Chapter 39 - Sisters

Team Doom HQ – 12th Floor - Espeon's POV

I had to run on ahead in search for Latias, couldn't let any of those Team Doom morons stop me from searching. Our first encounter on the eleventh floor was with this female white Mew. Obviously a human turned Pokemon Team Doom member attacking us. We fought as hard as we could, for as long as we could hoping Zackary could come running up the stairs to help take down this one, but he didn't show.

One by one our friends fell; first Golurk who had managed to use a Phantom Force on her inflicting somewhat damage, but she kept coming back to finish the job. Gardevoir… well she didn't do much other than flail around like an idiot and tripping over her own two legs… and you were fighting well before this…

Totodile was the next to have been defeated by the Mew, but not before he told me to run on ahead and find Latias while 'we' fought her off. That I had to find and protect her and that Zackary would help. Reluctantly, I ran towards the stairs ready to start the climb up to the twelfth floor hoping she would be there and not on the dang roof, cause Latias' tend to fly around. But I couldn't help but look back wanting to help them take down the Mew, because all those who had been defeated by her, a strange purple mist circled around their heads. 'What the heck is that? Is that her ability?' I thought as I watched the battle between the last Pokemon; Totodile against Mew, it didn't last long, she had defeated him and he too fell unconscious on the floor but not before managing to use Scratch against her. With all of them defeated, it wouldn't take too long for the Mew to take notice to me standing there at the bottom of the stairs staring at the aftermath of a battle, she would probably come after me next and Zackary would have to deal with her alone and Latias would be all on her own fighting whatever Team Doom member remained up there and Shiny Latias.

Out of breath, but still ready to keep on going, I finally reached the twelfth floor after a five minute run (yeah it was pretty long.) but I couldn't rest yet, I still had to find Latias.

The corridor unlike the previous ones, this one was larger than the others and only had one staircase leading to what I assume was the rooftop access. The floors were carpeted with white marbled walls and many white pillars stacked up high against the walls… fancy, I guess. But there almost halfway across this stupid fancy corridor was none other than Latias floating towards the stairs. "Espeon!- Uh, I mean, Latias!" I shouted at the top of my lungs. Not knowing why I shouted my own name to Latias when I was trying to get her attention, thankfully it did and she immediately turned towards me and stopped. With an exhausted long sigh later after realizing she wasn't levitating towards me, I had to use up my already low energy to run as fast as I could towards her before she decided to move along again, and if those stairs leading to the roof are anything like that five minute stairs between the eleventh and twelfth floor, Espeon is no longer able to battle, Espeon has retired!

"Espeon! W-where are the others? Where's Zack?" She said as I closed the remaining the gap between us, I stood in front of her, looked up at her with a glare.

"Where are the others? Where's Zack?" I shouted in anger, more like worry than anger. "You could've been killed flying off like that! While you had flown off to go searching for that bitch of a sister of yours, the rest of us have had to deal with those Team Doom members. Some have almost killed us; we barely got out of a few of those battles with our lives, including Zack who is right now fighting his brother perhaps to the death. Oh but let's not worry about us because the only reason you are here is to find your fucked up sister and try to smoke 'em peace pipe, while you leave us to chase after you, worrying that you had already died!"

"How do you think Zackary would feel if you died? What about after finding out you were pregnant? He'd be distraught, it would break him!" I shouted, my voice carried throughout the corridor. It had to be said. She had to know how stupid this was, how she could've died if the last members of Team Doom were up here or if Shiny Latias was just lurking around the next corner and then slice her neck right open to bleed out. I would know if Latias did die, Zackary… he would no doubt chase after her just to see her dead. And after that, I suspect the worse could happen. The kind of thing she was playing at, it was dangerous. Flying off like that just to search for her sister to try and talk with her while we stayed and fight… Latias stared at me in silence as I said all of this. Listening in to every word I said, or just pretending to so she could go back and resume her search- No, she isn't like that. "I should've told him when I had the chance. Friends don't lie to each other. Zackary's my friend, my best friend, and I don't want to see him suffer." I told her this and her expression seemed to change to a somewhat understanding one, as if she was finally listening to me, that what she was doing was suicidal, it was dangerous for both her and her unborn child. "No one else has to die. Certainly not you, nor Zackary, our Pokepals….. and your sister I guess if she wants to listen to reason and abandon this antagonistic role she has." I wanted her to listen to me and come back to find Zack, or more importantly fight that Mew and save our friends first. Shiny Latias was dangerous. The farther away Latias was from her the safer she and her unborn child would be.

"Espeon… I know I was selfish, but I am not doing this just to talk with her, but I want to stop the fighting as fast as possible without anyone else having to get hurt." She cried, closing her eyes and placing a paw on her stomach. "I do want to try at least to talk some sense into my sister. I believe in redemption, call me stupid but I do believe I can try at least. I don't want Zack to kill anyone, he isn't a murderer. If he see's my sister again, if she sees him, she'll no doubt taunt him trying to provoke him to attack her."

"So you think Shiny Latias deserves to live after what she has done? The bitch killed Zackary's mom right in front of her in case you have forgotten. She just snapped his neck as if she were snapping a bundle of twigs together… "

"But maybe I can try and reason with her to stop all of this fighting. I know have said that many times before, but I want to try. I don't want to resort to killing her because she killed many before." Latias levitated down in front of me, allowing a stray tear to drip from her cheek. "I'm sorry Espeon, I didn't mean to worry you or the others. I just wanted to help."

"I know you want to help, but rushing into a battle isn't a good thing, especially if you don't have at least your trusty Espeon companion with you or your friends." Latias laughed along with me at that stupid word of advice. Yeah, I wasn't good at making good advices. "You never know, you might need someone backing you up if you go in there alone; healing wise, Ethers, Antidote's, or to help take down a foe with a higher level or better stats than you."

"I guess I acted far too rash." She laughed nervously.

"Yes you did, and if you were a little bit faster, then you and I would've met up on the rooftop by now!" An all too familiar voice was heard behind Latias. Turning, we saw her, Shiny Latias staring down at us with that annoying smug evil grin as she levitated closer towards us. I quickly jumped to Latias' side preparing to give it my all to defend Latias from this evil bitch.

"S-sister," Latias said cautiously as she levitated close to her. "Please, I want to talk to you." This was it. The conversation Latias wanted with her sister to persuade her to stop the fighting. Would it work? Would she be able to get through to her and the end of the fighting and our retirement just at the very next chapter? I had to wait and see, but at the same time carefully watch Shiny Latias at all times. You never know when this crazy bitch will turn things from zero up to a hundred in a matter of seconds.

Shiny Latias remained quiet, lowering her eye lids and scanning her sisters body language; from her shaky paws, nervous on starting the conversation, tears forming at the eyelids, and gritting teeth wanting to know what her reason for this talk was about. A pre-emptive strike upon her? Yes, why else approach the killer of her lover's mother than to strike first. She didn't know Latias, what kind of Pokemon she was like. But Shiny Latias allowed Latias to get that close to her, watching her every movement and listened. "Sister, I don't want to hurt you, I don't want to hurt anyone. Ever since you came into my life, not knowing I had a sister, I wanted to know more about you, about our parents… years without seeing one another after the downfall of Annihilation, I searched for you, not to hurt you, but I wanted to help you." Shiny Latias' expression had changed from a glare at the mention of Team Annihilation falling to a more softened one when she heard that Latias was searching for her to help her. "I believed that… maybe if we did see each other again, then maybe we could still be a family, that you could live with us."

"L-Liar!" She yelled, charging up a Psychic type move of some kind from her paws, shooting it at Latias pushing her back. That was it that was the moment talk was over and the time for action was here. She couldn't be reasoned with; she was too far gone beyond redemption. Latias was right about one thing; when Shiny Latias was taken care of, Team Doom would fall.

I jumped in between Latias to protect her from the bitch, using Confusion to give us some room, but she beat me to it by using her own moves first, one which hit us both. We had never seen Shiny Latias battle or use any of her moves before, so we didn't know what we were getting ourselves into. I had assumed she would have a similar style to that of Latias; Mist Ball, Psychic, mostly Psychic type moves. Lifting up her paw and pointing it at us, a cold gust of Icy Wind blew into us damaging us with ice damage lowering our special attack. It was a move I was fine after, but with Latias being a dragon type, Icy Wind did a good amount of damage as she lowered to the ground already weakened by the move. But that didn't stop Shiny Latias from using her moves to levitate a pillar off the wall and throw it right at us with her Psychic.

I jumped over to Latias and immediately used Protect to shield us from her thrown pillar. The pillar hit my Protect hard destroying it upon impact and the pillar breaking it into many pieces scattered around here and there, pieces I gladly used against Shiny Latias sending bullet-like shards directly at her, but she had protected herself by grabbing another pillar with her Psychic as a shield before throwing her new pillar at us.

Latias managed to get up and levitate out of the way while I at just the right moment jumped up out of the way before the pillar could hit me. Latias used Thunder Wave sending a small charge from her paws directly at Shiny Latias hitting her square right in her chest. She was shaking a little, levitating in place and not moving. Was she paralyzed? Or was this a trick wanting us to move in at the same time when she can easily get us both? I waited were I was and used Future Sight. All I had to do was to wait a little and then I could attack her.

Latias moved in with a Dragon Claw at the ready, but Shiny Latias evaded her attack and grabbed her neck from behind and threw her right into some pillars.

"Nice try with that Thunder Wave, my little sister. But you failed. So try again if you can." Shiny Latias smiled, turned her head towards me still standing there and decided to throw another pillar at me… this was going to hurt… with the pillar already being thrown, Latias warned me to watch out for the pillar while she continued to fight Shiny Latias. Sure this was going to hurt bad, but at least I had my future sight to finally hit and damage her… here comes the worst pain I have ever felt in my life so far… physically. "Gwuah!" With a loud explosion, I was sent flying into one of the pillars against the wall with a heavy smack. I didn't feel the pain at first feeling a little bit numb when I opened my eyes surprised at first how I felt no pain, then a little scared thinking that I had now become paralyzed due to being hit by a pillar right in my left shoulder blade. But that wasn't the case, as once I moved my toes, hind and forelegs, moved my neck by an inch, I felt the worst aching pain throughout every inch of my body like I was on fire. "ESPEON!" I could hear Latias call to me as she was still fighting her sister. I managed to crane my head up to see Latias despite the pain I was feeling.

Latias used Mist Ball shooting a small blue ball right at Shiny Latias head; Shiny Latias saw this and effortlessly used a Protect shielding her from the attack as it exploded upon impact with her Protect. But after the explosion from Latias' Mist Ball, she moved in and used Dragon Claw right into her stupid face as she pathetically screamed from the damage she received.

But Latias didn't stop at that, quickly she charged right into Shiny Latias and used another Thunder Wave one after the other. It worked, Shiny Latias had been affected by the Thunder Wave's, she was paralyzed present with how much Shiny Latias was shivering and gasping every time she tried to move, let alone attempt to use another move to attack with. Without wasting her opportunity, Latias attacked her by grabbing her with Psychic as it engulfed her body and she used it to crush her letting out a wail as she could do nothing and feel just a small amount of what she had coming to her if not tons more. Shiny Latias screamed and used her own Psychic to break out of Latias' grip. She then used what appeared to be a Draco Meteor appearing above her as she started to shoot them down at Latias. Latias had to evade this attack. Not only would Protect shield her from how many there were being shot down, but she had to be aware of how much health and energy she had left. She was weak to that move, and just the right amount would see this battle end within a matter of seconds.

Latias evaded the first few meteors missing her by a few meters as she flew around the corridor as fast as she could, but the meteors were far too fast for her to evade them all. Latias was hit on her right wing by two or three of the many meteors that had fallen. Shiny Latias charged up her Psychic to attack Latias, a close range attack would probably do a good deal of damage to her. But Latias wouldn't back down; she used her own Psychic at close range also. The two sisters from one side of the corridor flew at one another at extreme speed and right into the other. Their moves had collided with each other's causing a massive explosion sending the two sisters back first crashing into the pillars, cracking upon impact or sending a row to fall like dominos.

Shiny Latias had fallen to the ground after hitting her back against one of the pillars. Latias sighed and levitated down to her, I guess this was it. I wasn't sure how she would handle her. I guess knocking her out would be best, and then capture her and Team Doom would soon follow. She would no doubt try to talk to her one last time, but after looking over at Shiny Latias, she was as good as defeated now… 'Hospital beds and relaxing at the beach… I'm coming to ya!' I thought loudly as I relished the pleasant thought of my wounds finally being treated, ice cream to heal up! And enjoying time at the beach underneath the beautiful hot sun, praise the sun!

"Zack isn't a terrible guy; he doesn't want to kill anyone." Latias said to her sister gently as she levitated beside her downed sister as she tried to sooth her wing from the Draco Meteor before. "You don't need to be alone anymore."

"W-what about me? After what I did to him, his friends, his m-mother, surely he'll kill me… I deserve it." She glumly sighed and turned her head away from Latias, burying her face within her paws, sobbing.

"Please, I want to help you. If you surrender, you'll live." Latias extended out her paw to her. Shiny Latias saw this as a tear formed at the corner of her eyes. "I don't want to lose the only sister I have left."

"But why do you want to help me? I'm far too gone from being helped. I'm a terrible Pokemon, I've done so much evil in this world… i-I can't ask you or anyone else for forgiveness, because I don't deserve it, I don't deserve anything good in my life." Her tears were finally released. With her eyes shut down tight, she covered her eyes with her paws and pleaded. "P-please… kill me, I'm just a m-monster… *sniff* I can't be helped. So please, end me…" This was an unusual sight to see. A minute ago she was all 'bwahahaha, die, die, die you good guys you.' to 'I'm sorry, don't hurt me. I'm a troubled Pokemon' something I didn't buy. Something was up; she had to be plotting something. If she were, then Latias could be very well be walking right into a trap. I had to regain my strength back and protect her at all costs. But unfortunately, my energy was too low for me to conjure up a move to help me out; I had to wait a little more before I could use something.

Shiny Latias slowly looked up at Latias with her paw extended out for helping her up, she took it with a smile… then the bitch with extreme speed to match her own sister grabbed Latias by the neck and pinned her against the pillar. Her claw pressed up against her neck and her other paw pressing against Latias' chest to prevent her moving. Seeing this, my initial response was to bolt for the bitch and attack with whatever energy I had left. But in my weakened state, I couldn't do anything; I was pretty much useless in this situation and was forced to watch as Latas, my friend was about to be killed by a crazed Latias. 'W-what would Zack say' I thought. 'Would he say or shout why I couldn't save her? Would I still be his friend after?' I shook my head, trying to push away those thoughts. 'N-no! Don't even think about that, what I need to do is to try and come up with something that'll save Latias. There's just gotta be a way!'

"Do you know what I plan on doing to your lover Zack, dear sister?" She smirked as she crushed Latias' neck against the pillar with her paw. "There was a reason I chose him to turn into a Pokemon, a reason he became one of the Team Doom Eight, an ability to absorb the life energy of all Pokemon he defeats thus making him stronger. I want him to get stronger; I wanted him here so I can use him. You see, in his angered state, he loses control of himself and all of his power he has within himself is unleashed to whatever poor soul has angered him. That is where I come in, with my ability; I shall control him in his angered state making him kill all of my enemies and all who shall stand in my way. He'll be my right hand and this region will belong to me. Soon, my father's wish for a better world will become a reality."

"W-why him?" I gasped as I managed to crawl out from the destroyed pillar, escaping with all of my limbs secure and body badly cut. "Why d-did you target Zack? Y-you could've easily got s-someone else…"

"True, but I wanted to exact my revenge on him for taking my father's life and robbing me of my family." She growled, crushing Latias harder than before using whatever moves she had to keep Latias from fighting back. "So I decided to not only kill his mother, but I'll kill you, my dear sister. And when he sees what I have done, he'll lose control and then I can control him with my ability; making him see all of his friends, family and allies as his enemy. And after I have ruled this region, that is when I'll release him from my control and show him what he has done to his 'enemies' then I'll kill him in the most perfect way I know; a quick death, just like I did to his mother. Because I would rather see him dead than do it nice and slow, like I'll make him do to you." She laughed evilly.

"Wait! Don't do this!" I yelled, begging for Shiny Latias to stop and turn to me or get her to monologue granting me some extra time, but no. Shiny Latias raised her paw up readying her claws to stab Latias in her neck with her claws, an attack which would no doubt be a fatal one. I had to come up with something, to use a move to distract Shiny Latias, to get her to hurt me while Latias made her escape, but I was too weak to even move in the slightest. I had hardly any energy left to use a move, any move to stop Shiny Latias. I could try and taunt her, say something to her that would really anger her. But all Shiny Latias wants is to make Zackary suffer, to defeat him. Then without thinking, the words that would soon change everything we know it to a dark one, with friendships broken, friends dead, our team broken up all because I told her, I shouted. "She's pregnant!" Just as Shiny Latias' claw had touched Latias' neck ready to finish her off for good, she stopped. A small drop of blood had trickled down her neck. Shiny Latias with her eyes wide stared at her sister's face for what seemed like years had passed. Shiny Latias looked down at Latias' stomach, then back at her.

"Is that true?" She asked in a strange quiet tone as compared with her angry tone before, removing her claw slowly from Latias' neck. "Are you really pregnant?"

Latias slowly nodded. "A month almost." Shiny Latias glanced over at me… before looking back at Latias once more, only this time her eyes began to glow as her lips curved into a vicious smile and opened up as she revealed to her sister her sharp teeth.

"Interesting. I am not one for altering the plan... but this should suffice!"

And that was it. This was the beginning of the end of what we once had… and it was all my fault.

To be continued...

Trivia:

This chapter was originally supposed to colide with Zack fighting with his brother in a two part fight instead of separate chapters.