Return

Hello once more. Last chapter was a short one, this one is more than twice as long!

Enjoy!

So, I'll put all the pokémon we have seen up to this point at the start of this chapter, but I won't do this every chapter because then that's just wasting space.

Keira – Lucario (sometimes story is set when she's a riolu).
Adrien – Aerodactyl.
Diego – Arcanine (sometimes story is set when he's a growlithe).
Shira – Persian (sometimes story is set when she's a meowth).
Brian – Marowak (sometimes story is set when he's a cubone).
Emma – Lapras.

Nathan – Typhlosion (sometimes story is set when he's a cyndaquil OR quilava).
Tania – Weavile (sometimes story is set when she's a sneasel).
Tyson – Scizor (sometimes story is set when he's a scyther).
Andrew – Arbok.
Sahara – Flygon.


*Some time in Johto*

Andrew lay motionless, admiring the beam of moonlight that lit up his form. It was not the warmth of the sun, it wasn't even warm. Frankly he was quite cold, but both the sluggishness of being a cold-blooded pokémon and the lack of desire to move left him shivering.

He sat away from the others, heard the chatter and the laughter, heard the crackling fire, heard the overall good cheer of the group.

His hearing was exceptional and if he were to bother, Andrew knew he'd be able to make out each pokémon's specific words. He did not bother, however, and instead heard the tell-tale sounds of someone approaching.

It wasn't the beat of wings that would imply the flygon Sahara, or even the aerodactyl Adrien. Nor was it the soft, blunted, strides of Keira or the quilava Nathan. There was no short, but noticeable thumps that would imply the heavy scizor Tyson or the short marowak Brian.

There were only two sounds, so it couldn't be the four-legged Diego or Shira. And there was sounds in the first place, so it wasn't the levitating lapras Emma or the sneaky weavile that didn't deserve a name.

That left only the crunching of boots on the ground, crushing the leaves and twigs.

"Hey," Felix said, reaching Andrew. There was something in his hands, but it was too dark for Andrew to make it out. "Watch you doing?

Andrew considered whether he should answer that or continue acting asleep. He decided it was quite obvious what he was doing and chose not to answer.

"Everyone's having a good time," Felix continued, voice light and seemingly unaware of Andrew's lack of care here. "Fire's warm, they even convinced me to open up some more cans of food."

The fire was a dirty attempt to play; but still, Andrew didn't react.

"And everyone's wondering why you're over here." Felix finished, falling silent and awaiting Andrew's response.

"That's a lie," Andrew spoke, without even meaning to. Deciding he had already spoken, he continued. "I can hear them, none have so much as spoken of me, let alone wonder about my absence. If you must lie, at least make it believable."

Felix frowned slightly, part of him didn't realise Andrew's hearing was that good, the other part decided to do something stupid. "I was wondering where you are."

"You," Andrew emphasized, not moving an inch. "Are not everyone. The lie was ssstill told."

Felix sighed and stepped forward, moving past the rock Andrew lay on and finding a patch not filled with pokémon to sit on. He laid a hesitant hand on Andrew's tail and nearly winced. "You're freezing," he said, alarmed. "Good thing I brought this then."

Before Andrew could react, his mind was a bit sluggish anyway, Felix had unwrapped and tossed something thick, warm and heavy over him.

"What is…?"

"A blanket." Felix smiled, not that Andrew could see it. "I figured you'd be, well, you and not want to come over. So, I brought you this, it can't be good for you to be cold."

Andrew was silent, but he did move his head, away from Felix. "Humph," he snorted, but didn't try and dislodge the blanket.

The arbok waited for Felix to leave, but the human didn't seem to want to budge. He couldn't be comfortable, sitting on a cold, hard, rock with only an arbok for company. There was far better company to be had with the others, pokémon that were enjoyable to interact and spend time with. Not him.

"You've done your good deed," Andrew said, deciding this charade had gone on long enough. "Now go back to the others and leave me alone."

Felix shifted slightly when Andrew spoke, but didn't do as requested. "Do you want me to leave?" he asked, as if he doubted the arbok.

"Of course," Andrew said back, sounding as bored and dismissive as he could. "Why would I ask you to leave if I did not mean it?"

"I just thought you might enjoy some company," Felix replied, his hand resting on top of the blanket. It was comfortably warm.

"Hardly," Andrew hissed back. "If I desssired company, I would have joined you all in the first place."

"You never join us," Felix insisted, still not moving his hand.

"Becausse I never want company," Andrew insisted, finally moving to try and remove Felix's warm hand.

"You sure?" Felix asked, but Andrew didn't respond for the rest of the night. He would know, as he sat with the antisocial arbok for the rest of the night.

Andrew spent that time trying to seethe but failing to muster the anger.

Instead, he remembered…


A long, white fang glinted in the sunlight.

The pointed nose of a lone rattata was raised to the sky as the pokémon sniffed. There was an odd scent in the air, but it was muted by the expanse of grass.

Cautiously, it began to creep forward, aiming to dart into the long grass at any sign of danger.

There was no time to react as a long purple body burst from behind the rattata, only the soft sound of grass being parted as a warning. The rattata managed a single squeak as it was tackled, but its neck was snapped before it could even plead for its life.

Satisfied, the arbok that had attacked wrapped the end of its body around the corpse of the rattata and began dragging it away. Not consuming the rodent pokémon yet, it instead had a different plan.

"I am here!" the arbok called as it awkwardly slithered to a large hole in the ground. Moving with its prize had proven challenging, if only as a test of patience.

A smooth, purple, head poked out of the hole before pulling itself completely onto the surface. It was a second arbok, visually nearly identical to the first, only a slightly differing pattern on its hood.

"You actually went to the trouble?" she hissed. There was a certain smoothness to this arbok's speech, the only indicator to many pokémon of this arbok's gender.

"Of course," the first, a male, happily replied. He maneuvered his coils around to push the rattata towards the female.

She eyed the offering for a moment, or perhaps the second arbok, before leaning down with an unhooking jaw.

It was no squeamish sight to another arbok, but the fashion of consuming prey was a very disturbing one to any other being that bore witness to an arbok feasting.

It was a common nightmare for the pokémon of the area, knowing that not one but two arbok claimed this land as their own.

Once digestion was in process, the second arbok slowly looked up to the first. He seemed quite pleased with himself, cheerful even. It was an odd look, but an expression she had seen on him enough to be used to it.

"My thanks," the female said, getting a jubilant head bob in response. She slowly turned around, aiming to re-enter her home and sleep for a day.

The first arbok simply waited in guard, protecting her nest from any who dared to approach.


"Andrew, Poison Jab!" Felix commanded, the battle underway.

The arbok deftly avoided a clumsy swipe from his machoke opponent and summoned his Power. Forcing it through the end of his tail, the tip of the appendage glowing purple, he delivered a brutal jab right into the machoke's chest.

The machoke choked out a gasp as the air was knocked out of him and staggered back, the bruise shining with a purplish glow. Poison.

"Get his legs," Felix continued, the other trainer scrambling for a strategy and failing to act in time, giving Andrew the chance to wrap around the machoke and trip him. "Crunch!"

Fangs burning with dark energy, Andrew stabbed down with the sharp objects and the machoke howled. Eventually the machoke's trainer returned him and interacted with Felix for a moment before leaving.

Andrew, who had caught the tail-end of the interaction, immediately turned on Felix. "What was that?" he demanded, gesturing wildly with his tail. "What did you just do?"

"What are you talking about?" Felix asked, taking a noticeable step back. "We were talking, you know, like people do."

"What did you give the other human?" Andrew asked, narrowing his eyes. "I ssaw you give the other human ssomething."

"I." Felix floundered. "Well I just. The battle. I thought I should… well. It went a bit far, I was giving him a few potions because there's no Pokémon Centre near here."

"A bit far?" Andrew repeated, slithering up close. "This was a battle, there isss no 'too far'."

"You could have seriously hurt that machoke," Felix argued back. "I'm just being nice after the fact. It's our deal, remember?"

Andrew made an odd sound that took Felix a moment to realise was laughter. His tail was swaying back and forth in the air as the arbok laughed. "I was following our 'deal' to the letter. A jab, a trip, and a bite? HA! You cannot be so naïve to believe that if I was not holding back. If I wasn't, I wouldn't have ssstopped there."

"Well." Felix turned his head away, going red as he didn't want to have this argument. Again. "Why do you have to fight so… so underhanded? None of the others fight like that." Sighing and switching back to looking at Andrew he conceded. "Tania does to a point, but her style is more hit and run, you just attack like your really trying to hurt the opponent."

"The opponent is the enemy!" Andrew snarled. "Of course I am trying to hurt them, therefore they will know not to mess with me or you."

"We're not doing this to MAKE enemies." Felix gestured wildly at the air, trying to convey some explanation of the turmoil he faced whenever using Andrew in battle. "Rivals maybe, friends hopefully, but not enemies. Enemies are not worth it."

"Enemiess are everywhere," Andrew hissed, voice lowering to a deadly tone. "It is like you have never…." Andrew trailed off, remembering exactly who, and more importantly what, he was speaking to. "Ah yes, YOU never have had to face the life of a wild creature. Of course, you wouldn't understand."

Felix began to relax, realising that he was finally getting through to Andrew. "Exactly, and your life isn't like that anym-"

He was cut off with no time to react as Andrew struck forward, only the soft sound of grass being parted as a warning. Darting faster than Felix could make out, the young trainer was bowled over by a rather heavy snake.

Felix gasped in pain as the ground met his back and he thumped his head painfully on the ground, more than enough to daze him. The coils of the arbok pinned both his arms, and there was no amount of futile kicking that would do anything in this situation.

Felix's senses felt like they had been increased by ten. He could hear his heartbeat pounding away and could make out the fine lines that separated the arbok's scales.

More than anything, he could feel exactly where Andrew's fangs poked against his neck, feel his cool breath on his skin, feel the tension and strength in the arbok's body.

Tears pricked his eyes as Felix went still, there was nothing he could do if Andrew decided to hurt him. Nothing he could try that would save him if Andrew bit down.

Then, as soon as the event had happened, it was over.

Felix wasn't sure when Andrew had slithered off him, time meant nothing as he had laid in silent shock. Eventually, however, he pulled himself up into a sitting position, numbly feeling his neck for any blood.

"You know nothing."

Andrew was still there, watching and waiting as his trainer found his limbs to be working and his body undamaged.

"Nothing," the arbok repeated, turning his head away from Felix.

"Is this a game to you?" Felix asked as he raised Andrew's pokéball, but besides a violent flinch, the arbok didn't answer him.

With shaking hands, fingers itching to press the return button. Or, perhaps in the very back of his mind, activate the necessary sequence to release the pokémon. He did nothing.

Lowing the quivering limb, Felix mustered his courage, swallowed his fear and began walking forward. Andrew, realising he wasn't be returned, began to slither forward as well, keeping just a tiny bit behind Felix.

Ready to strike, as he had learned as a wild pokémon.


The arbok darted to the side, avoiding a crushing blow from the hooves of his opponent. Summoning his Power, the arbok pushed it into the tip of his tail, causing the appendage to shine a baleful purple. Quick as a dart, he jabbed the rapidash in the flank, receiving a pained snort.

Breathing fire, the rapidash attempted to roast him, but the arbok was too quick and darted into one of the many holes littering their battlefield.

The rapidash snorted in frustration, glancing around with small, angry, eyes, as the bruise on its flank began to deepen.

It scraped the earth with a hoof, ready to charge the moment the arbok chose to reappear, but it's head was beginning to feel light.

A soft whinny left the rapidash's mouth as its limbs began to grow weaker. Eyes widening as it realised it had been poisoned, the rapidash turned to flee.

Then, the arbok struck.

Fangs dripping with venom, the arbok latched onto the other flank, drawing blood and an agonized shriek from the rapidash. What it hadn't anticipated, however, was the rapidash wreathing itself in flames to ward him off.

Letting go with a sharp hiss of pain, the rapidash slammed a hoof down, knocking the arbok into the earth, before it thundered off.

Groaning in pain, the arbok tried to pursue but it wasn't fast enough and the rapidash was gone.

"Why do you do this to yourself?" a new voice asked, catching the arbok's attention.

It was the female arbok, and suddenly all thoughts of pain vanished, being replaced with joy, and then shame.

"My apologies." The male arbok bowed his head, wanting to press his face into the dirt in penance. "The prey escaped."

"Because you went after a rapidash," the female replied, tossing her head. "And if you had brought it down? It is far too large for either of us to eat!"

"I just wanted," the male mumbled.

"What was that?" the female demanded.

"I just wanted to impress you," the male replied, making sure he was clear.

"And instead you are burned, bruised and beaten," the female listed, shaking her head. "So again I ask, why do you do this to yourssself? Already I care for a clutch of eggs, you have proven your worth long before this madness. And still you persist for a reason I cannot fathom. So tell me, I ask of you, why?"

The male was silent, and after waiting the female decided that yet again, he would not explain the reason for his insanity. Perhaps he didn't see the madness in himself, she wondered. Perhaps the mad, do not realise they are mad.

She was paused from her departure by his voice. "The rattata."

She turned back, confusion marring her face in the slight ways only similar pokémon could tell. "Pardon?"

"The rattata," the male replied, lifting his head. "The pikachu. The zigzagoon. The rapidash. The pidgeot. The humans even. Many creatures, most creatures it sseemss, do not come together only to bear young and then seperate. They remain… together."

"Okay…" the female arbok said. "And your point being?"

"I would like it," the male began, hesitating every few words and a noticeable colour began to appear through the purple of his face. "If we were… to… perhaps… if it could be possible… if we could remain… together. Not move on from one another."


"I'm so very, very, sorry and I will make sure something like this will never happen again."

Felix was tired of this.

"You have to get a better grip on your pokémon!" the angry person of the day shouted. "You better hope no damage came to that egg or you WILL be paying for it."

"Yes sir," Felix replied, doing his best to keep the monotone out of his voice. "I understand sir. I will make sure Andrew is punished for this and keep a very close eye so nothing like this even has a chance of happening again."

After ten more minutes of getting dismembered with nothing but words, Felix was allowed free to punish his pokémon.

It distressed him that it didn't distress him that he was very good at lying now. Staring right into someone's eyes, voice kept as honest as possible, no hint of boredom or deceit as he made promises he knew he couldn't keep.

It seemed to happen at least twice a week. Andrew would do 'something' that brought chaos and shouting down upon Felix. He refused to stick around with the other pokémon, even Keira couldn't tailgate him for long, and then slither off to do some kind of dirty deed.

Tania was hard enough, stealing, assaulting, mocking and driving other pokémon into rampages. The only small relief is that she was clever, subtle, and liked to get away with her acts. So, Felix rarely got into trouble, especially when she realised how much trouble she'd get in from him.

It didn't dissuade her from causing the trouble in the first place, if anything she took it as a challenge, but besides suspicion and guilt she didn't cause to much pain.

Andrew, on the other hand, seemed to have a sense for finding exactly the worst thing to do. He attacked young pokémon in the ownership of trainers, possibly trying to eat them, Felix didn't dare to learn. He'd go after eggs. He'd scare trainers, cause property damage, brawl in the streets and poison everything that tried to stop him, along with anyone else in reach.

Numerous pokémon had to be given antidotes, pecha berries, or rushed off to places of healing because Andrew had attacked them. And Felix feared that the only reason he didn't do the same to the trainers was because he'd get in more trouble he'd be able to get out of.

But even then. Felix had grown unfortunately familiar with the Officer Jenny's of Johto ever since he had captured Andrew.

While it was good for a brief laugh when he encountered some sort-of-friends he had made in Kanto, Ash, Misty and Brock, and was able to determine an Officer Jenny before Brock, who apparently was obsessed to the point of creepiness, that moment passed when the topic of HOW he knew came up.

He had been fined, held in a holding cell for an afternoon, and had his trainer's licence briefly in danger because of Andrew.

It was a fact that several of his other pokémon had gotten him in trouble before, Adrien and Tania in particular, none of them had gone so far.

It was these beaten-down thoughts that played through Felix's head as he walked away from the most recent bout of chaos. Thankfully Andrew had been stopped before he inflicted any damage, still it was the last time he could be seen around THAT breeder's enclosure. Adrien had broken into the egg incubation room and tried to eat one of the eggs.

Tania, of all pokémon, had stopped him.

Finding a spot suitably private and far, far, away from anyone else, Felix sent Andrew out.

The arbok immediately curled up in a ring, lifting his head in a dour glare at Felix, as if he was the one in the wrong.

"Do not give me that look," Felix snapped, a brief flicker of something resembling surprise flitted through Andrew's eyes. "I don't even know what I'm going to do with you, or even what to say here."

Andrew tossed his head. "Not going to try and make me apologise?"

"No." Felix's voice was hard as steel. "For one thing, I am not allowed to go back there. For a second, what would be the point?"

"Exceptionally little," Andrew admitted, bobbing his head. "And you are not of the temperament to yell. So yes, that is the quesstion, what ARE you going to do or say?"

Felix covered his face with a hand, pressing into it in an attempt to give him strength. He wanted to send Keira out to help him, any pokémon, all of them even. They for sure had a few things to say that might mean more than anything Felix could say.

But he didn't. They had been returned to their balls on demand by the breeding enclosure's owner, even the saviour Tania, and Felix just didn't want to bring them out just so they could cause a fight.

He knew. That was what Andrew wanted.

Felix found his voice. "Why do you do this to yourself?" he asked voice breaking and causing Andrew to flinch back in shock. "Are you trying to prove something to me? To yourself?" He waited, but Andrew seemed content to just blink rapidly.

"Instead you're burned, bruised and beaten," Felix listed. Tania had attacked him at first, but the egg warden had come roaring in, the magmar not happy to have anyone fighting in such a sensitive area, but once he realised why the fight was going on, he knocked them outside and joined in.

"So why? Why go after a bunch of eggs? You can't be THAT hungry, I feed you, I let you hunt, you've proven you're good enough at that, that you're strong enough at that. What more do you need to do before this madness ends? You keep doing this for a reason I cannot even think of. So, tell me, I ask of you, why?"

Through the blur of tears that had inexplicably filled his eyes, Felix missed the mixed expression of devastation and something else on Andrew's face.

Sniffing, he wiped his face with an arm, letting him see that Andrew had turned away and begun slithering off. "Where are you GOING!?" Felix's voice cracked as he ended his sentence with a scream, stamping his foot into the earth.

Andrew acted as if he hadn't said anything at all.


"Where are you going?" the male arbok asked.

The female acted as if he hadn't said anything at all.

It had been too many changes of the light and dark for the arbok to keep track of since the female had accepted his proposal they remain together.

Things were awkward at first, neither had done anything like this before, their species had no inherent biological urge for a mate, but the male was certain that they were going well.

It was nice, to know someone would be waiting for you when you returned home, or the knowledge that you were waiting for another to return.

Strange, odd, baffling at times, but nice.

Still, his mate had been leaving quite often lately, at odd times, taking a long time to return and acting... distant.

The male wasn't sure if much had changed at all, they weren't, and he didn't expect, or want, them to be all over each other like he had seen with some other creatures. No. That was not his desire. He couldn't put his tail on it, but there seemed to be something different than when she had accepted the idea, and now.

Part of him wondered if this was what the 'love' other creatures could be heard talking about a times was. If it was, he didn't understand the intense emotions and want over it.

Whatever they had, it was still nice. The male arbok just couldn't help but think that there was supposed to be something more to it.

He tried to put his feelings into words, but such an endeavour was difficult to even start. He guessed that's why they were called feelings and not words, but even putting a word to a feeling, like happy, fear, hunger. He wasn't sure if that last one was a feeling, but he felt it enough to include it regardless.

Those were easy, not the turmoil of confusion inside him.

He spent a day and night trying to figure it out, before deciding to simply talk with the other arbok and hope for the best.

As the other arbok made to leave for the day, he slithered up next to her and tried to look interesting enough to be noticed.

Flared his hood and everything.

It was enough, and she paused.

"I was hoping that the two of us could engage in communication," the male arbok began. He received a single blink from the female, but she didn't move to leave. He was good at reading her and knew that this was his allowance to speak.

"I have… a turmoil of thought and feeling that I am having difficulty in placing words to," he said. He received a single blink from the female. That one was slightly harder to read.

"I uh… was hoping a discussion between us could alleviate my mind."

She blinked again.

Feeling a rare stab of annoyance at her, the male arbok asked. "Could you say ssomething?"

"Something," the female replied.

Flattening his eyes into a dull expression, the male glared. "That isn't what I meant, and you know it!"

She tossed her head and he felt his annoyance grow.

"Is this a game to you?"

"Yes," she said, void of the trademark hisses their species was well known for.

The male blinked rapidly, trying to digest that response. "What?"

"It isss a game," she replied, hiss back in place. "One that I tried to play in the beginning, but now I am only pretending to play. I know what you want of me, but the truth is, you are an experiment. An attempt at something bold and daring, but an attempt doomed to fail. I know you, for some strange reason, have thoughts about 'love'. Yet the fact remains, I do not love you. I can never love you. It is not my way, our way."

Stunned, the male arbok could only listen. Once she had finished he found the turmoil quietened, everything drowned out with pain.

"How?" he croaked, nearly biting down on the inside of his mouth. "How could you do that? Pretend? How could one pretend?"

The female bobbed her head in a manner of dismissal of the question. "I do not know, perhaps I am an excellent user of charades? Perhaps you were too blinded with hope to see it." She paused as he reeled back and gave him a pitying look. "You don't blame me, do you?" she asked. "The arbok do not take mates like so many other creatures. We tried, we failed. You cannot blame me, can you? You can only blame yourssself for trying."

She turned her head away, aiming to find her favourite sunbaking spot for the day. Before leaving she realised one last thing she should say. "Don't come back here, this was my nest first." And left.

The male arbok watched her leave, the female not glancing back, and remained in silence as the sun began moving its way across the sky.

He eventually looked back to the nest, her nest, where their eggs still incubated. He wished for many things then but accepted that none of them could be anything more than that. Wishes.

He left and chose to honour the female arbok's last request of him. He would not come back.


"What made you think you could do that!?" Felix demanded, glaring down Andrew as the arbok hissed back.

"I may battle whoever I please." He was a twitch of intensity away from using the move Glare on Felix.

"A Steel-type Gym Leader!" Felix shouted. "STEEL! How did you THINK that'd go?"

"I expected it to go with those rusted piles of metal melting on the ground," Andrew answered.

Unlike the usual rows between Felix and Andrew where Felix made sure none of his other pokémon, even Keira, were there to see it, this time everyone caught in Johto was here and angry.

"You do NOT jump out of your ball in a Gym Battle!" Keira snarled as Felix turned away to scream into his hands. "And you DO NOT ATTACK BEFORE FELIX CAN RETURN YOU!"

"Do you know what we went through to bring the leader down to that last pokémon?" Nathan demanded, stepping forward to press a flickering finger into Andrew's hood. An extremely rare show of attitude from the so-called Johto-Team Leader. "Magneton, klefki, aggron, steelix. You knew the plan was me, Keira, Tyson and Sahara. You did NOT have a part in this battle, and you wrecked the endeavour. What do you have to say for yourself?"

Andrew made a low, threatening, sound in the back of his throat, but didn't say anything.

"I cannot believe you did this," Tyson was the next to speak, shaking his head slowly. "Even if you had won, you would have done so by disobeying orders and ignoring our trainer in the battle itself. Even when he was trying to work with you, you didn't even consider listening to his vantage point. Steelix was weakened by that point, you may have had a chance had you listened, but you didn't. Now look what's happened."

Andrew flicked his head away from Tyson, but then he was facing Tania. "Wow. Wooow. Of all the things you've done, this isn't even the most despicable, but it's possibly the most deplorable. Of all the trouble we give Felix, as we should, the one thing even I don't mess with is the Gym Battle. That's a new low, almost worthy of the hollowest of congratulations, but, really, you don't even deserve that."

The only one not having spoken was Sahara. She was the pokémon intended to be brought out against Olivine Gym Leader Jasmine's steelix, Nathan, Keira and Tyson all being unfit for battle at that point. Needless to say, Sahara was beyond livid and had to be returned multiple times before Felix could even shrink her pokéball and make her unable to rampage.

With Tania finished, Keira began a new tirade but was cut off at a loud buzz. She gasped, along with the others as they were all hit with the pokéball returning beam.

They faded into the pokéball's and Felix shrunk them, needing to re-return them all several times before he managed to contain them.

Silently he clicked the shrunken pokéball's to his belt and met Andrew's eyes. The arbok was quivering. After being verbally browbeaten by multiple figures one might mistake the shaking for fear, but Felix knew otherwise.

It was almost more to stop Andrew from snapping and attacking as it was to force them to lay off him that Felix did return the others.

They stared at each other, Felix unable to muster the question he had already asked countless times.

"You don't blame me, do you?" Andrew asked, tone mocking and painfully bitter. "You tried, you failed. You cannot blame me, can you? You can only blame yourself for trying?"

Felix wiped his eyes, there was something in Andrew's voice but he was too tired to listen to it. He wasn't upset like the others because of the Gym Battle loss. He had lost before, several times even. Sabrina still haunted his dreams. It was everything else that led up to this point, it was at the newest nail that drove in the fact that Andrew still wouldn't listen, still would do everything to make things as hard as he could.

Felix remained silent, fidgeting with a pokéball. Andrew eyed it, knowing it was his.

"So are you finally going to admit defeat?" Andrew asked. "Accept that this game we play cannot end with your victory?"

Felix swallowed. "What game?" he asked. "Because if you're playing, then, what are you playing at?" Felix cast his eyes down to the pokéball, to the specific button he knew where there. "Are you playing to win? Or are you just playing to try and stop me from winning? Did you ever try at all?"

Andrew remained staring up at his trainer, thinking over his words, thinking over how much they reminded him of another emotional discussion. Only Felix was the one falling apart, and he was the cold one.

It was funny in a way.

"What are you laughing at?" Felix asked, clenching down on the pokéball. Andrew didn't answer, just kept hissing his laugh. "Stop. Stop laughing."

"It iss jussst funny iss all," Andrew tittered. "How the roles are reversed."

"What roles?" Felix asked, Andrew just kept laughing. "Answer me damnit!"

"It doessn't matter, now does it?" Andrew asked, eyes taunting. "The game is over."

Felix's hand clenched around the pokéball harder, eyes darting between it and the arbok before him, weighing a question in his mind.

He knew that Andrew gave few answers to his questions, and he couldn't be certain of the truth to the few he did give out. He knew either way it didn't matter, but he asked anyway.

"Do you want me to release you?"

"Yes." Andrew didn't hiss, it reminded him of the worst moment of his life.

Felix let out the small breath he was holding and shifted his grip, a finger pressed down on a very small button until the seal of the pokéball began to flash, then he pressed the seal, holding his finger there as it checked his fingerprint and then waited the time it gave to give you to stop the action.

He watched Andrew as he did so, the arbok stilling completely and staring forward. Felix kept hoping Andrew would meet his eyes, but the arbok simply stared forward, determined not to truly look at him.

The pokéball clicked and a blue light flashed over Andrew, crackling before disappearing. The pokéball stopped.

"There," Felix said, letting his arm fall limply to his side. He felt weightless, like he would float away, but he felt this way because he felt empty.

He raised the pokéball and clicked the return feature, nothing happened.

"You're free now."

Andrew remained frozen, looking forward blankly. He didn't respond.

"Bye." Felix turned around, completely aware Andrew was technically free to attack him, that as a wild pokémon he could, that as he had boasted before, that he was right, and that Felix had never experienced the life a wild pokémon did.

But Andrew didn't move, and Felix was able to leave.


Andrew laid motionless, admiring the beam of moonlight that lit up his form. It was not the warmth of the sun, it wasn't even warm. Frankly he was quite cold, but both the sluggishness of being a cold-blooded pokémon and the lack of desire to move left him shivering.

There were no others to sit away from, act all aloof and distant. He heard no chatter or laughter, there was no crackling fire beckoning him, no overall good cheer that he laid away from.

The arbok's hearing was exceptional and if he were to bother, the male arbok knew he'd be able to make out the sounds of the woods, the chitters of the pokémon, hear their words. He did not bother, however, and instead listened for the tell-tale sounds of someone approaching.

He listened futilely the whole night, lying in the moonlight.


Well I didn't intend on ending that with a rhyme, but why not?

This was a fun one to write and i was quite proud of it the years ago that I wrote it. I really enjoyed the dichotomy of writing the present moments with Andrew and Felix, before jumping to the past to see Andrew before he was Andrew.

It's not the end of Andrew though. Stay tuned for the next one~