Heya! Got another chapter for you all to enjoy ^^ Fair warning, it gets a little dark in this part, no pun intended

Walking into these parts of the woods was a little more scary than Silver initially thought. He thought it was going to be like the way they came but no...it was much darker, cold, and he felt lots of dread in the air.

"Why would someone take two little kids out in scary ass woods like this? It doesn't seem super responsible." Silver said as he was walking along, keeping an eye out for anything. Tracks or otherwise.

"Lu, Lucario…" His Lucario seemed to agree with that, not liking the look of this place much either.

{Well they did have that Pokemon with them...and since their father seemed to be an experienced trainer, probably thought they were safe with a Pokemon with them.} Aqua theorized, leading the way for them with Storm next to her to keep watch. Aqua was sensing around for any emotions of fear or otherwise but this place...dulled her senses for whatever reason. By this point, almost an hour has passed.

"Cko..?" Storm said as he stopped in his tracks, seeing a small shoe, and then footprints that were going to the left.

"Good work Storm!" Silver praised as he looked a bit closer, eyeing up the mass of footprints that went through the trees.

{Sil...look at those trees...is that..?} Her eyes were wide upon spotting glints of red marking the trees.

"Blood…" Silver said as he felt his heart drop upon seeing that.

"Lucario..?" Luke looked at Silver, seeing what he wanted to do.

Silver looked at Luke back and gave a slow nod. "We have to help them…" He said. "I...I don't think we have any other choice right now, we can't just turn back." He said as he began walking forward, prompting all the others to follow him.

Aqua was clinging quite close to him, it was plain to see that she was incredibly afraid of what they'd find. However...the darkness of the forest was getting thicker, and it was getting much harder to see.

"Don't worry Aqua...I'm here no matter what happens.." He told her as he reached down and put a hand on her head while they walked.

{I know you're just as scared as I am...but...thanks...it means alot to me that you're trying. D-Don't you have a flashlight in your backpack or something?} She asked him as he stopped, unable to see anymore. This caused Storm and Luke to bump into the back of him.

"Ah, sorry guys! Just let me look for something…" He said as he pulled out his backpack in front of him and began digging around. Flashlight flashlight...no...flashlight. "Uh oh.."

{Don't tell me...you forgot to pack a flashlight?} Aqua said in a slightly annoyed tone.

Silver gave a sigh but then remembered. "Oh wait! The pokedex might have a built in flashlight! Hold on.." He said as he pulled out the Pokedex and sure enough...it had an emergency flashlight for occasions such as this. It wasn't very bright...in fact it was a dim light that added to the creepiness, but it was better than nothing.

Shining it on the trees, they would see there was more blood on them...and as the light trailed up further and further to a bigger tree...they'd see something that would stay with them forever.

The Mawile…

Slouched over against the tree, not breathing, not moving. Her body was mangled, torn, and ripped apart.

Silver looked away and was breathing heavily, trying not to panic.

Aqua couldn't help but look, that fear was eating her away from the inside, but this took it to a whole new level.

Luke and Storm even looked afraid now, more than anything else. They all heard whispers around them, and Luke was about to charge up an Aura Sphere, trying to pinpoint where the whispering was coming from.

Thinking quickly, Silver put Aqua on his shoulders and then scooped Storm in his arm. With his other free hand, he took Luke's wrist and began to run, to which the Lucario snatched his wrist back and stopped.

"Lu, Lucario!" Luke said as he charged up an aura sphere and launched in a random direction, trying to fight off the potential attacker.

Silver had whipped himself around just in time to see the explosion off in the distance, caused by the Lucario.

{Sil, he's going to draw more towards us!} Aqua warned, clearly terrified. Luke wasn't helping. If he set off anymore Aura Spheres, something bigger might come for them.

He began to charge another and that's when Silver reacted. He took out his Pokeball and tapped him with it, pressing the button. Luke's eyes widened as he looked back at Silver, going back within the pokeball. Silver's terrified and angry face was the last thing he saw before vanishing inside the Pokeball.

Silver looked to Storm and did the same thing, returning him to his ball, with Storm not showing hardly any resistance. "Come on…" He said to Aqua as he began to run towards a random direction as the whispers got louder, along with rustling in the bushes.

He could hear the sound of slashing, and a familiar Pokemon from earlier...but he just couldn't place it. He ran into a cave where he stopped to catch his breath, panting and wheezing. "Fuck...fuck that was...that was too much.." He was having trouble trying to keep it together, but felt a sense of calm wash over him. Aqua had her hands placed on top of his head, using what psychic abilities she could to just keep him calm. His eyes glanced up to her and gave her a thankful nod. "Thank you…"

{I'm freaked out as well Silver, don't worry about it...guess we know what happened to the Mawile...but what about the-} She stopped her thought when she heard the sounds of pebbles falling and echoing throughout the cave. Both her and Silver tensed up. {I'm sensing three others in the cave with us.} She told him.

"That must be the missing party then. Let's grab them and get the hell out of here." Silver looked up at Aqua who nodded her head in agreement. Anything besides staying in these woods sounded like heaven to her. Her heart couldn't take much more of this type of stress.

The further they went into the cave, the darker it got, Silver could barely see anything, even with the Pokedex's emergency light. Aqua had just as much difficulty but she was able to sense their presence so she was guiding Silver very carefully.

{This cave...it doesn't seem like a natural formation.} The Kirlia told him. Silver nodded, keeping quiet just in case.

There was a little dim golden light in the darkness, just behind a rocky wall. They moved towards it and found their missing party however…the father looked gravely injured, still barely alive and unconscious. "Oh no.." Silver said.

The kids flinched when they heard his voice and looked over to him quickly, shining a tiny lantern at them. Relief washed over them when they saw it was the white haired boy from earlier. "M-Mister! You have to help him, please!" The little girl said, tears in her eyes.

"Aqua, can you use heal pulse?" Silver asked, rather frantically at that.

Aqua gave a nod and went over to the man, having difficulty removing his hand from his stomach where he was injured. Silver leaned down and helped her out, making the injury visible. Seemed that something ripped open his stomach, and it was clear they were claw marks.

Both the children looked pale upon seeing this, and Silver felt like he was going to be sick. Aqua got to work quickly and began to use her heal pulse. The wound began to slowly close itself.

"What caused this?" Silver asked, looking at the kids.

"A-A werewolf!" The little boy said. "Big and scary! Our Mawile stayed behind to protect us while we got away, after our dad got hurt."

"I think it was a P-Pokemon. I don't understand, why would a Pokemon hurt us like this?" The little girl began crying.

Both Aqua and Silver exchanged a sad glance at each-other while she concentrated on healing their father.

"What happened to Diana?" The little boy asked, trying to comfort his sister.

"It uhm…" Silver thought for a moment. "We didn't see her." He said, trying to preserve what innocence they had left.

{He's healed.} Aqua said, looking a bit exhausted after using so much energy. Silver looked over, seeing the wound mended as if it was never there. There was alot of blood however, still around it.

Slowly, the man began to wake up and jolted when he saw Silver's red eyes looking at him. "W-Who?-"

The Kirlia touched his chest, sending emotions of calmness through him. His eyes looked to her as he began to calm down more and more. "It's just us." Silver said. "We came to check on you, your wife was getting worried." He told him.

"Well thank Arceus she did. We were ambushed by a pack of Zoroark's." The father said. "It's their mating season. I should've stayed home, but instead I put my kids in danger…" He seemed to be down on himself.

{He's feeling immense guilt over this whole situation, Sil.} Aqua said into Silver's mind. {I think we should keep the story up that we didn't see the Mawile, I don't think he'd ever forgive himself…} Silver nodded to her, agreeing.

"Well let's get them out of danger, we gotta go back to your cabin." Silver said.

"No." The father said. "There's still a pack of them out there. If we go out there, they'll be hunting us and we'll lead them back to the cabin. I won't let my wife get caught up in my mistakes." He seemed set on that.

{We can't stay here either though, they'll trace our scent back to here.} Aqua said.

Silver nodded at her. "They'll be tracing our scent here either way, we're not going to be safe in this cave." He tried to urge the man.

"It's not a good idea to go back out there. We have a higher chance at living if we stay here." He argued.

Silver's frustration was building inside of him. Taking notice of this, she gently placed a hand on his shoulder, looking at him in the eyes. {I can handle the Zoroarks.} She told him.

"What? Aqua no, you have a type disadvantage against them." Silver said, looking at her with concern.

The kids and their father looked confused. "Wait, she's a Kirlia right? That means she has a type advantage against them being part Fairy." The man said.

"What? Really? I thought it was the opposite." Silver and Aqua seemed to share that thought, Silver just facepalmed.

"That's actually perfect though. If you and your Kirlia can cover us and keep them back, we can make it back to the cabin!" One of the kids said.

Their father seemed a bit worried about the idea but he nodded. "Alright...but young man, are you sure you're up for this?"

Silver gave a nod. "I got this." He said with confidence. Aqua couldn't help but love that look in Silver's eyes, he was determined to protect these people despite barely even knowing them. She'd like to think she had a small part to play in that when she defended him from those bullies all those years ago. "Let's go." He said as he got up, prompting everyone else to stand up as well. He led the group out of the cave only to find something completely unexpected.

The stench of death filled the air as one lone Zoroark stood among about ten corpses of its own species. It's claws were all bloodied and it had a few minor wounds. Smelling a familiar scent, it turned around to the group of humans and the Kirlia that popped out of the cave.

Both Silver and Aqua stood defensively, ready to attack. "The moment we make our move, run." Silver told the others, who nodded in agreement.

However, the Zoroark made no move to attack, let alone look like it was about to attack. It simply gave a small bow towards Silver before jumping away into the trees, disappearing from their sight. Silver and Aqua looked confused at that before she realized something.

{Silver...that's the same one we came across before.} She said. It surprised Silver to hear, he turned his head to her.

"Really?"

"What did she say?" The father asked, still waiting to run along with his kids.

Silver looked back. "She said the way is clear…" He told them, looking at all the corpses. Both the kids' eyes were covered by the dad who didn't want them to see this. "We'll stick with you just in case but it looks like it's a problem that has sorted itself out."

The dad had a skeptical look on his face before nodding, and thus followed them out of the woods and back towards the cabin without much trouble. Once they were all in familiar territory, their tensions seemed to just melt away.

Aqua still looked pretty tired, so Silver picked her up and carried her on his shoulders midway back.

"What about our Mawile? She's still out there." One of the kids said, both of them crying.

"I...don't think we'll see Diana again." Their father said, already guessing what may have happened. "It'll be okay kids...let's just get home."

When they approached the cabin, Melinda came rushing out and practically tackled her husband in a hug, tears streaming down her face. "I was worried sick!" She cried before she saw the rip in his shirt. "Oh my stars what happened? Is everyone alright?"

"Yes yes love, everything is alright thanks to this brave young man here and his Kirlia." Her husband said, looking at them with a grateful smile. Both the kids hugged their mother, she was just relieved they were all back safe.

"You have my most deepest thanks young man. Here…" She reached into her pocket and pulled out a wad of cash.

"Wait wait, woah, I can't...I uh…" Silver looked to her, who only moved it closer to them.

"Please...I insist, my kids, my husband, they're everything to me." Melinda said, offering them a smile. Silver took it but hesitantly so.

{Five hundred bucks. Not bad for not doing much} Aqua said to Silver, smirking a bit after he gave her a small look.

"Thank you." Silver said, gratefully.

"It's getting awfully late too, do you have a place to stay?" She asked. "We have a guest bedroom you can sleep in."

Silver thought about it for a second before shaking his head. "That's kind of you but I already have that covered. Besides, we need to be on our way." Truthfully, after all that, he needed some time to process things. Both of them seemed to understand and Aqua bit back her protests.

"Understood...well thank you for everything, next time you stop by we'll give you a proper feast." She said, winking at them.

After exchanging goodbyes, Silver and Aqua were on their way, back on the road while it was dark out. He wanted some distance away before he set up camp. Silver let out a breath he didn't know he was holding in. "Fuck…" He said, thinking about what happened.

{Are you okay? I...know it's alot to process.} Aqua said. {Do you need to talk about it?} She was trying to comfort Silver as best she could.

"I never wanna see a dead Pokemon ever again." He said, those images still present in his mind. It affected him deeper than he let on, and now that Aqua could see that...she realized earlier he was putting on a brave face for the others.

{Hey. I'm still here, you're still here. As long as we have each-other, everything will work out. And besides...I will never let anything happen to you.} She said, giving him a smile.

He looked up at her, since she was still riding on his shoulders. "You're too good to me, you know that..? What do you even see in someone like me?"

{You mean a dork?} She teased and laughed. {I like you Sil, it's almost as simple as that. You're kind hearted, brave, and strong. More than that though, you're...unique, like me. I feel comfortable and safe around you, just as you feel comfortable and safe around me} She told him. {There's no one else I'd rather be traveling with.}

"Jeez, and you said I was the cheesy one." Silver laughed back, teasing her in return which she responded with a slap to the top of his head. "Ow! Haha. In all seriousness, I do feel the same way. You're...special." Silver told her, feeling a blush come across his cheeks.

She blushed as well. {You're pretty special too Sil} And with that, the two of them were on towards the next city, where Silver would face his first ever gym battle.