Chapter Seven-Burn

Crosius was wasting away. Deka could see it as the days went past. She wondered if it had something to do with the shots the humans had given him, but her common sense told her it was because he wasn't eating. Crosius steadfastly refused to eat any of the food she took from her food giver, calling it 'mind numbing cardboard,' or something of the sort. He drank very limited water, but he never seemed dehydrated. She supposed he should probably have been dead by now, but that was such a horrible thought that the ninetales preferred not to think about it for longer than she had to.

She looked at the boney houndoom now. He was staring out the window at the back of the room, looking outside with that distant expression that meant she would not be able to strike up any kind of conversation with him for a long period of time. The dark canine was very quiet and serious most of the time. He didn't talk too much, and seemed to become lost in his thoughts quite often. He had been very pensive since he had been let out of his cage, and it had only seemed to deepen when the humans put an odd contraption around his neck, much like the one around her head.

They had darted him from some hidden place in the ceiling of the room the day after he had been let out of his cage. He had jumped a bit when the dart had hit him, but had adopted a knowing and accepting expression soon afterward, as if he knew he could do nothing about it and didn't want to waste his energy trying. He had fallen into a very deep sleep that worried Deka a short time later, and the humans had taken him away and had returned him with the odd collar on. He hadn't flamed anymore since. Since then, whenever Marci appeared to take Deka outside, she carried a small remote, clicking a button on it upon entering the room. This button seemed to somehow correspond with Crosius's collar and make him very weak until she had taken Deka out. The houndoom never made any move or even said anything about it, but Deka could see something dangerous and subtle smoldering in his eyes whenever he was weakened by the collar, something that she hoped would never reveal itself. But the houndoom was rather mild the rest of the time, though his personality was infuriating to Deka.

The ninetales had never met anyone quite like Crosius. He had come from outside, that much she knew, and once in a while he would tell her short little stories about life with his pack, where he had been leader. She savored these tales like food for the soul, as they seemed to speak to some hidden place in her she hadn't known she had. It frustrated her that Crosius wouldn't tell her much, though, and the tales were very infrequent. He had been here a long time, and most of the time he treated Deka with a sort of patient but condescending attitude, and he wasn't fond of speaking more than he had to. Perhaps that was why his words seemed to carry so much gravity when he did.

She sighed to herself as she watched him now, long muzzle outlined against the window, the light of the setting sun silhouetting him perfectly. His curving horns gleamed in that light, showing him to be healthy despite his starved condition. He never acted as if he needed food, though, and had stopped growing skinnier after a few weeks. He only gave Deka a vague sort of answer when she asked him about this, however. "I'll be fine, worry about yourself."

Why on earth was she supposed to worry about herself? She was certainly taking care of herself better than he was, eating good meals every day. Crosius seemed to think she should be worried about the future, though. He had told her just the other day, after a while of constant prodding, that he sensed something bad or at least vaguely bad about to happen, and it was concentrated mainly on her.

Deka was a bit skeptical of his 'predicting the future,' though she did trust in his judgment. He hadn't told her anymore after that, no matter how much she prodded. It annoyed her to no end that he could just close his eyes and seem to deafen himself to her incessant questions, never becoming irritated with her. In fact, he seemed to feel a bit sorry for her, and she suspected this stemmed from her apparent inability to produce fire. She had, of course, tried questioning him on this, but he hadn't given her any answers.

Watching him, Deka found herself full of questions she wanted to ask. She wished he wouldn't be so secretive with her, that he would be more open and less serious. She wondered if the serious attitude just came with dark types, but she really hadn't met enough to truly know for sure.

Thinking to herself, she decided that maybe she ought to try again. Perhaps if she was a little less prodding, she could get some clear answers out of him to her numerous questions. It wouldn't hurt to try, she thought sourly, as he simply did not react to those questions he deemed prudent not to answer. She settled on striking up a light conversation, and letting it go from there. Perhaps she could bring him out of his 'window-trance.'

"So…Crosius." She got a small amount of satisfaction as he nodded a bit, head barely moving, gaze still turned to the window. "I wonder what will happen today? I have a good feeling about this day, you know, like something interesting will happen."

She grinned happily as he actually turned in her general direction, looking at her coolly. "You always have a good feeling about the day, ninetales." His voice carried a small amount of exasperation in it. "Every day, it's, "'This is such a wonderful day,' or, "'Oh, isn't this a beautiful day,' or, "'I bet my food will be super good today.'" He heaved a small sigh. "You are just so naïve."

Deka thought about his words for a moment. At least he was actually talking to her, and seemed willing to go on, his attention taken away momentarily from that window. She would make full use of this opportunity. "Well, we're alive, aren't we? Every day is a good one if you are alive, because life is what you think of it."

Crosius blinking slowly back at her, tail twitching ever so slightly. "Believe me, every day is not a good day for every pokemon." A slight smirk suddenly spread across his face. "Only the insane or mentally unstable pokemon believe that every day is a good day."

Deka frowned. "But…chanseys and blisseys, it's rumored that they are always happy, right?" She congratulated herself mentally on her cleverness, feeling very smart indeed.

As usual, Crosius deflated her with no apparent effort on his part. "Yes, but chanseys are simple and blisseys are simpler." He yawned. "They have a mind-set like that, and as far as I'm concerned they are the epitome of mentally fixated pokemon with only one direction for their emotions. Thus, I can conclude that that would amount to being mentally unstable, at least in part, though this is a case of being naturally mentally unstable."

"Um. Oh." Deka frowned to herself, uncomfortably aware that he was waiting for her to make some sort of comeback, and would turn again to the window should she not. "I…well, I suppose you're right. But I do have a good feeling that something is going to happen."

Crosius looked at her lazily. "So you do. And so do I. But whether it's good or not, I cannot say." He continued to give her his attention, or at least in part, and she felt she had made some progress.

"Well, will you tell me some more about your life outside this place, like you do sometimes?" She decided now would be the perfect time to try to get something out of him, for he seemed to be in an unusually talkative mood. Well, unusually talkative for Crosius, that is.

He heaved a sigh, shaking his head. "Deka, I really do not wish to talk about it at the moment. Not, if you'll excuse me…" And he had turned back to the window, just like that.

Deka felt like howling in frustration. She had been so close! "Well…you could at least tell me what you're thinking about so intently over there." Her voice sounded a bit reproachful.

Crosius was quiet for a moment, as if debating whether or not to tell Deka anything. When he spoke, his voice was so quiet that Deka could barely hear it from her position on the other side of the room. "Actually, I was mentally practicing the olden language, the language that used to be universal to all pokemon. It is largely forgotten, and as we cannot pronounce it in anything but our own tongues, there really is no use for it. But…it ought to be kept alive, and I suspect that no pokemon have as thorough a knowledge of it as my pack and I. It must be practiced, though, meditated on, or else it will fade away from the mind like a curse being lifted. It is not really meant to be remembered, I think."

Deka cocked an ear in interest, thinking on his words. This was something new and interesting, and Crosius actually seemed vaguely willing to talk about it. "Can…can you tell me a few words in this language?" She asked, hardly daring to hope.

"Ye-essss…." Crosius replied haltingly and slowly, as if he was thinking on his answer as he said the word. "Yes, that would be a good way for me to practice the language as well, and I can see no harm in your learning a few words. What word do you want to hear translated?"

Feeling elated, Deka thought for a moment. "Hmmm…what about 'Starlight?"

"Well, 'starlight' is usually thought of as sacred in the olden tongue." Crosius had turned back to her now, smiling slightly. "Funny you would think of that, as it is rather a prominent word in that language. I suppose 'kiet' would mean starlight, with ki meaning star. The way it is used in the olden tongue is almost always as 'sacred starlight,' which would translate out to the word 'kiete.'"

"Kiete…" Deka let the word slide smoothly off her tongue, feeling its foreignness. "A beautiful word." She paused a moment. "It must be a beautiful language, no?"

Crosius sighed. "It is. It is. Or, it was." He looked almost sad for a moment. "It is really a shame that not many other pokemon know of it. It was almost wiped off the face of the earth so long ago…"

Deka thought about asking for the story of how the language had been wiped out in the first place, but decided that would be pushing her luck. If Crosius didn't tell her right away when he mentioned it, it was likely he would not tell her if asked. She smirked to herself at the thought, thinking on how she had gotten to know the houndoom well enough to sense this.

"Come here." The words snapped the ninetales out of her thoughts, and she turned and stared at Crosius. He motioned with his head, nodding to her.

Feeling confused, Deka got to her paws and stretched luxuriously, fluffing up her nine tails until they plumed out like feathers. Feeling satisfied as she gave herself a last little shake, she strode forward to the window and Crosius, looking at the houndoom questioningly as she got there.

He was silent for a moment, then motioned out the window with his nose. "Look," he said.

Deka did. She saw the gardens stretching long and beautiful below them before stopping at another large building across from them. She saw the walls at the edges of the gardens blocking any escape. She saw the tops of tall buildings beyond that, obscuring anything that might be behind them. And she saw the sunset off in the distance, the sky and clouds painted in hues of red and purple and silver around the golden disk that hung in the sky there. Nothing of importance, not really. The ninetales looked at the houndoom in confusion. What did he expect her to see out there?

Crosius looked into her eyes and saw that she did not understand. He frowned a bit, a far away glint to his eyes. "All you see is what is before you." He said slowly, then, before Deka could say a thing, "And do you see the sunset?"

Deka cocked her head. "Yes. Yes, of course I see the sunset." She paused. "Everyone can, Crosius, except those who are inside or are facing away!" She wondered just what sort of point he was trying to make.

"Yes. Everyone can see it." Crosius spoke those words more to himself than anyone else. He was silent for a long time after that, and Deka was beginning to think he was in another of those silent 'moods' of his when he spoke once more. "Deka. The sunset you see out there is the only real thing here, the only definite thing. All else is an illusion created by humans for humans. You must remember that you cannot stay here…and that the sky before you is the only thing that is not a false image…the sky is truth, will always be truth. Look to it when all else fails you…"

Deka wrinkled up her muzzle at him. "You say the oddest things, Crosius! This is all I know, and all I have ever known. I have no reason to fear the humans. This is my home, and as far as I'm concerned, the sunset and the yonder are the things that aren't definite, not the other way around!"

Crosius only shook his head slowly, smiling bitterly. "This is not the place for you, Deka." He turned his gaze to her and his eyes held hers in an iron grip. "You stay here too much longer and you'll be a goner. These humans never keep anything for a period of time without wanting something from it. And if this place is any example…" He actually shuddered a bit, surprising Deka to no end.

The ninetales opened her mouth…and found she had nothing to say. She instead contented herself with tracing patterns in the dust on a part of the window that was less used, trying to make sense of what Crosius had just told her.

"Zhyhail..." The word jerked Deka's attention back to Crosius, and she stared at him oddly. He was still gazing out the window, but there was something cold and hard blazing in his eyes. His gaze was riveted on the sunset, and Deka saw the sky around it was now painted in brilliant shades of red, like fire. She looked askance at Crosius.

The houndoom didn't return her look. His eyes remained fixed on that sunset as he spoke again. "Zhyhail. It means burn…"

He said nothing more, and Deka eventually retreated to the back of the room again, thinking on the events of the day. She just could not figure Crosius out sometimes, she thought after stewing over the houndoom for a while. She decided she shouldn't worry about his words too much, as they weren't definite. And besides, the humans had never done anything bad to her. What cause would they have to start now?

Marci came for Deka shortly after her little talk with Crosius, which surprised her. The human female never came at night. She smiled at Deka as she stepped in the door, clicking the button to make the houndoom unable to harm her right away, though he had not even looked at her.

Deka stared in surprise as the human came to her and started to wind the old scarf around her neck. That meant she was taking Deka out of the room for some reason or other. Surprised, the ninetales began to speak to her in human speak, not thinking. "Marci. What…?"

"Shhhh…" The red haired woman cut her off gently. "No speaking in human, remember? And we're going to do a little something with you that I think you shall enjoy." The gentle, fond smile on her face immediately made Deka feel at ease, and she followed the human out of the room and into the hall, never once turning back to look at Crosius until the door was closing. By then, it was too late.

Marci led her off down the hall, toward the one that went out to the gardens. Deka was just beginning to wonder if they were going to take a moonlit stroll when the two turned off into a hall that Deka had never been to before. It was wider than the rest, and had one door at the end. The pokemon peered in curiously as Marci swung this door open and led her inside.

There was a room there, and it was rather like the one Deka had been in when she had learned to speak human. There was a lot of high-tech looking machinery there, and the walls were all shiny and metallic looking, as if they needed to be clean at all costs. There was also a little man there, a balding fellow wearing a white coat who shifted nervously and smelled of chemicals.

Deka smiled at him as she was led into the room. Marci released her scarf after the heavy door swung shut mechanically, walking straight over to talk to the man. Deka wandered off on her own as the two babbled away at each other. She didn't make any effort to listen to what they were saying, instead investigating the many machines there, though she was careful not to mess with any. She found herself becoming excited about what was going to happen. Good things always seemed to happen to her in labs, and, as she had told Crosius earlier, she had no reason to fear these humans. She trusted all humans indefinitely.

"Deka!" Marci's voice came drifting to her above the steady hum of one of the machines she was investigating, and she turned obediently and made her way back to the two, standing my Marci's side.

The woman fondled her ears as she spoke in sharp, clipped tones to the man. Deka picked up on the tail end of what she was saying. "…not dangerous, never hurt anyone, we can attempt it today." Her eyes became cold and hard suddenly, and the man flinched under her gaze. "I would advise you to get the machine ready, before I start to get…irritated." She put a world of meaning into that last word.

The man quailed under that gaze. "Yes…yes, Marci, of course, Marci…" He stammered, rushing over to a large machine nearby that Deka hadn't seen yet and adjusting it.

The ninetales peered closely at it, curious. It appeared to have a spot for a small pokemon to stand, with several cords and wires sticking out of it. There was a large, flat, elevated place up in front of it, and a screen at the end of that place. The man rushed around it, adjusting a few things on it. He finally flicked a large switch and stood back, cowering away from Marci as she led Deka over to the machine.

The woman stooped and picked the ninetales up off the ground, much to Deka's surprise. She gasped a bit as the woman lifted her apparently effortlessly over the large obstructions on each side of the standing place and set her into it. It had a pen like quality to it, with all sides blocked off so the pokemon inside couldn't get out.

Deka looked about herself, gaze coming to rest on the large screen in front of her. The balding man was leaning over her, and his hands were on the collar thing around her head. She heard a snap, and then the man walked over toward the screen, the end of a wire in his hand. Deka realized the wire was connecting to the thing on her head, and she watched as the man clipped the other end into the large screen. He held a small remote like machine in one hand, much like the one used to activate the collar Crosius wore, and he clutched it protectively, as if it meant the difference between life and death.

"Well…carry on." Marci waved impatiently at the man as he faltered, seeming uncomfortable. Flinching, he finally pressed a single button on the remote.

Deka yelped, starting. That feeling…! Her fur bristled all over her body, standing up in a ridge down her spine. There was some new energy there, something concentrating in her head…something so powerful, so mysterious and new to her… Cautiously, she tried to tap into it, and found, both to her relief and consternation, that she could only access this type of odd energy very limitedly. She puzzled over it, shivering all over as she felt its alien touch in her head.

"Good Deka…" Marci gave her a small pat on her head, trying unsuccessfully to smooth down some of her fur that stood on end. The ninetales was tensed up in every muscle, every pore of her body, as though preparing to fight something to the death.

The man with the remote pressed another button before Marci could order him to once more, and the screen before Deka suddenly flashed into life, images of bags moving across it like a simple computer game. The ninetales forced herself to stop thinking about the new power for just a moment, watching the screen in fascination.

"Now, Deka…" Marci spoke quietly and soothingly to her. "I know this is new for you, but you must be brave. All I want you to do is concentrate that power on one of those bags and…"

One of the bags on the screen burst in a cartoon-ish way with the smallest whisper of thought from Deka. The ninetales stared, wondering if that had been her or…

More praise from Marci gave her no doubt that it had been she who had done it. After praising her, the red haired woman stepped back and ordered her to continue on with the rest of the bags that went across the screen.

Very happy with the lavish praise, Deka was more than willing to do so. In time, she found she could perfect this skill, blowing up the bags at the same time they went across the screen, faster and faster, dead accurate every time.

When it was finally time to go back, Deka was almost sorry as the man took the chord from the collar on her head and pressed a button on the remote. The power that had been there so freely before winked out quite as suddenly as it had come, leaving Deka feeling deflated and longing and not unlike a child who had been allowed to taste candy once and been denied more.

"Oh, Crosius, it was unlike anything I had ever felt in my entire life!" Deka gushed, prancing about in front of the houndoom. "It was such a new energy, so foreign, and yet it felt so right, so me, and I had it right then…"

Crosius sighed mentally. The ninetales had returned last night full of stories of her new 'power,' which he suspected was some form of psychic power. He hadn't told her this yet, however, as she hadn't given him enough of a break and seemed perfectly happy to babble on about it without his offering anything to the rather one-sided conversation. She had promptly taken up on talking about it again this morning, and now he was listening to her with a half ear.

"Well, what do you think about it, Crosius?" Deka finally paused, looking at him intently, eyes glittering with a young, child-like wonder.

Crosius gave her a long, slow look. "I don't like it, Deka." He could sense she was about to burst out with some contradiction to this statement by the indignant look in her eyes, and he stopped that one before it started with a look full of menace. Satisfied with the small amount of respect he seemed to have inspired, the houndoom strove doggedly on, though he didn't think he would be able to convince her of his point of view; her enthusiasm and trust in humans were too great. "That woman Marci…she's a snake, Deka. There's something about her lurking not too far from that gentle, calm surface, something that it just evil…I wouldn't trust her."

He knew right away that had struck a nerve. Deka looked shocked for a full second…then that shock gradually grew into anger, then outrage as she processed his words. Seeming unable to articulate her rage, she stuttered for a minute, during which Crosius watched her impassively. Finally, though, she exploded.

"You!" The ninetales bristled up, though she didn't look one bit intimidating, at least not to him. "You are always so full of contradictions, so full of distrust. Can't you ever be happy for me? Can't you trust my judgment? You are always so distant…I don't know why you can't ever treat me as a friend and equal!" She paused for a moment, working herself into an even greater anger and bristling even more, tails sticking straight up in her rage. "And now you insult Marci! Marci, who has been my friend and protector ever since I was born! Marci, who I grew up with!" Her voice grew shrill with her outrage, and Crosius could almost feel his horns vibrating. "I should think that I would be able to judge Marci much better than you ever could! She's certainly being a better friend than you ever were!" She gave him one last wrathful look, practically shuddering with anger, before moving away from the window and to the back of the room, throwing herself down in a corner and sulking. He let her go.

Crosius peered out the window, regarding the buildings with a general air of disgust. He had to get out of here, and soon. He was getting a bad feeling about the future, a feeling that built up like rain clouds over his head.

Deka had been taken regularly to the lab for the past few weeks, every evening, having her power put to the test with harder and harder challenges on the screen. So far, she had aced every one, her 'new power' never giving out on her. Crosius was pretty sure it had probably always been there, but the collar on her head had just kept her from ever really knowing it was dormant there.

He and she had made up, more or less, but neither had talked about Deka's new power since. She had become a bit more distant and less talkative, a fact that actually relieved Crosius, who had never been the biggest fan of conversation or nosy ninetales anyway. Still, it bothered him that he could not help her. The only way he could ever help her was if he could get her to see the true evil of the place around her.

His bad premonition deepened as the evening set in, and soon, restless, he took to pacing from one side of the room to the other. The houndoom growled under his breath as he paced, frustrated at not being able to figure out just what it was that he was so worried about.

Deka watched him as he strode back and forth, feeling more than a bit unsettled about it. Crosius was obviously very worried about something, and he was usually so calm…this was the most agitated she had ever seen him, apart from when he had first arrived. She wanted to ask him what was wrong, but then she remembered their fight a few weeks ago and kept her silence, not wishing to somehow create a deeper rift between them.

It was nearing the time the Marci usually took Deka out for her much-anticipated tests. She was becoming more and more used to the feeling of that power, her own power. She had never had her own special power like pokemon other than normal types were supposed to. She reveled in it…but she wanted more. She was never allowed to use her full power, she knew that, and she was becoming more and more frustrated that the humans could just clicked it off like that at the end of the sessions and not let her keep it. Didn't they trust her?

Crosius's tail lashed back and forth like a long black whip as he passed in front of her once more and turned again. She was beginning to catch onto some of his worry, and longed to say something, to ask him what was wrong.

The handle of the door leading into the room started turning just as Crosius came to her and the end of the room again. The houndoom stopped, and the door swung open, time seeming to slow down. Crosius's eyes flashed a fierce shade of crimson as Marci entered the room, and the woman's own eyes opened wide in surprise as she saw the houndoom standing right in front of her. Her reaction was delayed, and she did not press the button on the remote promptly as she usually did.

Deka only stared as Crosius leaped at Marci, powerful jaws reaching for the hand that held the remote, ready to snap the fragile wrist bones, ready to wound and ravage and maim.

Marci barely got out of the way in time. Her quick reflexes saved her, and she side-stepped. Crosius skidded to a stop half in the door and half out, wheeling about once more. Deka actually saw a flicker of fear in the woman's eyes, something she had never seen there before. Then, she pressed a button on the remote, and Crosius stopped short, trembling in the intense pain that suddenly coursed through his body from the hated collar, setting every nerve on fire. Anger replaced the fear then, a cold, hard, sadistic anger that made the ninetales tremble.

Deka took one step forward, then halted, watching as Crosius jerked in pain, shuddering as Marci savagely held the button on the remote. The dark type's collar made several small snapping noises as it pressed him to its full power, but he suffered in silence, eyes focused stonily on the red haired human. It seemed there was a battle of wills going on between the two, and Deka could only watch in horror as Crosius stumbled forward. His eyes as he looked at her held a vague hope, and he mouthed the word 'run', nearly falling, jaw set in extreme pain. The door was unblocked, but Deka could not bring herself to flee.

Marci stepped over to Crosius then, drawing back her foot. He could do nothing as her hard boot pounded into the side of his head and his ribs, over and over, could no nothing as she sneered coldly at him, as if punishing him for making her fear.

And Deka, cowering in a corner, hated herself at that moment, despised herself for not doing anything. But her loyalty to Marci held strong, and she only looked on as Crosius slowly fell to the ground, the combined force of the beating and his collar proving too much at last. In all that time, he had never uttered any sound, never even whimpered. And finally, he lay prostrate on the floor, eyes shut, sides moving slowly up and down, one of his proud, shiny rib markings chipped from the hard side of Marci's boot.

The woman stepped back to regard her work, the look in her eyes one that Deka had never seen before on anything, human or pokemon. She delivered one last blow to his head with her boot that made his horns hum softly on the still air, then turned from him and made for Deka, who cowered away from her in horror.

A snarl still in her expression, Marci lunged for Deka and grabbed her roughly about the neck, twining the scarf around her throat so tightly it nearly choked her. The ninetales gasped for breath as the woman dragged her from the room, kicking the still form of the houndoom contemptuously back in and shutting the door behind them, barely missing closing one of Deka's tails in it.

She was practically dragged down the hall toward the lab, the pressure of the scarf knotted around her throat so tight that her front paws were nearly in the air half the time, her hind paws scrabbling madly to keep up. She was just thinking how she could not go on much longer with this sort of treatment when they arrived at the lab. Marci tugged her inside and roughly smashed her into the pen-like place in front of the screen.

The small man who had always been there looked askance at the red haired girl as she began to adjust the machine herself. She said nothing to him, however.

Deka blinked to herself, trying to keep her eyes from watering. Her throat felt tight and constricted, and she realized the scarf was still wound around her neck like some serpent trying to strangle its prey.

Marci and the man were talking now, Marci's voice low and dangerous and the man's voice jittery and high, like an omega before his alpha. They seemed to be arguing about something, and Marci abruptly turned and stormed off to a small closet like room, her parting words sounding something like, "…test her loyalty."

The man looked at Deka with something like pity in his eyes as Marci turned her attention to the closet, clanging around inside of it. He did not attach the cord to Deka's headpiece as she would have thought we would, and the screen was not turned on. The look of pity in his eyes soon became one of worry as he heard the ninetale's rasping breath. He very gingerly moved one hand toward the scarf wound too tightly about her neck, as though planning to loosen it…

"Leave it." The man abruptly jerked his hand back, cowering backward as Marci came returned, holding a large cage in her hands. "She'll manage." She clanged the cage down on the long flat place in front of the screen, lifting a long black blanket off the top to reveal a little brown pokemon inside, a sentret by the looks of it.

The squirrel like pokemon looked about itself, disoriented. It stared around the foreign room, beady black eyes glistening in fear. It smelled its natural predator and the two humans. It smelled the chemicals and heard the soft whirring of the machines, which sounded monstrous to its ears. It tilted its head back and let out one shrill cry, then started whimpering to itself in terror. Marci took no notice of it, but the man seemed disturbed.

"Now. Activate her." The man, sweat on his forehead standing out in the bright light of the room, clicked the button. Deka felt the customary, familiar surge of power, but she did not revel in it. Rather, she looked in confusion at the little, defenseless, terrified pokemon in front of her, forgetting about her tight scarf in her feelings of sympathy toward it.

Marci was suddenly beside her, one hand on her head, fingers twining themselves in the long plume of white fur there. "You know what you did to the bags on the screen, right?" The words were like a snake hissing, and Deka shuddered. She would have flinched away, but the hand balled itself in the fur on her head and smarted there. The ninetales found herself nodding, feeling hot and frightened. Marci turned her head to look at the little caged pokemon in front of her. "All you need to do is do what you did to those bags to that pokemon." Her hand tightened painfully in the ninetale's fur, seeming as if she would tug it from Deka's head given any provocation at all.

The fox like pokemon took a few moments to process her words. Then, horror flooded into her mind, making her feel thick and cold. Marci…Marci, this human she had known all her life, this gentle creature, had suddenly turned into a predator, a predator that reveled in other's fear, cold and hard and calculating. She did not know this human anymore. Deka shuddered and did nothing.

The hand twisted her fur painfully. "If you love me, Deka…" The words were like poison, and she wished she did not have to hear them. "If you are loyal to me, you will do this thing."

Invisible alarms went off in Deka's mind, and she tried to flinch away from Marci, but that hand made it impossible. The fiery haired woman's touch was suddenly like something menacing and unclean on her, blemishing her soul.

"Press her." Marci's voice was cold, like diamonds glittering in the sun. Deka turned pleading eyes on the man with the remote, yelping suddenly as Marci gave her head a vicious yank to get it in the same place it had been earlier.

"But…" The little man backed up a few steps. "That's not wise, Marci, you know that. She could be dangerous…and are you sure it's necessary?"

Marci gave him a look so full of menace that he looked as though he had been stricken a physical blow. He stepped back an involuntary pace, turning his head down to the remote and pressing a button on it.

Deka nearly stumbled down as the power that was in her mind sprang forward as if it had a will of its own. Only Marci's cruel hand kept her from falling, and she ground her fangs and shut her eyes tightly as the power pounded on the inside of her head. To her horror, it found its focus on the sentret, and became even more excited, lashing out, trying to escape its bounds. Deka grimly did all she could to keep it in. With one last desperate tug, she felt a snap, and the man almost dropped the remote as it crackled in his hands.

"She…she overrode it." He looked bemusedly at the remote, then Deka and Marci, then the remote again. For a moment, all was silent except the sentret's occasional whimpering and the whirring of the machines. Then, the man spoke up once more, timidly. "I think we ought to call it off, Marci, is this really necessary?"

Marci was silent for a time, and Deka felt hope stir in her chest. Perhaps the woman was rethinking her plans?

"No." A chill ran down the fox's spine as the word left Marci's lips, cold as ice. "No." Her hand tightened, and Deka ground her teeth to keep from yelping again. "You will set free her powers. All of her powers. Then you will press her, once more."

The man looked at Marci as if she was insane. "B-b-but, lady, that is very dangerous, you don't know what you're messing with, you can't play with fire and not expect to be burned…" He gibbered idiotically in the general vein for a while, pausing and looking at Marci as if for understanding.

The woman was calm and cold as before. "Are you questioning my authority? For I outrank you. And, like a bug, you can be easily squashed. Now. Will you carry out my request, of will I have to see to the removal of a disobedient underling myself?" Deka actually found it somewhere in her tortured heart to feel sorry for the man at that moment.

"Yes, or course, Marci dear." His voice sounded beaten. He fiddled with the remote for a moment, as trying to prolong the moment before the storm. Then, he pressed a button on it swiftly and backed away, a small flicker of guilt in his eyes before he turned them away from the ninetales and the woman.

Deka blinked, thinking for a moment that nothing had changed. Then, the collar gave a small sparking noise, and there were two twinges in her head, She felt an odd tugging feeling in her brain…and her world was thrown completely into chaos. It was as if the earth inverted under her paws and she fell off, such was the strength of that feeling. The shred of power in her mind was suddenly torn open, and the sheer intensity of it trembled up and down her body and cast everything in her vision into a purple haze. Deka found it was all she could to control it and keep it balanced, and even then anything could trigger that awful, destructive power, and who knew what it would do once unleashed? She thought dryly of how she had wanted full power earlier. Now she understood why the humans hadn't allowed her full reign of it…

Marci smiled savagely as she felt the ninetales under her hand go rigid and start trembling. She herself could almost feel the power coursing through the pokemon's veins, and it seemed to transmit itself to her and make her feel unstoppable. She bent in close to the pokemon's ear. "This is you last chance, Deka." Her free hand motioned to the caged sentret. "Kill it."

Deka, who was having a hard enough time as it was, didn't hear most of her words and did nothing.

Marci turned calmly back to the man. Fear danced in his eyes as she spoke. "Press her."

Deka could practically smell the man's fear as he backed away as far as he could, back to the wall. His finger went toward the button as is in slow motion. Even Marci felt the gravity in the air, and her hand subconsciously loosened a bit on Deka's head plume.

A ninetales was not supposed to scream. A scream was a noise reserved solely for humans, or so it was understood. Perhaps that was why Marci let go of Deka altogether as she threw back her head and gave voice to a sharp wail of despair and pain, haunting, like the sound a ghost makes on a horror movie. Only, it was a pokemon who made it now, not a ghost. The button had been pressed, and the chaos had begun.

Deka's mind was in turmoil. The sheer raw psychic power inside her seemed to be blowing her apart, or at least her consciousness. She could not have focused it on the sentret if she would have tried, but she was being pressed to focus it on something, and she could not. It blew up to a tornado frenzy in her mind, and, barely escaping being crushed, the true, innocent Deka fled to the back of her own mind, leaving only instinct to prevail.

Marci and the man both leaped back as the machines around Deka started sparking. The backlash as they exploded altogether sent them both slamming into the walls behind them. The sentret's cage, miraculously, was not damaged, for it could be seen sitting perfectly fine in a corner, though the pokemon inside screeched in its fear.

Fire burned sullenly around the wrecked machinery, and thick, foul smelling smoke concealed all but a silhouette. And then, as Marci opened her eyes, she saw two pinpricks through the smoke, two red pinpricks that struck fear into her soul. The dancing flames around the shadow suddenly blew away on their own accord, and the sight there would have been enough to make even the most battle hardened veteran cower.

The pokemon standing there was a ninetales, yes, but it was not Deka. This was a demon that stood there, encased in a fox like body. She glowed with a faint white light, and her fur blew around her as if in an invisible wind. A shower of sparks falling toward her somehow fell around her, and the fires burning on either side of her never touched her.

But the most terrifying thing about her was her eyes. It was said that eyes were windows to the soul, and as Marci stared into Deka's she saw something that made her want to hide away. This thing before her was every bit the vengeful ninetales pictured in horror stories and more. This was a thing of primordial beauty, of wild savagery and spirit. This was true terror unleashed, and Marci had been the one to unleash it.

Deka was not Deka anymore, but she was certainly something. She did not think, but as she felt that annoying pressing in the back of her mind she acted. She could feel it slowly breaking down her defenses, and this sort of strain on her power would leave her weak and defenseless. Slowly turning around, her eyes fixed on the small balding man cowering in a corner. In his fear, he had forgotten to let up on the button.

Marci saw this, and when she shouted out a warning her voice was like that of a terrified child, though it still carried the authority co characteristic of Marci. "Let up on the button, man, it'll mean the death of you!" Authority seemed pretty ridiculous in a situation like this.

The wild thing's blood red eyes concentrated on the man, seeming to trap him. She silently willed the air around him to a level of her liking, moving closer and closer to him. He hadn't stopped pressing that button yet, and her eyes flashed, enraged, wrath boiling over…

The man blinked once as he felt the strangest sensation around him. Something crackled oddly in the air, and he stared, mouth gaping in his terror as the creature before him's eyes blazed suddenly, glowing in her face. He didn't even have time to scream as the white hot fire of psychic intensity roared up around him, flames licking the ceiling and moving rapidly across the floor. He was burned to ashes within seconds, his shadow through the fire crumbling to the ground.

The ninetales glowed with pure white hot energy, fur undulating along with the psychic fire that still burned before her. That pressing on her power had gone, at last. The man went from her mind as quickly as he had been there, for she had felt his spirit leave the building and was satisfied that he was disposed of.

Marci, over in a the corner, moved slowly toward the door. She loathed the fear boiling up in her chest, and she even more loathed how that thing she had raised all its life had turned into something else. It was as if her own creation had turned against her.

The ninetales's vision misted over as she regarded the pure, twisting white flames that danced wildly in front of her, unnatural in their movements and intensity. She was like some animal totem of legend standing before her pyre, sacrificing something to the gods of myth.

But such a power as was coursing through her body could not hold on forever, and she slowly felt herself collapsing to the ground, stretching out on her stomach before the fire that held her blazing red eyes with its wild movements. And, right before the darkness took her, she was able to remember a single word, something she had hard somewhere before, seconds or perhaps ages ago…

Zhyhail.

Burn…

(Whoo, that had to be the longest chapter I have ever written. Took a few tries to get in, too, as I'm not used to this new format... Negrek, thanks for the review, and I am the QUEEN of weird names. For example, can anyone figure out how to pronounce 'Caive?' Anyone who does successfully gets a cookie. To Act...thanks for your review. Without you, this story may never have been started, for it popped into my mind on a whim and I may never have written the first chapter without your offer to beta it.)