Written by SteelHorizon13*

Meloetta's Perspective:

After I cried to myself and had my pitty party, I managed to calm down and focus. Ten's life was at stake and I was not about to let him down. He is way too innocent and pure to have him suffer the way so many other pokémon have.

I closed my eyes and focused my energy. I tried to find Ten's psychic signature, but...I gasped! Spike heard me and went over to me with concern.

"What is it, Lady Meloetta?" He asked kindly.

I shook my head and tried to focus once more. "I...I can't sense his signature...! I..." I started crying again. "What if he's hurt? What if...What if..."

Suddenly, Spike nudged me a bit. "Lady Meloetta! Don't think of the negatives now! We can't let ourselves get bogged down with dread like this!" He said, helping me to my feet after I had sat down to focus my mind. "You're right... We need to try and find Ten. He's got to be here somewhere! That bastard Giovanni can't have taken him far!" I said, wiping the tears from my eyes.

"That's the spirit! Let's go find Ten! We need to find him before anything bad happens to him!" Spike said, turning to lead the way. "Come on! We need to go now!"

Ten's Perspective:

When Ten woke, things were much different than when he last remembered. However, when he became fully conscious, an even more horrifying realization hit him! All around the poor 10 year old were all kinds of strange and foreign devices of various shapes, sizes, and design. And right next to them were mysterious...people? It was hard to tell if these were people or pokémon as they all looked the exact same: white lab coats, all with the by now familiar crimson colored R embroidered on the right breast of every coat. They all had white pants on, a pair of glasses which made their eyes impossible to see, white latex gloves, and white caps on which made it impossible to tell what color their hair was or what style it was in.

All of this terrified Ten, who up to this point was liable to have a heart attack from pure panic and fear. However, before the poor boy could say or do anything, a voice spoke up.

"Is he conscious?"

"Yes sir."

"Good. Start with the initial tests."

Then, with an audible click, one of the devices started up. A loud whirring sound was created as a form of drill slowly moved down to Ten's hand. The boy squirmed badly, his hand clenching instinctively into a fist as he tried desperately to break free or just move his hand in general. However, Ten's hand was securely clamped down by the wrist, unable to move and unable to dodge the drill which was now merely an inch away from making contact.

Only a second later, which to Ten felt like an hour, the drill made contact with his hand, drilling down until it was about half way through Ten's hand. Agonizing screams erupted from the young boy as blood quickly ran down his hand and flowed down the table into a form of spicket which collected the blood, filling about an inch before the people sealed it off and pulled the drill out of Ten's hand.

Soon after, another device was sent down and it began to prod at Ten's I injured hand. Each of Ten's five fingers were poked, prodded, squeezed, bent, and even broken. These similar and small scale tests continued until they concluded after a grueling eight hours.

Ten was not let off of the table and was ultimately forced to be knocked out again to keep him from causing too much of a racket. The next time Ten woke, more tests were performed. These tests were much more...devastating on Ten's psyche and his physical health. Choking him to see how long he could hold his breath. Submerging him in water until he couldn't hold his breath anymore. Burning certain parts of his body to test his reaction time. Extracting more bodily fluids like saliva, tears, urine, and sweat. Forcing Ten to run continuously on end until he ended up passing out and collapsing of exhaustion.

The next day, things only got worse. Electrocution, immolation, asphyxiation... The list goes on. And the day after that, things only got worse. And things kept getting worse until eventually, the torment grew far too much for Ten's body to handle.

And the final test that these evil scientists, if they can even be called such by this point, which took place a little over 8 weeks later, (though time was hard to keep track of when every single day was filled with endless agony and torture beyond even the worst kind imaginable), was enough that ultimately, Ten's heart simply gave out and the boy ultimately died a painful and slow death.

However, the man responsible behind all of this, the man who had openly shot and killed Ten's only human friend, who had kept Ten in what was essentially worse than prison level captivity for the longest time, had seen enough. The man approached his scientists and ordered them to force feed Ten's now deceased corpse a special Life Powder to revive the boy so the tests could continue.

"But," he said, "You are not to make these tests lethal. These tests are to be reduced to nothing more than non lethal experiments. We have used up our last supply of our Life Powder. If I find that he has been killed in an experiment again, I will execute you all personally!"

Pokémon's perspective:

After so many days, Ten had lost complete track of time. The only sense of the world outside of this now all too familiar, yet no less traumatizing laboratory was the occasional talk of the number of months that Ten had been kept in this...hell on Earth. Two months...Four months...Ten months... And finally a year had passed of this less lethal, yet no less traumatizing or inhumane torture.

All this while, Meloetta and the other pokémon Ten had or had befriended went fully unaware of all that had transpired over the course of the last year. All they did know at this point was that Spike had recently been captured, and Ten had been under Giovanni's occupation for so long that nearly all hope had been lost that the boy would ever be found alive.

Regardless, if Ten wasn't able to be located, Spike's safety was growing more important as without his help, Ten would likely never be found! Spike had to be in Giovanni's office, though, if this was the case was needless to say, uncertain. Despite this, Spike's safety became top priority for Meloetta and Scratch.

The two pokémon had no doubt in their minds that Spike was much less likely to be in any imminent danger as Giovanni's primary focus was presumably still on Ten, but regardless, the priority shifted focus as the hope of Ten still even being alive was almost zero.

Meloetta and Scratch ended up sneaking into the main facility which they had tried to flee a little over a year ago. Searching the eerily familiar hallways and corridors, Meloetta and Scratch searched everywhere for Spike. What they found instead was something that managed to simultaneously boost their spirits as well as completely shatter them.

The two pokemon had found Ten. The boy looked more or less the same as when they were last together, say for noticeable burns, scars, and other horrible markings on what used to be almost pure and untouched skin. Meloetta wanted to rush in and rescue Ten, but Scratch talked sense into her.

Just as the two had found Ten, the boy who both Scratch and Meloetta had come to love was taken away from them just as quickly. The boy was taken from the torture chamber and locked away in a secure cell, one which was guarded by far too many highly skilled guards to possibly risk going to rescue Ten. As much as it hurt Meloetta to leave Ten all on his own for as long as he has been here, it was for the best to do so. With a heavy heart, Meloetta went to continue to search for Spike.

"Soon Ten. I will get you out of here. Soon."