A/N: It's been a long time since I updated this story. I wrote this chapter as a Christmas gift last year for a close friend of mine. Unfortunately, a few weeks later, I caught that friend lying about something that was important to me, and I chose to end my friendship with her as a result. That caused her to throw a very public tantrum where she spread lies and rumors about me and leaked a lot of my secrets and personal information that I had trusted her with. Her behavior has continued for nearly a year. I've done my best to try to be the bigger person and ignore her, but a few weeks ago, I was told that she messaged one of our mutual friends and tried to convince him to cut contact with me. I take that sort of thing very seriously, and I'm honestly out of patience. A lot of people who I've talked to about this are pushing for me to take legal action or at least make a callout post about her. I've spent the last couple weeks gathering screenshots and chat logs that prove that she's done some absolutely horrible things, and while I am VERY tempted to go ahead and put them all out in the open, I'm still holding on to the hope that it doesn't have to come to that. My own experiences have made me really hate the whole callout/cancel culture thing, and I don't really want to hurt someone who I used to be good friends with, even if I think she's become a terrible person. We'll see what happens, I guess. I just think it's a shame that it's so easy for popular people to get away with hurting others.
Anyway, I hope that you can all understand that all of this has left me uncomfortable with making content for this fandom. I won't be writing any more for this story, but I at least wanted to make some others happy by uploading this last chapter as a little Christmas gift for all the people who have followed along and supported me. I've been working on a different pokemon story, though, and I'm hoping to start publishing it soon, so feel free to check that out when it goes up.
Merry Christmas, everyone.
Sora
His waking world was pain and darkness.
There was only one source of light in the room which had become his life. Through the bars of his small triangular cell, Sora could see the single open doorway staring back at him like the gaping mouth of a monster, laughing at his misfortune. White tiles bled into the hallway, snaking around the corners and out of view. The smallest amount of light entered the room through that lone opening. It really was a pitiful amount—it didn't even look like the hallway itself was properly lit—but it was all he had. The floor grew dimmer and dimmer as it snuck away from the doorway until it eventually became entirely shrouded by the darkness. He hated living in that inky blackness, but he could tolerate it.
The pain was a different beast altogether. In fact, it was several beasts, all working together to make Sora's life as miserable as possible. The hunger was the worst part. It felt as though some creature had been trapped inside of his stomach, and it constantly gnashed and gnawed at the lining of his underbelly, desperate to escape but never succeeding. His throat was cracked and dry, but the thirst wasn't as bad as the hunger. They gave him water almost every day, probably because they didn't want to risk him dying of dehydration. He didn't know why they refused to let him die, though. Maybe they just wanted to keep torturing him. The wounds he suffered at the hands of his captors added even more pain to his hellish existence. Every time he tried to shift his weight, some forgotten cut or bruise sent a sharp jolt through his body.
But that was only his waking world. He tried to spend as much time asleep as he could. When he slept, the beast in his stomach slept too. The hunger went away for a while, and the pain in his wounds dulled. Sometimes he even dreamed. During those few precious hours, he got to see his brothers again. Those dreams were the only things which kept him even remotely sane.
Maybe I'll die while I sleep and never notice, so I'll just keep dreaming forever, he thought sometimes. That wouldn't be so bad. It would allow him to flee from all this and just keep playing with his brothers, even if it was a lie.
Alas, he always woke in the end. Waking up was almost as bad as the hunger and the torture. In one moment, they would be there laughing with him. In the next, that heavenly mist would begin to leave his eyes and his brothers would go blurry, and he would realize that none of it was really happening. And he would think, No, please, no, not again, please don't take me away yet, please just a little longer, please just let me stay, pleeeeeeeease.
It never did any good, of course. No matter who he prayed to, no matter who he begged to, he always ended up slamming back into reality. This was his life now. This was his fate.
He didn't cry about it anymore. He had long since run out of tears.
Sora blinked against the darkness. The tiny bit of light bore through his eyelids. Will they come today? he wondered, dreading the answer. The Warden had come by yesterday (at least, he thought it was yesterday; he didn't exactly have any way of checking the time), along with his friends, but they had all left without actually doing anything to him. He said he would be back, he said so, I heard him. The Warden lied a lot, but not about that sort of thing. A threat was a promise.
He stared down at the empty food bowl. There weren't even any crumbs left. The bottom was scratched and scarred where he had torn away strips of plastic to chew on in an attempt to sooth the pangs in his stomach. I'll never get any more food unless they come back. But if they came back, they would hurt him. But if they didn't hurt him, the hunger would keep hurting him instead, and that was just as bad. But there was no guarantee they would end up filling his bowl either way. Would he rather starve, or get tortured and risk starving anyway? He supposed it didn't really matter. It's not like he had a choice in the matter either way. All he could do was sit in his filthy little cage and wait for someone else to decide what would happen to him.
His spiky yellow fur was filthy too. He wanted to lick himself clean, but he tasted foul and his tongue was dry. The water bowl was as empty as the food bowl. It had been bone dry for a full day now. They rarely left him thirsty for so long.
They didn't forget about me, did they? he thought, starting to panic. What would happen if they did? Despite everything, he didn't actually want to die. It was just sort of fun to think about, but the idea of staying in this room until he died of thirst or starvation terrified him.
No, no, they didn't forget, that wouldn't make any sense, just calm down. The Warden wouldn't forget about Sora. Not ever. He told him so all the time. I'm his favorite toy.
But the Warden did lie about things that weren't threats. He always said that Sora wouldn't get hurt if he just did as he was told, and he always called him a girl, too. Neither of those things were true. Just yesterday, the Warden had told the dewott and machop who always came with him to feed him, but then they didn't. The Warden must have been behind that. Sora knew he was. It had just been another way to taunt him.
Still…they had to feed him eventually, right? They had to. Sora refused to believe that they would let him die after all this time. He couldn't even remember why he was here, but nobody would just kidnap and torture someone for no reason, would they?
Quit thinking about this so much. They'll come or they won't. Sora was angry at himself more than anybody else. He put his head down on his paws, closed his eyes, and tried to ignore the ache in his stomach and the burning in his throat. At this rate, he would only last another day or two without water. I'll get my answer soon enough.
The answer came far sooner than he was expecting. He didn't even have the chance to start dozing before he heard the approaching footsteps.
His eyes shot open and he raised his head. His fear of starvation was gone, replaced by the terror of what he knew was coming. No, no, please, just go away, I'll just stay hungry, I'll just stay thirsty. He hurriedly backed into the corner as if he could hide there, not caring that his paws sunk into filth with every step.
They kept coming, growing louder all the time. Their voices became more and more distinct, and their claws went clack, clack, clack against the tile floor. Sora had heard these sounds plenty of times before. They weren't good sounds.
A dry whimper rose involuntarily in the back of Sora's throat.
"...sure it's him?" said one of the approaching voices, now so close that he could make out the words being spoken. It was a male voice, but it wasn't deep at all. It's owner was undoubtedly very young. The voice was unfamiliar to Sora, which at least meant that it didn't belong to the Warden. He knew very well what the Warden sounded like.
"Terrin said it was. I guess he could have been lying. I really wouldn't know."
Sora did know this new voice. It belonged to the eevee Steward who always accompanied the Warden on his visits. Matt, that was his name, I remember now. He had never been overly cruel to Sora, but his presence meant the presence of the Warden, and for that reason alone, Sora had grown to dread him.
Three silhouettes appeared in the rectangle of light across the room. They were all eevee. Sora panicked for a moment, but then realized that none of them were large enough to be the Warden. That didn't make him any less wary. Usually the Warden came himself, but rarely, presumably when he was busy with other matters, he sent others in his place.
The smallest of the three eevee stepped forward until he was almost at the bars of the cage. Sora could see him more clearly now. He had a youthful, almost familiar face, and he wore a black cap which folded down over his ears. His fur was thin and patchy and filled with small bald spots.
"Is it him?" asked one of the others, stepping up beside the first eevee. This one was clearly female, and nearly twice the size of the boy.
"Well...he wasn't a jolteon last time I saw him. Plus, it's dark. I don't think I can tell just by looking." The eevee in the black cap stuck his nose between the bars and sniffed. He recoiled almost instantly. "Arceus! He smells awful..."
Sora trembled. Not because the words hurt him—he had more important things to worry about than his stench—but because they had clearly been meant as a taunt. And if someone wanted to hurt Sora with a taunt, then they probably wanted to hurt him with their teeth and claws as well.
The female eevee stared at Sora as he cowered, and she fixed him with a strange look. She wore an expression on her face that he didn't quite recognize. It might have been pity, or concern.
"Well?" she asked, turning to the young male who had sniffed at him. "Can you tell, Vay?"
"Let me try again." The male, apparently named Vay, leaned in and gave Sora another sniff, grimacing. "Ugh...yeah." His face instantly brightened. "Yeah! Sky, is that really you? It's been so long since I've seen you!"
Sky, Sora thought. No, not Sky, no, never. He tried to back further away, but he was already trembling against the wall. There was nowhere to run or hide. He opened his mouth to beg to be called Sora, only Sora, never Sky, but his throat was so dry and unused that his words came out as a burning cough.
Upon seeing his reaction, Vay took a step back. He looked confused. Maybe even a little scared. Who would possibly be scared of someone as pathetic as Sora?
"He...doesn't look so good," said the girl.
"Terrin didn't exactly treat her well," Matt said.
"Him," Vay corrected, his eyes still glued to Sora's face. He wished that he would look away. Eye contact made Sora nervous.
"Er...right," Matt said. "Sorry. I wish I did more when I found out what Terrin was doing. I should have told you or Doki, or even someone else, I just-"
"But you didn't tell us," interrupted the girl. The coldness and anger in her voice made Sora flinch, even though he didn't think it was directed at him.
For a while, there was an awkward silence between the three eevee outside the cage. Eventually, Matt stepped towards the door, muttering, "I'll go and fetch Nex."
Nex? Sora thought. He recognized that name, somewhere in the back of his mind. That was someone he knew very well, wasn't it? He thought so, but he wasn't sure. The holes in his memory were growing wider by the day. It hurt to try to remember.
As Matt walked from the room, his footsteps growing distant, Sora slid backwards into the corner and trembled there, as if that could protect him from the two who remained. It had never protected him from the Warden. Somehow, though, it seemed to work this time. Neither of them made any move to attack him. The strangers named Vay and Doki just whispered to each other with grim faces, sending occasional odd glances towards Sora as they spoke. He tried to shy away from them, but there was nowhere to hide.
A long time passed. Sora didn't know how long, exactly. He had long since lost the ability to keep track of that sort of thing. There was nothing to do but wait and wait and wait, and wonder when the pain would start, as it always did in the end.
He heard the luxray's heavy, lumbering steps long before the pokemon actually appeared in the doorway. With thick, muscular legs and an intense expression, the beast was an intimidating sight. A silver chain hung around his neck, holding a glimmering pendant suspended in the air between his front legs. Matt had not returned with him.
"Sorry if I'm late," said the luxray, yawning. "To be honest, I wasn't really expecting you to find the boy." His eyes flicked over to Sora. "Yep, that's him alright."
"You can tell just from a glance?" Vay asked, sounding surprised.
"I spent a very long time with him," the luxray explained.
"So did I," Vay said, a little indignantly. "I'm his brother."
"Ah, but I taught him to change," said the luxray.
"Oh," said Vay, who looked like he didn't understand what that meant any more than Sora did. "Well, did you bring the key?"
"Of course." As he spoke, the luxray's front left shoulder began to change. At first, it Sora thought it was just spasming, but then he looked on in horror as it almost seemed to dissolve before his eyes. The fur melted away, receding into splotchy pink flesh which bubbled and parted. Something silver and gleaming fell away from the luxray's body, which he caught in his other paw as the shoulder reformed.
Doki must have noticed the shocked expression on Sora's face. "Sky?" she asked softly through the bars, and the word made Sora flinch again. "Don't you remember Nex?"
Trembling, Sora forced himself to gaze into the face of the strange luxray as he pushed the key into the cage's lock. Yes, there was something familiar there, thought it wasn't anything in the face like it was with the bald little eevee standing next to him. He had no memories of any time that he had spent with the luxray, but his expressions and mannerisms made him remember something...something decent. Not quite something good, but decency was enough for Sora right now. He had not felt anything other than pain and fear and hunger in a very, very long time. If not for that distant memory of something better, he would have said that he had never experienced anything but those dark, primal feelings that the Warden had given him. Deep in the pit of his stomach, Sora felt a bit of warmth trying to worm its way up his body. It was a powerful warmth, but subdued. He wasn't sure why he felt it.
It helped him take his first step, though, when the door to his prison swung open and the three pokemon on the other side stepped aside for him, coaxing and gesturing for him to come on out.
As he stepped out, the coldness of the tile floor surprised him so badly that he almost jumped. In his cage, everything had been perpetually warm due to the grime and Sora's own body heat being a constant presence. He began to shiver and had to fight to keep himself from collapsing.
"Hey, it's okay!" Vay said, sounding worried. He ran up to Sora's side to support him "Nex, will you take him?"
Wordlessly, the luxray reached for Sora. As his paw extended toward him, it began to change, just like his shoulder had. Sora gasped as Nex's claws and pawpad vanished and his digits elongated onto something a little more human-like. He used his new fingers to grab Sora by his spiky white collar and he felt a horrible sense of vertigo as he was nearly hurled onto the luxray's back. Sora landed gently, feeling sick. He looked down at Doki and Vay-which felt very strange, since he was so used to looking up at the Warden and his lackeys while he cowered in a corner-and felt slightly guilty when he noticed that he had left a fair amount of filth on Vay's side where the eevee had been supporting him. Then Sora glanced downward and realized that he was making Nex's back even dirtier than Vay's side, and he wondered if he would be punished for making such a mess. The thought made him tremble. That feeling of warmth had fled from him as quickly as it had arrived.
Maybe Nex had noticed, because he told the others, "I had better go get Sky sorted out so he can calm down. You two can come to the Ward of the Dreamers tomorrow if you want to visit."
Vay and Doki nodded their farewells, and then Sora, on Nex's back, departed from the only room he had ever remembered being in, and he learned what secrets that the lone door on the other side of it had been hiding. The orderly white tiles led out into a hallway. The walls were also a clinical, pristine white, but the hallway stretched so far that the ends on both sides turned to darkness, and the ceiling stretched high enough (or perhaps the lighting was just poor enough) that Sora could only see blackness above him as well. He could make out a few doors further down the hall, but they were few and far between. As Nex walked, Sora managed to turn his head and take a peek through one of them. It was identical to his own room, with a triangular cage in one corner and very little else. He thought he could make out a dark mass slumped behind the bars. Was that pokemon condemned to the same fate as Sora? Had it been able to hear his screams? I didn't hear any screams from it. Was that why the rooms were spaced so far apart? To provide an isolation so extreme that Sora and this pokemon had not even been allowed to find that small camaraderie in each other? He shuddered.
"Are you cold, Sky?" asked Nex, who had not even glanced into the room.
"S-Sora."
"Hmm?"
"Sora," repeated Sora, finding that it was the only word that he could say with any sort of conviction. "Please. I'm Sora. Please."
"Sora, then," Nex said slowly. "You're shaking."
Sora didn't say anything. He nodded, and only realized afterwards that the luxray wouldn't be able to see it.
"Well, whatever you need, we'll get it for you," said Nex. He sniffed distastefully. "And you need a good bath, I can tell that much. No offense. But we'll get you some food first, don't you worry. Arceus, look at you, you're all fur. I can barely even feel you up there."
The bath meant nothing to Sora, but the prospect of food made his stomach rumble. Would this luxray give him bigger rations than the Warden had? He still wasn't fully sure why he was being let out of his cage, but he guessed that more freedom meant more food. Of course, for all Sora knew, he'd just end up back in that cage by the end of the day. He shuddered again.
"The one who did this to you is dead," Nex said suddenly. His tone was much darker than it had been before. It scared Sora a little, but he didn't have any choice but to trust the luxray. "Got his throat ripped out trying to bully a little runt even smaller than you. He can't hurt you anymore. Does that make you feel better?"
Sora wasn't sure how it made him feel, so he stayed silent again, hoping that it wouldn't offend Nex. Could the Warden really be dead? Did it even matter? He was only the leader of his tormentors. The others were still out there with their malevolent eyes and sharp claws dripping with Sora's blood.
Nex didn't initiate any more conversations during their walk. He seemed to realize that Sora wasn't feeling very talkative. They walked for a very long time in silence. Sora didn't know exactly how long. He could remember the concept of seconds and minutes and hours, but captivity had a way of draining a pokemon's ability to tell the passage of time. Occasionally they turned down forks in the hallway, or passed by pokemon walking in the opposite direction. Every time it happened, Sora tensed up until the other pokemon disappeared into the darkness behind them.
The end of their journey came abruptly. As Nex and Sora neared a doorway, the smell of food filled the air, and Sora's mouth watered. It never crossed his mind that Nex would turn into that doorway to feed him, but it was a pleasant surprise when they entered the room. For once, the lighting touched all four corners, illuminating a rectangular table filled with trays of food. It was human food, but a pokemon sat in one of the benches that ran along the long sides of the table, snarfing down several sandwiches. That pokemon was...Nex?
The other luxray looked up as Sora and Nex entered the cafeteria. He paused his chewing to look up at them, then scowled at each of them in turn. It seemed as though a dozen complains were running through his head. Sora looked back and forth between him and Nex. Their faces were identical.
After swallowing his large mouthful of food with what looked like great effort, the other luxray said, "Really, Nex? How many times do I have to ask you to stop using my body? It's creepy. And what is that doing here?" He lifted a paw and pointed it at Sora, still on Nex's back.
Nex knelt down and helped Sora off of his back. It felt strange to stand, and his legs shook a bit. "This is Aidren, Sky-er, Sora," said Nex brightly. "He's very pleasant, as I'm sure you can tell."
Aidren's scowl deepened. "You can't just bring every mangy mutt you meet into the Wardens' cafeteria, Nex. There are rules. Look at the girl, she's filthy! I'm trying to eat!" As if to prove his point, he shoved another sandwich into his mouth. Through the mouthful, he said something that sounded a little like, "And change out of my body!"
Sora's blood ran cold. Not at Aidren's rudeness, but at what he had said about this being a Wardens' cafeteria. Had Nex really led him directly to a place where creatures as horrible as the Warden gathered? Maybe since his old Warden had died, he was going to be assigned a new one now. He didn't have much time to dwell on it before the conversation continued.
"Oh, fine," Nex sighed, and he began to change again. Only this time, it wasn't just his paw or his shoulder that changed. His entire form began to collapse and shrink, until he had lost all of his fur and even his limbs and head. Sora watched in shock, his worries driven from his mind, as Nex's body twisted and transformed into a shapeless pink blob even smaller than himself. A face emerged from the pink mess, and Nex's silver necklace danced across the surface of his body.
"Is this better?" asked Nex, who was apparently a ditto.
"Slightly," muttered Aidren through his food. "Can you please get that jolteon out of here? Arceus, I can practically taste her with that stench."
"The jolteon has special permission from the High Warden's apprentice," Nex said patiently.
Aidren rolled his eyes, swallowed, and sniffed. "Vay is as lax with all these mutts as the High Warden is with him." He rose from his seat. "I'm leaving, then. Human food isn't worth it if I have to put up with this." That didn't stop him from grabbing two more sandwiches in his mouth before limping away, though.
Once they had the room to themselves, Sora's mind drifted back to the idea that there were Wardens nearby. It was a chilling thought, but after such a long period of starvation, he was too tempted by the smell of food to feel worried at the moment. As soon as Nex helped him onto the bench and gave him permission to eat as much as he liked, Sora attacked the feast before him. In less than a minute, he managed to eat four meaty sandwiches, lap up an absurd amount of water, and spend an extended period of time with his muzzle buried deep in a tray filled with hot stew. He had never tasted anything so good. As he pulled his face out of the stew, he reflected that this meal was, perhaps, the happiest he had ever felt. Then he promptly turned away from the table, wretched, and vomited on the floor.
"Alright, Sora?" Nex's pulsating pink flesh stretched toward Sora's back comfortingly as Sora retched again, his throat burning. "Sorry," Nex said guiltily. "I guess kibble would've been better for your first meal back, eh? Just thought you deserved a treat after everything you've been through, but maybe human scraps are a tad too rich for you right now."
Sora was hardly paying attention. As soon as he was finished vomiting, he returned to the table. After a quick drink of water to soothe his throat, he returned to the stew. He at least managed to swallow a bit more slowly this time, though.
Nex waited patiently as he ate. Sora had forgotten what it was like to feel full, but he was quickly reminded. A few sandwiches later, and his stomach felt like it would burst. He probably still would have gone back for more, but Nex touched Sora on the shoulder, informed him that he would not have to wait days for his next meal, and practically dragged him away from the food.
Nex returned to his luxray form as they set off down the hallway again. "Think you can handle walking on your own this time?" he asked. "No offense, but you've already puked once."
Sora agreed to try, and he found that his legs were much stronger now that he had some food in him. Walking on his own didn't make this place any less scary, though. If anything, it frightened him even more, since he didn't have a large, authoritative pokemon to hide behind. Still, he did his best to put on a brave face. It didn't seem like he was in trouble for the time being.
He followed Nex through several forks until the lighting began to improve. There were even lights in the ceiling now, and everything looked a bit cleaner than it had just a few hundred feet ago. Nex led Sora down a right turn into a very short hallway, and Sora went wide-eyed at what they found at the end of it. Two stone statues of two different four-legged pokemon (which Sora did not know the names of) guarded a large, arching doorway. Beyond the doorway was a room made entirely of marble, with frilled white pillars in each of the four corners. A large circular hole filled most of the room, digging deep into the floor.
"The High Warden's personal bath," Nex explained. "Only him and a few other really important pokemon are supposed to use it. Even us Wardens need his permission."
Sora's eyes snapped to him. "Y-you're a Warden too?" he asked, his voice rising in fear.
"Not all of us are Terrin," Nex said with a sympathetic smile.
Sora looked away and gave a frightened nod, unconvinced.
Nex was clearly unconvinced as well. He placed a paw under Sora's chin and turned her head toward him. "Some of the Wardens at the Lab are very cruel pokemon. Other Wardens are just like you, only luckier. My position as a Warden doesn't inherently warrant trust, but you shouldn't inherently distrust me, either. I'm here to help you, Sora. I promise."
Sora looked into his eyes and nodded more firmly. He still wasn't entirely convinced, but it seemed to be what Nex wanted from him.
"Good," said the ditto with a smile. "As I was saying, we're not really supposed to use this bath, but it's not like anyone will notice. I think the High Warden is too old to make the walk down here these days. He just calls Stewards to his chambers to wash him. Even if he finds out, I'm sure your brother will back us up. Shall I turn it on?"
After a quick transformation into a raichu, Nex turned a lever, and water began to pour out of five golden faucets at once into the white basin. Sora had never seen a bath before, but he already knew that this was one of the most ornate ones in the entire world. He peered over the edge and saw that the streams fell nearly nearly ten feet down before crashing into the bottom, which sloped downward into a dome. One corner of the tub had wide, rounded stairs leading down to the bottom in one-foot intervals. It seemed that this tub was made to accomodate pokemon of all shapes and sizes.
With some help from Nex, Sora climbed down onto the second step as the water rose and steam filled the room. Despite the massive size of the basin, it filled incredibly quickly. Soon, pleasantly warm water flooded onto his level and grazed against his paw. Nex fidgeted with the faucets again, and two of them began to stream liquid soap instead of water. The bottom of the basin was soon obscured by a thick layer of bubbles, the water level had just reached the base of the first step, and it smelled wonderful.
Nex flipped off the faucets. The silence felt very odd after several minutes of crashing torrents.
The ditto, still a raichu, hopped onto the first level of the tub, where the water was no deeper than a puddle. He pulled a brush and several kinds of soap from the side of the tub, then got to work.
The initial lathering was nice. Nex covered Sora from head to paw with about a dozen different scented shampoos and oils, then had him rinse them off by diving deeper into the pool. He was surprised to find that being submerged in warm water after living in filth for so long made him almost as happy as the sandwiches and stew had. Each time that he went underwater, he stayed under until his lungs felt like they were about to burst. Sora liked it down there. It was even cleaner and warmer than it was up at the surface, which had begun to turn a nasty shade of brown from all the grime that had been washed off of him.
The bath took an unpleasant turn when it came time to use the brush, though. The water did little to untangle his fur, and each pass of the brush painfully ripped chunks of yellow away from Sora. It took almost five minutes to properly comb through his back, but once Nex had finished, he ran the brush smoothly down again and again and again, and the raichu even used his claws a few times for a proper scratch. It felt so good that tears began to fall from Sora's eyes. They were even hotter on his cheeks than the bathwater.
"Will you brush the rest of me too?" Sora asked, almost pleading, after Nex had finally finished untangling his back.
"I could," Nex said, smiling, "but there's a better way, you know. We can get you all untangled right away and get right to the part that actually feels good."
"Really?" Sora asked eagerly. "How?"
"You need to change," Nex said. "Become something without fur. It will be much easier to clean yourself then."
That made no sense to Sora. "But I'm not a ditto like you."
"You don't need to be!" Nex said. "All my old lessons must be lodged in your head somewhere, Sora. You've done it before. I've seen you. Go ahead and change."
As he spoke the last word, Nex put his paws on Sora's shoulders and shoved him underwater. He sunk halfway down the tub and found himself suspended there, with plenty of room to swim in every direction. Sora hadn't had a chance to get a good breath of air before he was pushed, and he was already starting to feel pressure on his lungs, but when he looked above him, the water was filthy, clouded with dirt and frothy bubbles, so much so that he couldn't see beyond the surface. Below him, the water was warm, clear, and pristine. It almost seemed to called to him.
So, ignoring the burning in his chest, he swam downwards, and as he touched the bottom of the basin, he did the only logical thing: he changed.
Now that he was here, it felt so obvious. He forced his tail to elongate into something longer and thicker. The fur vanished from his body, but instead of revealing the soft pink skin underneath, he found that he was suddenly covered in blue scales. His spiky white collar was replaced with a lighter and more transparent frill. He hadn't really done any of it on purpose. It was just an old instinct, something he had learned before the darkness brought on by the Warden.
And he knew that he wouldn't drown if he breathed in, too. He did so, and the pain in his lungs vanished.
When something splashed into the water beside him, he knew that it was Nex. He was a golduck now, and he swam circles around Sora, laughing, his voice thick and distorted. Nex had brought the brush down with him, and he used the flat side to knock away whatever dirt hadn't already sloughed off of Sora's smooth new body.
Five minutes later, they were back above the surface, sitting together by the side of the pool. Sora had changed from a vaporeon back into a jolteon. It seemed so easy to change between the two, now that he had done it once. He closed his eyes contentedly as Nex brushed his fur, which was now perfectly clean and free of knots. Apparently, cleaning himself as a vaporeon meant that he could change back into a clean jolteon. He supposed it made sense. It was still the same body, no matter what form it took. That's how Nex explained it anyway.
"I'm sure you'll fit right in back in the Ward of the Changers," said the ditto eagerly. He had changed back into a raichu to brush. "Everyone's been missing you, you know. We all thought you must have died on that day, but...well, that business with Terrin was a nasty shock, I'll tell you. It's over now, though. I'm bringing you back home."
Home, Sora thought. He couldn't remember any home but the Lab, but he did dream of his brothers all the time. They were almost faceless now, though. Brothers...That boy, Vay. He was Sora's brother, wasn't he? Why hadn't he registered that until just now?
The thought fled his mind almost immediately.
But home...home sounds nice. Nex was nice, too. If he went with Nex, would it really be the home he dreamt about sometimes? Did he have a choice?
Probably not. Either way, it wasn't something he was prepared to deal with right now. Today was the best day he could ever remember having, and he didn't want to ruin it by thinking of how things might end up.
Sora curled up and dozed off as Nex continued to brush.