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Rok barely had time to register his own surprise before Silvo bowled him over, sending both of them tumbling head-over-tail as the jolteon cried, "You're alive!"
"Um, yes?" Rok said, his head still spinning slightly from his friend's enthusiasm. "Wait a second, how did you know it was me?"
Silvo jumped off of him, grinning widely with a mouth full of teeth that were a lot bigger and sharper than Rok remembered. "I heard that weird-looking white pokémon say your name."
Reaper growled at him. "Weird looking?"
Silvo ignored her. "The whole village thought you'd been killed by those wild pokémon we saw. Apparently they're called "zangoose". We held a funeral right after the feast. But now your back! Everyone's going to be so happy to see you! Especially your mother." Silvo added softly, "She's been…well, she's been pretty inconsolable since you disappeared."
Rok flinched. "Silvo…I can't."
Silvo blinked at him. "Can't what?'
"I can't go back."
Silvo frowned. "Why not? I mean, you look a little strange now but this place is still you're home."
"No, it's not." Rok said quietly, "It stopped being my home the moment I evolved."
"You mean, it stopped being your home the moment your Elders said it wasn't." Reaper said darkly.
Silvo stared at her. "What do you mean? Why wouldn't the Elder's let him back in?"
"Because of some stories from Arceus knows how many generations ago that said that umbreon are violent beasts or something." Reaper muttered, her claws kneading the dirt.
Silvo frowned. "Umbreon?"
"That's what I am now." Rok explained, "It's an evolution, kind of like espeon except you evolve in moonlight instead of sunlight. It's something called a Dark Type."
"Huh. Never heard of it."
Reaper snorted. "That's because your Elders made sure you'd never hear of it, because no way are they letting a bunch of filthy Dark Types corrupt their perfect little village."
Rok sighed. "Reaper, just let it go."
She glared at him. "No way. Just because you're fine with letting yourself be a doormat for everybody doesn't mean I am. This was you're home for Arceus' sake. And you're going to let them shove you out, just like that?"
"It's better this way!" he cried, his markings starting to grow warm.
"How? How is this better? You heard what your friend just said about your mother! How can you just let her drown in grief for a son who isn't actually dead?"
"Better she grieves for a son that's dead that live with a son who'd attack everyone!" Rok snapped, a snarl creeping into his voice with his frustration.
Reaper's eyes widened and she even took a step back in surprise. Rok's markings were still prickling with warmth, and he could even see a faint glow rising from his fur.
Silvo looked back and forth between them. "I feel like I'm missing something…"
Reaper stared at Rok in shock. "Attack everyone? What are you-you don't seriously believe all that garbage the Elders were spouting about umbreon being violent?"
"It's the only explanation that makes sense." Rok huffed, glaring at the ground.
"What, more sense than the umbreon finally getting fed up with being treated like they were wild?" Reaper countered, "More sense than some idiots deliberately provoking the umbreon and getting attacked? More sense than some villagers getting caught in the crossfire when the umbreon were trying to defend their home?
Rok's eyes narrowed, and he could feel a growl starting to rumble in his throat. He bit it back, and looked into Reaper's scarlet eyes, trying to ignore their frustrated gleam. "It's already happening, Reaper?"
"What? What's already happening?" she snapped.
"When Ruby and Cloud attacked us, and my markings started glowing. I know that scared you, I could see it all over your face."
Reaper scoffed. "Seriously? You think that you're turning into a bloodthirsty beast because of that? For Arceus' sake Rok, practically every Dark and Ghost Type has that! And as for that stuff about shooting poison, guess what? There is an entire Type that is about shooting poison! And again, loads of Dark Types and Ghost Types can learn Poison Type moves. Everything they were saying was just typical distrust and hatred towards our Type!"
"Well then maybe that hatred is deserved!" Rok finally snapped, the growl that had been trapped in his throat finally rattling through his voice in his rage.
Silence followed his words. Reaper stared at him, expression frozen in confused outrage. Silvo shifted uncomfortably, his spiked fur standing on end as he glanced back and forth between the absol and the umbreon.
When Reaper finally spoke again, it was in a voice as cold as ice. "So you think that Smoke is a monster, despite him giving you food and shelter? You think Rage is a monster even though all he wants to do is hug everything? You think I'm a monster?"
"What I think," Rok replied, the growl in his voice flowing into a hiss. "is that I'm a monster, who can't control his new powers, who changed in who-knows-how-many ways because of that stupid full moon, who can't even go home because now he might attack his own people!"
"You haven't attacked me." Silvo said mildly.
Instantly, both Reaper's and Rok's red gazes snapped to him. Small sparks of electricity crackled across his bright green fur at their scrutiny, but still he continued to speak. "You keep going on about how you're afraid that you'll hurt someone now, but you haven't attacked me. You haven't attacked that girl. And I'm pretty sure you didn't attack the Elders, otherwise every guard in the village would be swarming you right now. Honestly," Silvo added with a small grin, "you just seem exactly like my awkward, nervous best friend who went missing a couple days ago. You just look a little different is all."
Rok dug his paws into the earth. "You don't know that's all that's changed about me."
Silvo looked him up and down before smirking. "Pretty sure I do. I know my best friend after all. Now, are you finished being angsty or are you going to come back home and tell your mother that you aren't dead?"
"I'm still not allowed back in." Rok replied through gritted teeth. "I'll just get chased out."
Silvo snorted. "Please, the guards aren't going to chase off one of our own."
"You'd be surprised."
"The only thing that's surprising me is that you're still making excuses." Silvo countered.
"You call me being attacked for showing my face in the village "making excuses"?" Rok said incredulously.
"Yes, because you're not actually going to get thrown out."
"The Elders have already thrown me out in case you haven't figured it out yet!" Rok shouted, his patience finally snapping like a branch laden with too much snow. "Why do you think I'm still out here, instead of in there, greeting my mother like you want me to? Why do you think you had to leave the boundaries to actually see me?" his breath was coming in too fast, and tears pooled in his red eyes, but Rok didn't stop, couldn't stop the words from spilling out of his mouth. "You think I don't want to be at home right now? That I don't want to see my friends and family? I just can't Silvo, alright? Because I was unlucky enough to get an evolution I didn't want with a Type that everyone hates and now I'm not allowed back into my own home!"
Rok barely managed to get the last word out before his voice cut out in a gasping sob and the tears finally spilled out of his eyes, dripping onto the soil and on his paws. And they just wouldn't stop. The tears kept flowing and he couldn't stop them, couldn't stop the quiet sobs forcing themselves past his teeth, couldn't stop his body from shaking with the grief that was suddenly hitting him like giant stone. All he could do was stand there, crying, while Reaper and Silvo looked on.
A/N: Hey, look, Silvo's back! Also, angst galore!
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