunting has been ingrained in them. Most Zoroark and specifically the ones who hunt like this are several generations younger than me. They were born into this life and just telling them not to do it anymore isn't going to work. I'd rather not be responsible for wiping out an entire species, especially my own, but eventually I won't have any other choice. By then my illusions will be too powerful for any of them to see through."
"And none of them will be able to escape. You'll do to the Zoroark exactly what they're trying to do to human-born pokemon and their parents."
"Don't misunderstand my intentions. There are Zoroark other than me still existing in your time. They're hiding, but I know where they are. For Zoroark who won't hunt like this, I have no reason to target them. I might have done horrible things before, but if there are two things I'm not, it's a liar and a hypocrite. You never did answer my question."
"Do I hate you for hunting humans? If it was to save more, how can I? I hate what you did, but it was better than doing nothing. Probably…"
"You'd want to watch your back in this world and time. If you say something like that, you'd be seen as just as much a bad person as I am."
Aamira remembered what Inari had said. She had been debatably a bad person in this time while Zoroark definitely would have been considered one. He only lived as a villain his whole life because it's who he saw himself as. He was acting strangely now too, almost agreeably. When actually forced by other circumstances to be on his side, he didn't actually act too badly. Well they were stuck in this cave together. It was as good of a time as any to ask. "What exactly are you trying to do? Like what's your overall goal that you keep trying to force me to help you with?"
"Let me just get a few things straight. I don't know you. I've never met you except for when I had disguised myself as your friend while I was still a Zorua, but you were much younger and a much different person then and there were most likely still things that you were hiding from me because of my future self. The point is, I don't know you. All that I do know is that you're just as bad as the pokemon who created this situation."
"What? How so?"
"I did tell you what I wanted you to do. Not only that but you saw it in the Reflecting Mirror, didn't you? You chose to forget, not just once but twice. If you really want to know so badly, ask the me from your time. Maybe that will give you some time to decide for yourself if you really want to hear it or not."
"Fair enough, I guess. I don't know you either. Maybe in this time you're not a liar, but that doesn't mean you're not a liar in mine. I don't even know for sure if you were telling me the truth when you said you're not a liar. For all I know, this could all be a setup. That pack out there looking for us could be one of the ones under your control and you're doing this to force me to work with you. Since I have no way of knowing either way though, I really don't have much of a choice for the time being, especially in the condition that Daisy put me in. I never would have thought she would be so strong."
"She's interesting to say the least…"
Aamira looked off into the trees. It was faint, but she had sensed someone come just within range. "I think they're coming back."
"They've been gone for too long. They left for some other reason than to lure us out." He backed away from the cave entrance and crouched down, ready to attack the second one of them came too close.
"What could they have left for?" Aamira asked.
"Probably to go back to their dens to get the Zorua. Remember how I said they had a way to see through illusions? For whatever reason it's easier for children to see through them. They enjoy the hunt, but only if they can catch their prey in the end. If they get frustrated and they know the ones they're hunting are using illusions to hide, they use the Zorua. It's also something they do to find potential prodigies that would lead the packs in the future."
Sure enough when they came back a few minutes later, there were several Zorua following after them. Each of them continued to sniff around the area. They were more concerned with a certain tree just on the edge of the clearing than anywhere else. After a few minutes one of the Zorua wandered away from the others, coming closer to their hiding place.
The little Zorua sniffed at the ground where the shimmering wall ended. Its ears twitched and it looked up and squinted as if trying to look through a dark, dust-covered window. It placed a paw against the wall and stuck out its tongue. It wrinkled its nose and took a step back. Apparently cliff faces didn't taste very good. It moved passed the cave entrance, but stopped just within Aamira's view and licked part of the real cliff face. It walked back towards the cave entrance and stared in their direction skeptically. It gave a high pitched bark and almost instantly one of the Zoroark walked over.
"What is it?" the Zoroark asked.
"Looks funny, doesn't it? Kind of shimmery." It put its paw back onto the wall.
"Hmm…" The Zoroark licked the wall. "Tastes sandier than the rock in this area's supposed to. It's not too unusual for there to be different types of rocks in one area though. Hey, human! You in there? That rogue Zoroark still protecting you?"
The Zoroark turned back to the rest of the pack, who were all watching them now, and the two of them walked back towards the rest and they started talking, sounding irritated.
Zoroark looked around the cave for a second. Finally having the chance to risk making a little noise, he backed away towards Aamira while not taking his eyes off of the pack. "I have an idea. It probably won't work, but it's the best I can come up with right now. Can you climb up onto my mane?"
"I could try…" Aamira sat up while holding her breath so she hopefully wouldn't make any noise. Zoroark knelt down so she would be able to reach his mane. She grabbed onto his fur and managed to pull herself up.
The other Zoroark had lined up in front of the cave with the Zorua standing slightly behind them. One of the larger Zoroark stepped forward. "We know you're in there! This could go one of two ways for you. Either you come out now and we'll make quick work of you, or stay in there hiding until we rush in and make you regret your very existence just like those other humans we've caught." He paused for a few seconds and each of them continued to watch the cave entrance. "Alright, you've made your choice then."
Each of the Zoroark and Zorua closed their eyes and ran towards the cave entrance. Without being able to see the illusion, they didn't know where it was. As long as they didn't hesitate and continued to run straight forward, they would be able to go straight through it. Zoroark got down onto all fours and moved close to the cave wall. Right before they entered the cave, the illusion vanished and a giant pokemon large enough to fill the cave appeared. Aamira had seen it before. It was a perfect image of Shadow Lugia. It roared and instantly each of the Zoroark opened their eyes. For a few seconds there was general chaos as they tried to avoid the giant pokemon swiping at them with its tail and firing off a Hyper Beam. During this time, Zoroark ran while staying close to the wall.
It took them a couple of seconds to recover from the shock, but once they did, the pack chased after them. With Aamira on his back, Zoroark was slower than the others. Aamira held on with one arm and used the other to fire Aura Spheres at their pursuers. Since she was still weakened, they weren't nearly as strong as usual. The Zoroark managed to jump out of the way relatively easily while hardly being slowed down at all.
There had to be a way to slow them down. What did Aamira know about them? Zoroark had said that they would notice instantly if he had tried to make an illusion of one of them to turn them against them. He also said that they never made a mistake when hunting as a pack. They must have all known each other well. No matter how they acted to others not from their pack, they must have all been close to each other.
Aamira noticed one of the Zorua running close behind one of the Zoroark. She hated the thought of doing it, but what other choice did they have. She poured most of her energy into one Aura Sphere and fired it at the Zoroark. It jumped out of the way and the Zorua didn't see it soon enough to have enough time to jump out of the way. It gave out a yelp of pain and fell back.
"Zorua!" the Zoroark who had dodged out of the way of the last Aura Sphere stopped and ran back to help the Zorua. Several others stopped while the rest kept running. The Zoroark who seemed to be their leader kept running, but he looked back at the others. In that second where he was distracted, Aamira used most of her remaining energy to use one more Aura Sphere to hit him. The rest of the Zoroark stopped to help their fallen leader, who kept shouting, telling them to keep up the chase.
Zoroark kept running as fast as he could. Every now and then he would double back for a while to throw off the scent trail. It would either stall them or split up the pack. Either way was beneficial to them. If they ever got close enough for Aamira to be able to sense them, she would tell Zoroark and they would alter their course. Somehow they managed to evade them for several hours before finding another small cave, this one the result of a sink hole. Zoroark jumped down inside of it and created another illusion to cover up the entrance.
"We should be safe here for the night." Zoroark said as Aamira climbed down onto the ground.
Aamira winced and covered an especially bad wound on her right arm. "I need a doctor or some sort of medical treatment. I don't think I can hold out like this for long."
"Just bear with it, you'll be fine. I only stopped for your sake. You're not the one who needs to stay up all night keeping the illusion protecting us up."
Maybe he wasn't as twisted as the Zoroark from her time, but he was about just as sympathetic. Maybe she would feel better after some sleep. She wondered where Quill and Lucario were right now. Were they together or had they been separated too? This was the longest they had been apart in a while and to think she would also be with Zoroark. This whole situation was just horrible.
It was difficult getting to sleep with her injuries. They hurt a lot more after holding onto Zoroark's mane while he ran at such a fast speed. Somehow she did manage it though, although it was restless and she kept waking up throughout the night.
She was woken up early in the morning by Zoroark. "We need to leave now. I haven't seen any sign of them, so they most likely slept through the night to keep their strength up like we did."
"Except I'm not entirely sure it worked." Aamira managed to sit up, though it was more painful than the day before. It looked like her injuries were getting infected. She had slept on one arm to avoid laying on the more injured one and now the one she slept on was difficult to move. She was exhausted from waking up throughout the night. They should have just kept moving. It occurred to her that maybe Zoroark was more tired than he was letting on and that was why they really stopped.
She managed to climb back onto Zoroark's mane and he jumped out of the sink hole and continued running in the direction they had been going the previous night.
"Where are we even going?" Aamira asked him after they had been running for a while.
"Well you were complaining just last night that you needed a doctor, weren't you? Now don't talk to me anymore, I'm busy. Just let me know if you sense anyone."
It was a few hours before Aamira sensed the other Zoroark started catching up to them. They were running directly from behind so they couldn't do anything but keep running straight and try to find somewhere to hide before they caught up.
"Something's not right." Aamira said. "They've been chasing us for a while now, but they've been keeping their distance and I haven't noticed the rest of them. Their group is smaller than before."
"They're leading us!" Zoroark shouted in frustration. "Part of the pack is chasing us and forcing us to keep running the direction we're going while the rest of the pack is probably split up into two groups and looping around on either side to cut us off."
"What do we do?"
"Get caught? If we go back, the group behind us will catch us. If we keep going in the direction we're going or turn to the side, we'll risk being caught by one or both of the other groups. All we can do is keep going and hope we find another hiding place before then."
Maybe Zoroark was right. It didn't seem like there was any other option but to run, hope they find a hiding place, or go down fighting if they needed to. Something still seemed off about this though. What was it? They had been running for a couple of days now. They had been running from the Zoroark. Aamira had been using her ability to sense aura to find where they were. That was the problem.
"You say all we can do now is get caught. I think we already have been." She said.
"I know this seems bleak, but there's still a chance we can get out of this. I wouldn't have expected you to give up so easily."
"No I mean I think we've literally already been caught. Think about it. Two days of running and we haven't seen a single other pokemon except for the Zorua and Zoroark who are chasing us? Doesn't that seem strange? I don't know everything about how these packs hunt, but don't they enjoy driving their prey to the brink of insanity with illusions before finishing them off?"
"That's… that's true… And with so many of them their illusions would be much stronger than mine. This whole forest could be fake."
"I'm sure it is. In fact, we probably would stumble onto another hiding spot just before being cornered just so they can keep this up longer. You can do the same thing they can, can't you? If you convince yourself this is all an illusion, you can break it, right?"
"It's not that easy! It's true that no matter how strong the illusion is, realizing it's fake can break through it, but look at this! With so many of them working together, this illusion is just as realistic as real life. All of the sights and smells are exactly as they would be. You can even sense their aura! I don't care that you can't sense anything else but them, the only thing that illusions can't manipulate is aura. If you can sense them chasing us, they're really chasing us. Maybe they did find a way, but even if that's true, it's still just a maybe. I can't convince myself fully that this is fake and unless I do, there's no way to break through it!"
"There must be another way. You know how they ran through the illusion you created over the cave entrance? They did it with their eyes closed so they couldn't be fooled by feeling like they had run into something. Without that hesitation that would have come from running directly towards what looked like a solid object, they were able to break through it. Can't we do something like that?"
Zoroark was silent for an uncomfortably long amount of time. Aamira could feel the other two groups of the pack closing in on them from the sides. Zoroark stopped running and started to laugh bitterly. Aamira jumped onto the ground, her legs just barely able to support her. Zoroark turned to her with an expression half between a snarl and a grin.
"You really don't get it do you?" he asked. "If they can manipulate aura, who's to say I'm not one of their illusions? Or, from my perspective, who's to say that you're not? You can't even trust me, can you? That's what they do. They make you rely on one thing and then tear it away from you. I could have betrayed you or went down protecting you, or vice versa. I know I'm real. I have no way to know if you are."
"They're turning us against each other. But you're right. I have no way of knowing whether you're actually you. Anything either of us has said, we could be talking on our own without realizing. They could have gotten that information from us."
"Memories are the only thing that they can't change with illusions, assuming they found a way to manipulate aura. I'm sure we really were together before running into these two, which means if one of us is an illusion we're both trapped in separate illusions. If they are just listening to our ramblings while we're each trapped in our own separate illusions, we can't use memories to reliably convince each other that we're real. And then there's still the possibility this is all real and there is no illusion, in which case we're just wasting time by even talking about this. But then there is another way, isn't there? You could use your abilities to find out for certain."
"I wish I could, but there's more that I need other than just a silver aura to be able to do it."
"Where would you normally get a silver aura?" he asked.
Aamira touched her scarf, which was still tied around her neck. "This scarf was infused with Lucario's— Wait… Why am I still a Riolu, and why are you a Zoroark? I mean if all of this is really an illusion, they could have done anything, right? Consciously I know I'm still Aamira, but physically I must be an illusion, right?"
"They make an illusion based on how they see us and with so many of them, it's completely flawless. We look just like how we would outside of an illusion, aside from any alterations they might make due to events that happen in the illusion."
"So they can only copy the things that they themselves see, right? They couldn't make something show up that they don't know is there."
He nodded. "That's right. What are you thinking?"
"How do you break an illusion?"
"After convincing yourself completely that what you're seeing is an illusion, you could will yourself to see what's actually there. If you want it strongly enough, it shouldn't be difficult."
"I can't tell for sure if you're an illusion or not, but I think I can at least convince myself that I'm in an illusion. So if I knock out the Zoroark, will the illusion break for you?"
"You don't even need to do that much. Just break their concentration."
Aamira nodded and untied her scarf from around her neck. The way she wore it, the Aura Reader's symbol was always facing outwards. What hardly anyone knew, since it was on the opposite side of her scarf, was that when Lucario made it he stitched Aamira's name onto it. She didn't know if the Zoroark would be able to see her if she just looked at it, or if the Zoroark standing next to her really was one of her illusions. If she just looked right at it, they would probably see what was there. Before turning it over, she held it up to her face so that no one would be able to see what was there from any angle. When she turned it over, sure enough, her name wasn't there.
'So it is an illusion after all!' Each part of the pack was closing in on them by now, but it didn't matter. Only seconds before they reached the place where she and Zoroark were standing, everything around her started to shimmer like Zoroark's invisible wall had.
A few seconds later, she was in an entirely different part of the forest. It looked like the area where Daisy had first brought her. She had been laying on the ground, but as soon as she could make sense of where she was, she got to her feet. Her injuries weren't as bad as they had been before. While they had spent two days running through an illusionary forest, it was probably only a few minutes that had passed.
The pack of Zoroark was much larger than in the illusion. There must have been around fifty of them, all surrounding Aamira and Zoroark, who was still laying on the ground with his eyes wide open, but his eyes were also moving as if he were stuck in a dream that he couldn't wake up from.
As soon as Aamira stood up, all of the Zoroark jumped back. "H-how did you do that!?" one of them stammered. "How did you break through it?"
Aamira still didn't know with absolute certainty if what she was seeing now was another illusion or not, but she had to go on the assumption that it wasn't for the time being. She would figure it out for sure later. "Oh it wasn't too difficult. Your numbers might make the illusion itself more convincing, but that doesn't mean you're all smart enough to make it flawless." Each of them growled and bared their teeth at this comment. "Unfortunately, this leaves me in a strange position. I have no real frame of reference for how strong a single illusion is on its own on average. If it's true that a Zoroark's illusions get stronger if they're physically weak, that might tell me how strong each of you is. Either way, I think even combined you'd still be nowhere near his real strength."
"For someone who you praise so highly, he was easy enough to trap in an illusion." Another of the Zoroark replied.
"I wasn't talking about Zoroark. I only said 'his' didn't I? No, I was talking about him." Aamira pointed straight up into the air. As she expected, almost every one of them, even the ones who had been continuing to focus on Zoroark, looked up to see who she was talking about. Though a few were still concentrating on keeping the illusion going, it wasn't enough. Almost as soon as they looked up to focus on a new target, Zoroark jumped to his feet and instantly attacked the closest pack members with Night Daze. Ten of them were caught in the shock wave and were knocked out instantly.
"Not very strong, are they?" Zoroark asked.
"Or smart since they just kind of proved my point."
Zoroark stood a little closer to Aamira, as if daring any of them to try to come any closer to her. They had closed the gap left behind by their fallen pack members, but they looked uncertain now. With just one attack he had knocked out a fifth of their pack and Aamira hadn't shown them how strong she was yet.
"I don't like being tricked, I hope you know that." Zoroark growled at them while scraping his claws together. "As far as I see it, you have two options. Turn tail and run and hope that I only get ahold of the slower pack members, or accept me as your leader and be subjected to a slightly less painful punishment. Either way, no one here is getting out of this unscathed." He looked around at each of the pack members. "Who is your leader?"
A smaller Zoroark stepped forward. Aamira guessed from his size that he was more skilled with illusions than physical combat. He was shaking and not doing a very good job of hiding it.
"Do you know who I am?" Zoroark asked the pack leader.
"You're that rogue who's been forcing all of the packs to accept you as their leader."
Zoroark laughed. "A rogue? Don't think I've just been taking over Zoroark packs. Ninetales are also completely under my control. Does that give you a better idea of who I am?"
A few of the Zoroark, including their leader, backed away but were too scared to turn their backs to him.
"You can't be that Zoroark! There's no way! Why would you help a human who has taken on a pokemon form?"
Zoroark raised one arm and stretched out his claws. "That's my business, not yours. If you ever question me again, I'll make you regret every word you speak to me."
"Y-yes sir…" The pack's leader dropped his gaze and lowered his head into a partial bow and the rest of the pack followed suit.
"If I didn't have somewhere else to be, I would take my time punishing each of you for what you did, but for now I'll just forbid you from hunting for any reason other than for food as your punishment. Let's go." Zoroark turned and started to walk off.
Aamira started to follow after him, immediately wondering why she was still following him at all. It's not like she had been a member of the pack he had just taken over. Then again, that was probably the smartest thing she could do for the time being, considering he now had control over a pack of fifty Zoroark who had previously been trying to hunt her down and she was still injured, though not as badly as they made her think. None of the other Zoroark had followed after them, which Aamira was grateful for.
"So we were each in our own separate illusions then?" Aamira asked.
"Looks like it, though from your question I'm guessing they had copied everything we were saying to each other." He replied without looking at her.
"Then… about telling me what you were after…?"
"Ask my future self, like I said before." Zoroark stopped and looked around. "Hold on… Those Zoroark got me all turned around with that tricked they pulled! It's still the same day that Daisy brought you here, so… I need to get going. Do whatever you want."
"Wait, you're just leaving me here?" Aamira asked.
"What's the big deal? Zoroark are territorial. Theirs should be the only pack in the area. They won't attack you now or they'll have to deal with me. I have something I need to take care of and I don't want you following me, so go take care of yourself."
Aamira watched him walk off, feeling slightly confused. He had reverted to his usual feral self when dealing with the pack after breaking the illusion, but then he had just let her go? He had to be lying about having something to do, since he had been telling her just moments before, though it felt like days, that he was going to use her as bait for something. She couldn't keep thinking about it though. She had to find Lucario and Quill and find out a way to stop Kyurem. Maybe the Zoroark in this time wasn't so bad yet, but that didn't necessarily mean the one in her time wasn't.
