Love and Sacrifice(v3): Friends do not exist.

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Three weeks later
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Donari couldn't wait to see Sei. She'd cut her black hair to shoulder length, and she hoped Sei would like it. Plus, she'd bought him a special present. As soon as the entrance to the hideout, her home was opened, she dashed down the stairs ahead of her parents and ran to Sei's room, knocking violently. "Sei! I'm back!"

"Hold on!" He quickly put on a T-shirt to hide the scars that had yet to heal. As soon as the fur grew back, they'd be covered, but until now, he'd have to make sure to hide them under clothes. He checked quickly in the mirror to make sure nothing showed, and then he opened the door. "Hey Donari."

The ten year old threw her arms around his waist, hugging him tightly. He winced, for he was bruised around that area, but he smiled to cover it up. "I missed you so much Sei!"

For a moment, he just stood there, but then he lifted her and hugged her back tightly. "I missed you too Donari..." Then after a few more seconds, they let go of each other. "You cut your hair." He noticed.

"Like it?"

He nodded. "It's new."

"Speaking of hair." She dug into the pockets of her jeans. "For you." She held it out, and he gently took it from her.

"What is it?"

"Open it!"

He opened the box cautiously, and his eyes widened slightly when he saw what was in it. It was a hair tie for him to hold his braid, but there was a round silver thing on it that had 'CXIII' engraved in it. He opened it carefully, like a locket, and found a small picture of him, Donna, Tahari, Donari, Sacrifice and Love together. "Thank you Donari." He hugged her again, this time simply ignoring the pain.

"You're welcome, brother." She took it from him. "Here, let me put it on for you." Looking at the braid that hung down his back, she frowned. "Hmm, you need to wash your hair..." She grabbed his braid and tugged him out of the room. "Come on, I haven't got much time before my parents will want to see you. Your hair's a mess!"

She dragged him, by the braid, to the bathroom and made him bend backwards over the bathtub while she washed his long hair. "It's all tangled! It's as if you haven't combed your hair for weeks. If you're not going to take good care of it, what's the point of keeping all of it?" He didn't answer, but she didn't mind. He rarely spoke anyway, but she loved his quiet voice when he did speak. She finished rinsing it, then towel dried it and re-braided his black hair, using the hair-tie on the tip. "There, all done."

"Thank you again, Donari."

"No problem! You've always been there for me, I like to return the favor every now and then. Now come on, the others want to see you!" She grabbed one of his paw-like hands and tugged him off to go see her parents.

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"Seikou!" Donna hugged the thirteen year old boy tightly. Again, he nearly winced, but he held back the pain. "I missed you." She said, sniffing slightly. "I got you some new clothes, so I want you to try them on, okay? If they don't fit, I'll get the next person who's going up to return them."

He nodded, then turned to Tahari, who also hugged him, but more lightly than Donna and Donari.

"It's good to see you again." He said, ruffling his hair.

"Charmeleon!" The big fire pokemon pushed passed Tahari and hugged the boy he had known since he was born. "Char!"

"Persian!" The smaller pokemon rubbed against Sei's leg, purring.

"I'm happy to see you guys to." He scratched behind Love's ear and petted Sacrifice on the head. He tilted his head towards the floor so that his bangs hid his eyes. They were not going to see his eyes watering... he didn't want them to know that each night, ever since they had left, he had nearly cried. Several times he had cried, and that wouldn't do. He was to be a soldier, soldiers didn't cry...

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Four months later, December
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Sei sat on his bed meticulously brushing his fur. It wasn't something he did often, but it was something he had to do every now and then so he didn't shed. Someone knocked on his door, and he quickly put a shirt on, then opened the door.

It was Donari. "S...Sei, Daddy want's to see you." She sniffed, and the boy could tell she was holding back tears.

"Tell him I'm coming." He replied, watching her leave before closing the door. Slightly puzzled, he hastily re-braided his hair before emerging and making his way to the room Tahari and Donna shared. He knocked, then entered. "You wanted to see me, Tahari?" He asked, worry breaking through his normally flat tone.

The thirty-two year old man stood a short distance away from the door. He was only about a foot taller than the young boy was, but then, Sei had always been tall for his age. By some eerie chance, they both had black hair and light green eyes, which was a colour not normally found on arasians, though the shade of Sei's eyes was more pronounced, and Tahari had always kept his hair short.

Quickly glancing around the room without moving his head, Sei noticed that it had been cleared out, and there were some suitcases and boxes on the floor... Returning his eyes to Tahari, he suddenly dropped his emotionless mask and allowed the apprehension that he felt show clearly through the expression on his face.

"You're...leaving?" Hands clenched into fists, the hybrid looked down at the floor. He refused to look at Tahari. He was a traitor...

"I'm sorry Seikou..." Tahari walked closer to the boy, but stopped when he heard the growl that emitted from the hybrid's throat. "Professor Mikoto wants us to take over the task of attempting to unite the rebel groups in Arasia... We're the Tavis's. People know and respect our family line. We'll try and visit every now and then though..."

Sei looked up, but instead of looking directly at Tahari, he looked past the man. Almost as if by not looking at him, he would be able to stop the great emotional pain he felt. "Then goodbye."

Tahari stood in shock. That was all? No hug, no 'I'll miss you'? He knotted his brow in confusion, then walked up to the boy's retreating form, laying a hand on his shoulder. "What's wrong with you Shadow? Why have you started hiding from us? Sure you were never the most open person, but at least you confided in us every now and then. Why stop now?"

Sei tensed when he felt Tahari touch him, but listened to what Tahari had to say before flinching away. Without looking back at the man he had looked up to as a father for his whole life, he spoke in a lifeless voice. "Don't touch me again. If you're leaving, then leave. I can't do anything about it, so why should I try?" The boy paused, and Tahari could has sworn her heard the boy sniff slightly. "There's nothing more for me to say to you. Just tell Donari, Donna, Love and Sacrifice that I said Goodbye. I wish you luck on your new mission. It's obvious you're not needed here anymore if they're sending you away."

Those words hit Tahari like arrows through his heart. What had happened to Seikou? The boy he had once known would not have simply shrugged off this news. "Seikou..." He reached out for the boy again, but the dark hybrid ran out of the room, sprinting down the halls to the comfort and solitude of his room.

Tahari watched him go, knowing there was nothing he could do. He'd go to comfort the boy, but he had to leave soon. Donari, Donna, Love and Sacrifice had already left for the airport, and if he didn't leave soon, he'd miss the flight. Sometimes he wished that he wasn't 'Tahari Tavis', great-grandson of the legendary Ferina and Nerina Tavis. But then, he might never have met Donna, had Donari, and given the opportunity to raise Shadow as his son... But now he'd just broken the bond that existed between them. It had been a fragile link of trust that they had built over the years, and now in less than ten minutes, thirteen years of work had gone down the drain. It would take a miracle for Shadow to trust him again, a real miracle...

Dabbing his eyes with his shirt sleeve, Tahari picked up his last suitcases and left the room, heading for the exit to the base. Little did he know that a pair of green eyes sadly watched him leave. If he had looked back, he might have noticed the boy, and they might have re-united, re-establishing their 'father/son' bond. But he didn't look back, and the hybrid didn't say a word.

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"It's not fair Mommy! It's not fair! We can't leave Sei! We need to go back!" Donari struggled in her mother's arms, throwing one of her not so rare temper tantrums.

"Donari! I have told you before, be quiet!" Her mother shook her roughly, silencing her. "Life's not fair Donari, and you need to learn that... We are not normal people. We do not lead normal lives. We have heavy burdens on our shoulders, and we need to learn how to carry them. "You are Donari Tavis, and that means a lot." Donna released her daughter, then smoothed back her own brown hair nervously. Donari may not have inherited the light green eyes of the Tavis family, but she definitely looked like a Tavis, and acted like one... The little girl was as stubborn as a charizard. "I didn't want to leave Shadow any more than you, but we have no choice. His life is not to be one of a normal person. His life will be a hard one, not one that I would wish on anyone, let alone him, but it is what he is, and he cannot escape that. You need to understand that Donari." The woman picked up her daughter who had stopped yelling, but was crying silently. "Your father should be here in a few minutes. As soon as he gets here, we leave."

"Yes Mommy..." The little girl replied, but in her mind, she continued to deny the fact that who she was, was an excuse for abandoning her 'older brother' Sei. Under no circumstance did she think it was right for one to leave someone they loved behind...

Donari was definitely a Tavis. No doubt about it.

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Betrayed...

That was how Sei felt, and it was betrayal of the worst kind, the kind committed by those closest to you. This was the last straw that broke the ponyta's back. The very bit of emotional stability that the boy had once possesed had just left. In a way, one might say he was overly emotionally stable in the sense he locked everything inside, keeping himself under extreme control. Such extreme control that one could only describe the look in his eyes as 'dead'.

Others might say that it was not complete control, and it was only a matter of time before his hidden emotions overwhelmed him, and drove him over the edge... Which did eventually happen, without teaching him anything except that he was a danger to anyone who got close to him, and causing him to hide his emotions even more.

Betrayed by his family...

Sei felt like his heart had been ripped out and crushed right before his eyes. He had allowed himself to love Tahari, Donna, Donari and the two pokemon, Sacrifice and Love. They had become as close as Sei would allow them, and now that he trusted them, they left him. At such a crucial part of his life, they abandoned him. He needed them. He needed to love, to be loved.

But that was being denied of him, as if his being half human, half pokemon meant that he could not be loved by either half of his parentage.

Freak...

That was what Gareth and the others called him, and they were right. He was a freak who didn't deserved to be love. He was not needed in this world... It was only his ability to fight that was needed, his quick reaction time and sharp mind. Not him. Not the... person? Could he even be called a person? No. He didn't deserve that. He was a creature, a beast. Not even a pokemon...

He had watched Tahari go silently. Half of him wanted to call out to the man he had learnt to love as a father. The other half wanted to hide and wallow in self-pity. It wasn't hard to tell which half he obeyed.

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"Well, so you're all alone now Shadow?"

Sei turned, one hand still on his doorknob, and looked at Professor Mikoto, but didn't answer.

"Hmm, well, you have always been a quiet one. Pokemon of your type tend to be quiet too." The Professor walked closer to him. "Shadow, these next few years are very essential to your training. The war may be starting any year now. The Kaitan Alliance has become more aggressive, and people aren't liking it. They've completely taken over Arasia, and we still haven't been able to make contact with any other continents, excpet for Eurel. Our neighboring countries have even started building up their army reserves, recruiting young men not too much older than you, and less experienced. They've even started training pokemon for the soul purpose of killing." The professor paused, checking the reaction of the hybrid, his creation. "You have no more time to have friends Shadow. Friends do not exist anymore. There will be times when you will have to kill those you are meant to protect. Your goal is to somehow bring the Alliance down, and friends will just get in the way. They can be used against you. Remember that." And the professor walked away.

/Friends do not exist.../ He thought to himself, standing there and watching the professor leave. /But what about family?/

"Shadow! You're late! How can I teach you hand-to-hand combat if you're always late for class?" His martial arts teacher...

Sei followed the man. /Friends do not exist./ He repeated to himself again, and it seemed the professor was right. Over those next few years of training for the war, with next to no visits from his 'family', he didn't really have friends. He spent most of his time in classes, and thankfully because he was frequently under the observant eye of one professor or the other, the 'kidnapping' sessions were not as many as he'd thought they would be without Tahari or Donna looking out for him, but they were still more than he could handle. They stopped nearly a year before the war started, but by that time, he was scarred for life...

/Sei does not exist either.../ He added as he entered his next class. /I am no longer Sei, I'm just Shadow... A fitting name for me considering I am only a shadow of what I once might have been. An emotionless shadow, one with no feelings, no cares, no worries. A perfect soldier.../

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[No I will not go into detail what happened to him during those sessions. I might scare of some potential readers ^_^ I'll leave it up to you to guess what happened. I may bring it into light later on in the fic, but don't count on it. Also I will not go fully into detail what he did in his training sessions. All I'll say is he learnt things like how to drive several different types of vehicles, various kinds of martial arts, how to use many different weapons, and other such things that he might need. When they said they wanted a perfect soldier, they meant it.]