Chapter 4

Opening his eyes, Aura grunted as he was blinded by a white light. After letting his eyes adjust he was stunned to find he had awoken in a pure white room lying on a pure white bed, he was even dressed in a pure white shirt and jeans with white shoes.

Allowing his eyes to adjust a little more, Aura began to see hints of gold accenting the room that he swore wasn't there a moment ago. Soon he came to realize there was more furniture around him than he thought, all of which appeared to be oriental themed while sharing the same white and gold colouring.

"What the hell is this place?" Aura asked himself curiously, suddenly realizing he couldn't see Diamond or the others anywhere. "Diamond?! Prince?! Dan?! Where is everyone?!"

"They are not here, my child," he heard a booming female voice echo through his head. Suddenly the room around him began to phase away until Aura found himself now standing in a giant grand hall of some sort.

"Who are you?! Show yourself dammit!" Aura shouted as he scanned the room for the source of the voice.

"Hmhm, turn around." The voice chuckled, sounding as if trying to hide there amusement. Aura spun around to witness a large, equine looking Pokemon sat atop a massive throne at the other end of the hall.

"L-Lady Arceus?!" Aura exclaimed as he nervously lowered to his knees.

Arceus seemed to sigh at this and shake her head subtly. "You may rise, Aura. This is no time for formalities." She affirmed whilst stepping down from her throne. "I apologize for the confusion bringing you here may have caused, but I assure you it was necessary to speak with you now."

"What are you talking about?" Aura asked.

She closed her eyes as if saddened by what she was about to say. "I have brought you here to speak of a great disaster that is destined to befall upon the world. A great evil that had been in a dormant sleep for over a thousand years is in danger to be re-awakened by an army of corrupted followers."

Aura could hardly believe what he was hearing. His mother had always told him that Arceus would use dreams to warn those with great power and importance about any impending disasters, so why would Arceus come to him? He was nothing special, but he had to know for certain.

"Why would you warn me about this? What do I have that could help in any way?"

Arceus chuckled with a somewhat sorrowful expression before taking a breath. "You should give yourself more credit, Aura. For you do in fact posses a great power beyond that of human belief. A great power that could even rival that of the legends themselves if used properly."

"What kind of power is it?"

Again Arceus let out a slow chuckle. "Do you recall how you felt the day you began your journey? The moment you locked eyes with Diamond?"

"Y-yeah? I felt like her and I, we shared a strong connection before we had even met. But I don't even know what that was or why we both felt it." He paused for a moment. "Did you have something to do with that?"

She shook her head in response. "No. I have done nothing to interfere with your decisions. Rather this strong connection you speak of is nothing more than destiny guiding you along the right path."

"So Diamond and I were always meant to be partners?"

"Yes, Aura. But never forget how you felt in that moment as that feeling is the one and only key to unlocking the true strength that resides within not only yourself, but the one you care for above all others." Again, Aura asked what she meant by this. "You do not realize it now, but the one you will find love with? and the one who shares your fate, is much closer than you think. It will take time surely, but soon enough you two will learn of these feelings: all you must do is allow destiny to guide you forward."

"You still haven't told me what this power is!" Aura called.

"Do not fret. Everything I have said will be explained in due time, but for now it is time for you to return to the waking world. Continue on with your journey, Aura, for you still have much to learn before you are ready. You may seek my guidance along the way, but only when you truly require is I shall be there." Aura tried to ask another question of her, however he found himself unable to speak as the room slowly faded away in nothing, and soon Aura began to feel himself drifting off into unconsciousness.

He woke up back in their hotel room, Diamond still sleeping beside him and Prince still on the couch. "Thank Arceus it was just a dream... But what did she mean by all that?" He thought. Unable to return to sleep, Aura got out of bed and walked over to the kitchen to start making breakfast.


As morning came around and the sun leaked through the curtains, Diamond opened her eyes and saw that Aura wasn't next to her, although she did smell the aroma of cooking food and heard the sound of a sizzling pan.

Diamond stood up and jumped off the bed. She walked over to the kitchen to find Aura cooking breakfast. "Good morning." She yawned.

"Oh. Morning, Diamond. Did you sleep well?"

She rubbed her eyes. "I slept okay. What about you?" She asked, stretching her back before trotting over to her trainer.

He shrugged and gestured his hands as if weighing his options. "Ehh. It was alright. I woke up a bit early though so I decided to get an early start on breakfast." Diamond sniffed the air and commented on the delicious scent wafting through the room. "Thanks. It's just about ready so if you don't mind, think you could go wake up the others?"

Diamond nodded and walked over to the sofa first, she nudged the Riolu until his eyes slowly opened. The two said good morning to each other and Diamond quickly mentioned breakfast was ready before proceeding to wake up the Chespin and his trainer. Once Spyke was awake, the Fennekin walked up to Dan's bed and hopped up to wake him. Although it took a good minute of her nudging his arm for him to actually wake up.

"Nng. What's going on?" He asked tiredly. Dan looked towards Diamond who had back up a little. The fox quickly began to inform their traveling companion of breakfast, forgetting Dan couldn't actually understand her. Seeing as he couldn't understand what she was trying to say, Dan slowly nodded awkwardly. "Uh-huh. Thanks for waking me… I guess?" Having done what she was asked, Diamond smiled before returning to the kitchen with Aura.

("Apologies for waking you, Daniel.") Dan peered over the side of his bed to see Prince standing with his head lowered slightly. ("Master Aura had asked Diamond to wake you for breakfast.")

"Oh. Well thanks for the update." Prince nodded and walked towards the kitchen while Dan got out of bed. Upon noticing his friend sit at the small dinner table, Aura greeted him and hoped he didn't mind Diamond waking him up this early. After briefly assuring him it was fine, Aura brought out a stack of paper plates and a larger plate holding their breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon.

It didn't take long for them to eat and get ready for the day ahead. As soon as everything was cleaned up it was time to head out and train. Thankfully it seemed to be early enough where the Pokemon Center wasn't too active and the courtyard out back was completely barren. Aura and Prince walked onto the field with Aura carrying a large box.

"Alright, Prince. Thankfully the Pokemon Center has equipment for us to train with. So what we are going to do is start off by testing your agility." Aura set down the box and pulled out one of the many Pokeball sized, pink rubber balls. "Hope you like dodgeball, cause that's what we're gonna do." Prince looked at his master a bit curiously as he had no idea what "dodgeball" was; nevertheless Prince kept silent as he awaited further directions. "I'm gonna throw these rubber balls at you one at a time and I want you to dodge them as best you can. Sound good?"

"Yes, Master Aura."

"Good. You go stand by that ledge and let me know when you're ready." Prince hurried over to the opposite side of the battlefield, which was about forty feet across, and took up a defensive stance in front of the cobblestone wall. Since Prince's range of telepathy was only around fifteen to twenty feet he had to call out and wave to signal he was ready to begin.

Aura nodded in return before reeling his arm back and hurling the ball as hard as he could, quickly grabbing another and doing the same thing repeatedly.

Everyone watched the Riolu move about with speed and precision. He leaned, sidestepped, ducked and jumped around many of the balls as they hit the wall behind him, although some had still managed to hit their target.

When the barrage of rubber ceased, Prince started to lightly pant from the workout. Aura counted that twelve of the thirty balls he threw managed to hit him so he felt confident in the short Pokemon's agility, but they knew it wouldn't be good enough to handle what the Gym Leader could potentially throw their way. Aura took out his Pokedex for a moment and scrolled through some notes he made based on Prince's stats and moveset. "Let's see if your Quick Attack can help you dodge better. Maybe using Foresight as well?"

Prince supported Aura's idea and took a moment to reposition himself before giving another signal to show he was ready. Aura didn't hesitate on letting loose another barrage of rubber balls. As they closed in on Prince, he focused his energy to use his Foresight and Quick Attack. One after another the Riolu managed to easily avoid each ball that whizzed by him in rapid succession. He did dodge many of them as he had before, but out of the thirty balls he was only hit by seven this time.

"That was much better. But I think you can manage to dodge every single one of these things." Aura affirmed as he squeezed one of the rubber balls. "You okay to keep going for a while?" Prince answered by taking on another defensive stance and nodding seriously. Aura laughed as he worked on picking up the balls spread out across the field and returning to his position. "I really like your enthusiasm. Think you can hold out until lunch time?" Aura asked coyly. Though he wanted to avoid overworking Prince, he was aware that Riolu and Lucario were capable of spending entire days only training, so he planned to spend a few hours on evasive training before possible switching to some cardio.

So upon seeing the Riolu actually give a coy smirk in reply to Aura's previous question, Aura knew Prince wanted to show his strength off much more. And so they continued to train until noon when Aura finally decided a lunchbreak was in order.

The group returned to their room and Aura went directly to the kitchen to begin making the food with Diamond curiously following him. As she really wanted to watch him cook, Diamond went to the table and pushed a chair over to the counter so she could climb up and get a closer look.

Placing a handful of vegetables beside a cutting board, Aura caught sight of the curious fox and briefly stopped to ask her if she was interested in cooking.

She nervously scratched her foreleg. "Mm-hm… Would it be okay if I watched you cook?" Aura laughed and assured her it wasn't anything to be nervous about.

"Of course I don't mind." He told her as he quickly chopped the vegetables and slid them into the pot.

"Why don't you have Aura teach you?" Aura and Diamond looked to the floor where Spyke stood with a wide grin.

Aura shrugged as he started adding some Leppa berries to the pot. "I'd love to teach Diamond how to cook. But right now I don't think she'd be able to do much since she doesn't exactly have hands."

Diamond looked down at her paws a little saddened at this fact. "Well maybe for now. But when she evolves she will have hands." They heard Dan say from the couch.

Diamond looked at Aura with hopeful eyes. "So after I evolve you can teach me how to cook?"

"I don't see why not. I would be happy to teach you a few things." Diamond's smile grew as she started bouncing about excitedly. Because of the smooth countertops though, Diamond's paw accidentally slipped close to the edge and she stumbled over the edge. Thankfully Aura reacted quickly and was able to catch her before she could hit the floor, letting out a relieved sigh as he sat her back atop the counter. "Please try to be more careful in the kitchen. Just about everything in here can be dangerous if you're too reckless and I really don't want you to get hurt."

Diamond sheepishly looked away with her tail curled around her front paws. She apologized for her carelessness to which Aura responded with a sigh and assured her it was alright. He understood she was excited to learn how to cook, but she still had to evolve before she could do much. So for the time being Aura suggested she just focus on watching him to learn a few things beforehand.

She nodded and kept her butt planted in place to keep herself out of Aura's way as he handled the food. While he cooked, Aura would try to narrate each step for the vixen and even amused her by allowing her to be his "taste tester."

Aura finished the stew after a while and called everyone to the table to eat as he brought over the pot with Prince following behind with a stack of bowls in his arms. "Thank you, Prince. Now I hope you guys like it." Once everyone was gathered around, Aura begun dishing out portions for the others before filling a bowl for himself. He handed Prince and Spyke each a spoon before lifting Diamond onto the table and serving her food in a shallower bowl.

"This is really good. What did you put in here?" Dan asked.

"Thanks. And I didn't really add anything special other than some Leppa and Sitrus berries so Prince and I could replenish our strength and get back to training right away."

"Huh. If this stuff works as good as it tastes, then I wouldn't mind getting the recipe."

Lunch went by fast with Aura thanking Dan for volunteering to clean up so Aura and Prince could continue their training sooner. As they returned to the battlefield outside, Prince asked what they were going to do next. After the promising results of their evasive training, Aura reviewed Prince's stats and available moves on his Pokedex and decided to work on his defense. Thankfully the box of rubber balls had been untouched, so Aura had the idea to do something similar to before, but instead of trying to avoid being hit, Aura wanted Prince to try and deflect them this time.

"Since these rubber balls are still here, I'm thinking that instead of dodging them this time you can try to deflect them back at your opponent, or in this case, at me."

Diamond suddenly became worried about this training exercise. Aura had already need hurt once and it still hasn't even recovered fully, so she voiced her concern of him potentially getting hurt even worse.

To calm her nerves, Aura knelt down next to her and held one of the rubber balls in his hand. As he assured her he wouldn't be hurt any worse than he already is, he supported his claim by squeezing the ball to show it was dense enough to only leave a noticeable bruise at the very most. In response, Diamond sulked before anxiously asking why he couldn't just use a tree or something instead.

He pat her head and explained that the goal was to deflect the balls at a moving target, so a tree wouldn't provide much help in practicing his aim. Following this he added

He sighed and pat her head. "Sorry, Diamond. But the whole point is for Prince to deflect the balls back at a moving opponent so a tree wouldn't provide much help practicing his aim. Besides, I'm positive that if I can fend off a wild Mightyena; I can easily withstand being hit by some rubber balls." He poked her nose jokingly as he asked her to keep some distance and pay attention so she wouldn't get hit by mistake.

Diamond still didn't like the idea of Aura making himself a target so she continued to try and make him reconsider, but his mind was made up. Diamond puffed out her cheeks and scowled at his stubbornness, but in the end the fox sighed and walked back to the sidelines as Aura had asked. Aura turned back towards Prince at the other end and called if he was ready to begin.

Prince glanced over at Diamond sitting out of the way and frowned. He strongly sympathized with her worrying about their trainer's safety, but knowing he was capable of scaring off a Mightyena and only suffering a single slash from its claws, Prince trusted Aura's judgement of his own strength and what he could handle; and if he could walk for almost ten minutes with a bleeding gash in his chest and not even notice or feel the blood loss, what could the small Riolu even do in comparison.

Prince let out an apologetic sigh for Diamond before tightening his gaze and nodding at his master. As much as he would also prefer to train against someone other than Aura, Prince agreed with his reasoning and followed his orders either way.

Immediately as Aura reeled back his arm, the sensory appendages on Prince's head lifted slightly as he closed his eyes and breathed deeply. By calming his nerves and essentially diminishing his senses of sight and hearing, Prince tapped into his auric abilities to activate his enhanced Foresight. Though Prince's world remained quiet and dark, he had opened his now glowing red eyes to see almost nothing but the auras of everything around him. Normally using Foresight like this would only alter the Pokemon's vision just enough for them to better pinpoint and analyze their target and predict their movements, however thanks to their already heightened senses and their natural ability to sense the aura of the world around them, Foresight is far more powerful in the eyes of Riolu and Lucario.

Through these heightened senses, when Aura threw the ball as hard as he could Prince practically watched it soar through the air a little slower than normal and predicted it's line of trajectory. As soon as the ball was close enough, Prince ignited his Blaze Kick and swiftly struck the ball exactly where he predicted.

Watching from the sidelines, Diamond suddenly ducked down with her eyes shut and ears folded back to avoid seeing or hearing Aura cry out as he was hit by a flaming ball, at least that's what she pictured would happen. But in the end she didn't hear Aura cry out in pain at all. Upon opening her eyes, Diamond saw Aura looking behind himself at the lightly smoking ball. She felt a wave of relief knowing Aura hadn't been hit after all, but it wouldn't last long as Aura retrieved the heated rubber ball and juggled it between his hands.

"At least you managed to hit it back. But your aim could use some work so let's carry on." He instructed happily as he returned to his position and repeated the process. Again Prince managed to send the ball back with even more force than Aura had thrown it, this time hurdling a little ways over Aura's head.

The more Diamond watched the more she feared the ball would not only burst into flames from Blaze Kick, but it would directly hit Aura with enough force to cause serious damage. Soon, Diamond began to picture the fireball hitting his chest and lighting him on fire as his wounds were somehow forced open even more and spilling his blood across the ground. But of course: this was all just a highly over exaggerated, and quite frankly impossible, scenario spawned from Diamond's serious concern for Aura.

Back and forth they went with Aura pitching the ball and Prince smacking it back with precise timing and movement, and overtime, Prince's deflections would become more accurate. Every time the ball would hurdle towards Aura, Diamond would feel herself tense up as each one got closer than the last to striking Aura. Eventually, Prince managed to correct his previous errors and upon striking the ball this time, it shot directly back towards Aura's chest. Diamond desperately wanted to look away, but she felt compelled to watch what would happen.

Aura prepared himself to dodge the projectile, pushing off his left foot as he strafed to the right, watching the ball narrowly miss his shoulder. With an ecstatic smile, Aura pumped his fist and applauded the progress Prince had made, feeling the need to excitedly cheer as he went to retrieve the ball. During this, Diamond still worried about what would have happened if Aura hadn't dodged. Why couldn't they find an alternative method to the training she thought as Aura and Prince continued.

While Diamond was practically screaming at herself within her mind to do something, she didn't notice Dan had stepped up beside her with Spyke sitting on his shoulder.

"Whoa. That's definitely one way to train, but it does seem a bit reckless." He noted, watching Aura narrowly avoid another ball. Noticing Diamond cowering beside him, Dan scratched his chin as he thought. Suddenly he clapped his hands together which startled the fox and got the attention of his friend.

"Oh! I didn't even notice you come out." Aura said as he paused their training and gestured for Prince to come take a breather. "So what were you clapping about?"

Dan rubbed the back of his neck. "Oh, forget about that. I was just thinking about what I just saw. You sure this kind of training is a good idea? You were clawed at by a Mightyena only yesterday." He affirmed.

"I know, but oddly enough I barely feel any pain from it now and we didn't have another way to practice deflecting attacks against a moving target. And if I'm being honest, I'm not really proud of making Diamond worry so much about me." He said, looking down at the fox sorrowly.

"Well why don't you have Prince spar against another Pokemon? I'm sure Spyke would be more than willing, right buddy?" Dan lifted his shoulder and faced the Grass type.

Spyke looked confidently at his trainer as he bopped his paw against his chest and nodded with a quick "Pin pin!" as if to say "Aye aye!"

"Thanks, pal." Dan knelt down for Spyke to hop off and instructed him to follow Aura's directions. As Aura thanked them for the help, he glanced to Diamond once again to apologize, thankful to see she was feeling much more relieved now that Aura wasn't in danger.

Spending a few minutes to bring the Chespin up to speed on their training, Aura let Prince have some time to rest and rehydrate before sending the two Pokemon onto the field. Spyke stood where Aura had previously and awaited further instructions. Upon receiving the signal to start, Spyke held up his arms to summon a green ball of energy before launching it across the field just as he was instructed. Following this, Prince ignited his leg once again and kicked the Energy Ball like before only to have it soar far beyond the Chespin.

It took a couple tries for them to get it right, but once they did, Prince was deflecting the attacks with ease while Spyke would dodge one only to fire off another right away. This went on for a couple more hours until Aura finally felt they had worked hard enough for the day.

Prince and Spyke let their bodies relax as their trainers praised them for their efforts and returning them to their Pokeballs. "A few more days of steady training and we'll be ready to challenge the Gym. Thanks again for letting us train with Spyke. Think you guys could keep helping us out?" Aura asked as he picked up Diamond.

The fox looked up at her trainer. "Can you promise not to make yourself the target anymore?"

He pet her head in response and sighed. "I guess I can for now, but if I'm supposed to expect my team to give it everything they got to be the best, then it would be selfish not to prove I'm worth their respect and show how much I appreciate what they do."

Dan shrugged as they entered the Pokemon Center to have Spyke and Prince healed. "It's a nice sentiment and all, but just don't overdo it. And to answer your previous question, I'm sure Spyke wouldn't mind the exercise, plus it's beneficial for Pokemon to engage in battles every so often."

With the next couple days planned out, once Spyke and Prince were recovered and returned to the trainers they decided to head back up to their room for the night and relax.


I do have to give credit to The Guardian Master on furaffinity for the inspiration for that last little speech. If you guys haven't read their story yet then I highly recommend you check out Tales of the Guardian Master on either furaffinity or inkbunny.